The scent grabs you first, escaping through the nooks, crannies and crevices, seeking a willing host. Finding you, the sweet, warm scent races toward your brain’s memory center. You’re instantly transported back in time to when you were 7 years old, pulling out your first cake from the red Easy Bake oven you got for Christmas just a few days earlier.

You can’t help yourself. You need another hit. So you inhale deeply, taking in the scent again. It fills your head, making you weak in the knees.

Now you’re 14 years old, your mother’s big red Betty Crocker spiral-bound cookbook open before you, while you cream butter and sugar together with the well-used white Oster hand mixer your mother received as a wedding gift. Then you’re measuring out the flour, which, despite your careful endeavors, winds up looking like snow all over the front of your favorite T-shirt. There’s maybe even a little in your hair, too. Next comes the cracking of the eggs, and unconsciously you’re biting your lower lip in concentration, praying no shell gets past you. And before you know it, there’s that scent again.

That Betty Crocker butter cake was the first from-scratch cake that I ever made. Sure, I’d been baking cakes by myself for a few years before attempting it, but those were from boxes, so do they even count? I say no, nothing counted before that first butter cake. It started a lifelong love affair.

I don’t make them all that often. Good butter isn’t cheap. Plus, good butter cakes have no shortage of calories.

But sometimes, when the world feels particularly bonkers, I get this need to revisit those moments of my youth when the most significant thing I had to worry about was not overbaking my creations. And this cake does that.

I’ve thought about making a “true” pound cake for years. It’s named pound cake for the simple-to-remember ingredients made up of typical pantry staples in the 1700s: 1 pound butter, 1 pound sugar, 1 pound flour and 1 pound eggs. After years of reading stories of success and failure from various sources, I decided several summers ago that it was time.

This pound cake is not the light, delicate one you pick up in your local grocery bakery that leaves your fingers just a little greasy. No. This pound cake is dense and rich, with a wonderful texture that slices cleanly and fares well for toasting the next day and pairing with a heaping scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Since butter is the prominent flavor in pound cake, buy the best you can afford. I’ve tried many brands, and my favorite remains Kerrygold, a gorgeous yellow Irish butter from grass-fed cows. It’s a European-style butter, churned longer than your average American-made butter, resulting in less water and higher butterfat. For baking, this can help cakes rise higher, and for pie-making, less water and higher butterfat results in flakier crusts. Two other European-style kinds of butter that I love are Plugrá and Strauss.

For best results, remove the butter from the refrigerator a half hour before you’re ready to bake. Leaving it out longer will make it greasy and affect the cake’s texture.

This recipe has no leavening agent; the lift comes from the air beaten into the butter. A stand mixer with a whisk attachment works best for the fluffiest results. A hand-held mixer will work; it will take a bit longer to aerate the butter thoroughly. Just don’t rush it.

I’ve made this with powdered sugar, ultra-fine baker’s sugar and regular granulated sugar. For me, the best texture came from using the powdered, with the ultra-fine a close second. Had I not made it with these two sugars first, I’m sure the granulated version would have been delightful. I’ve listed powdered in the ingredients, but use whichever sugar you have on hand.

How many eggs are in a pound will depend on the size of the egg you use. A large egg weighs about 2 ounces; since a pound is 16 ounces, you’ll need 8. Extra-large eggs are about 2.25 ounces. A small egg is 1.5 ounces, while a medium is 1.75, so you can adjust accordingly if you don’t have a kitchen scale, though I highly recommend investing in one for baking purposes. I like this one from Oxo because the display is detachable, so you can weigh bigger bowls without obscuring the display.

When adding the eggs to the butter and sugar, do it one at a time and beat until just incorporated, so you don’t risk deflating the mixture, and scrape down the sides as needed. Once all the eggs are added, and you’re ready to start adding the flour, you’ll need to switch out the whisk attachment for the paddle.

All-purpose flour and cornstarch are two of my pantry staples. Cake flour is not. So when a recipe calls for cake flour, it’s relatively easy to make a homemade version if you have cornstarch in your pantry, as you’ll use it to sub out a bit of the flour.

Because this cake has no leavening agents, starting with a preheated oven is not necessary. The high amount of butter and eggs benefit from a “low and slow” bake, creating that wonderful dense texture that we look for in a satisfying bite of pound cake. The lower temperature for an extended period also gives the sugar the time it needs to caramelize into a wonderfully crunchy crust.

This recipe makes two 9-inch loaves. After spraying the pans with baking spray (a baker must-have; it has the flour already added), I evenly divide the batter between the two pans. I dump most of the batter into the pans, then place them on the scale while adding the last bit of batter, switching back and forth between the pans to ensure they are equally filled.

Dislodge any air bubbles by lifting the pans off the counter a few inches and letting them drop. If you don’t, you’ll wind up with big holes in a few slices. If you forget this step, don’t fret; it doesn’t affect the taste, just the look of the slices.

Also, I didn’t do it for these photos, but if you want that lovely crack down the center, after smoothing out the top of the batter with a rubber spatula, run it vertically about an inch deep down the center of the batter, essentially “cutting” the surface. Doing this will encourage the splitting.

Adding a liquid flavoring agent is entirely optional. I have vanilla listed here, but almond, rum or orange extracts are also lovely additions. If using commercial cake flour, don’t remove any flour and disregard the cornstarch and salt in the ingredients list.

1 pound butter (2 cups), room temperature 1 pound powdered sugar (approximately 4½ cups; substitute with 2¼ cups ultra-fine baker’s sugar or 2 cups granulated sugar) 1 tablespoon vanilla extract, optional 1 pound large eggs (about 8), room temperature 1 pound all-purpose flour, minus 8 tablespoons 7 to 8 tablespoons cornstarch ½ teaspoon fine sea salt

Using a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, beat butter on high for 3 minutes. Scrape down sides; beat on high for 5 minutes; the butter should be lighter in color and nearly tripled in volume.

Over a sheet of waxed or parchment paper, sift powdered sugar. Add half of it to the mixing bowl and beat on low for 30 seconds, then beat on high for 3 minutes. Scrape down sides, then repeat with the remaining sugar. Add vanilla and beat on high for 30 seconds.

Beat in eggs, one at a time on medium-high, just until fully incorporated, stopping to scrape down sides as needed.

Measure 1 pound of flour. Remove 8 tablespoons. Add 7 to 8 tablespoons of cornstarch to bring flour back up to 1 pound. Sift flour onto a sheet of parchment or waxed paper. Repeat sifting two more times, adding the salt during the third sift.

Add ⅓ of flour to butter, and beat on medium until just incorporated. Scrape down sides. Repeat with the next ⅓ of flour. Scrape down sides and repeat with remaining flour.

Spray two 9-inch loaf pans with baking spray (Baker’s Joy or Bak-Klene ZT). Divide the batter between the two loaf pans, weighing them on a kitchen scale to ensure that the batter is divided evenly.

Place pans in a cold oven. Turn the oven on to 275 degrees. Bake for 1½ to 2 hours or until a toothpick inserted comes out almost clean. Cool in the pan for 20 minutes. Carefully turn the cakes out onto a cooling rack until completely cooled.

Recipe is copyrighted by Anita L. Arambula and is reprinted by permission from “Confessions of a Foodie.”

Arambula is the food section art director and designer. She blogs at confessionsofafoodie.me, where the original version of this article was published. Follow her on Instagram: @afotogirl. She can be reached at anita.arambula@sduniontribune.com.

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