Brown Sugar Pound Cake

By Addie

“To cool this cake, Grandma inverted the tube pan onto a long-necked soft drink bottle. I still recall how unusual it looked.”

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter, softened
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
• 3 cups cake flour
• 5 large eggs
• 1/4 cup dark rum, or 1/4 cup plus 1 teaspoon rum extract
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup chopped pecans

Preparation

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 325ºF. Grease and flour a tube pan.


Combine butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar in a large bowl. Beat with an electric mixer set at medium-high speed until light and fluffy.


Beat in the flour alternately with the eggs. Beat until fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes.


Add rum and vanilla extract and mix well. Fold in pecans. Spoon into prepared tube pan.


Bake cake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 13/4 to 2 hours. Cool in tube pan for 10 minutes. Transfer cake to a wire rack to cool completely.
.............................

Grandma's Secret Trick:

Since cake flour is softer and finer than all-purpose flour, it was Grandma's preference because it gave a finer texture to the pound cake. She sometimes made a substitute for cake flour by reducing the total amount of flour in the recipe by 1/2 cup and adding 1/2 cup cornstarch. Then she sifted the mixture before adding it to the batter.