Even Greater American Pound Cake

By cuznvin

Ingredients

• Nonstick cooking spray with flour
• 12 tablespoons ( 3/4 cup) cool unsalted butter, cut into 6 pieces
• 8 tablespoons ( 1/2 cup) shortening
• 3 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 2 large egg yolks
• 5 large eggs
• 2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour, preferably bleached
• 1/4 cup potato starch, or use additional flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup heavy cream.

Preparation

Step 1

Place a shelf in lower third of oven and heat to 350 degrees. Spray a 10-inch tube pan or 12-cup Bundt pan very well.
2. Using a mixer at medium speed, mix butter until smooth. Add shortening and mix until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add sugar and mix until smooth; touch outside of bowl to make sure ingredients are still cool. If not, place bowl in freezer for 5 minutes. Mix in extracts. A little at a time, mix in oil. At lowest speed, mix in egg yolks. One at a time, mix in eggs.
3. In a bowl, using a whisk, mix flour, potato starch, baking powder and salt for a minute until well blended. At lowest speed, mix a third of flour mixture into butter mixture. Mix in a third of buttermilk. Repeat until all are incorporated, scraping down bowl at least once.
4. Whip cream in chilled bowl until soft peaks form. Mix a quarter of whipped cream into batter, then fold in remainder just until combined. Pour batter into prepared pan. From a height of 4 inches, drop pan on counter to knock out bubbles. Smooth top.
5. Bake until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, 65 to 70 minutes. Cool in pan on rack 10 minutes. Invert onto rack to finish cooling. Serve.
Yield: 1 large cake.