Southwest Georgia Pound Cake

I'm back from a great weekend at the beach! I think I could live at the beach year round and never get tired of it. Since I moved to Virginia back in the late 1980's I have never stopped missing living near the water. Even though the closest beach here is about 2 hours away, it's still too far. I grew up living no more than 30 minutes away from Jones Beach and my summers were spent there almost daily when I was growing up. So whenever I am near the ocean I feel like I am "home" again!

This is a great pound cake from who else but Paula Deen! I love trying different pound cake recipes and this one is a winner. It's one that starts out in a cold oven. I've made similar ones before. Of course Paula's are always a bit more rich. This uses heavy cream instead of milk, but then would you expect anything less from Paula? This is just another Paula recipe that does not disappoint!!!!

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

3 cups sugar

6 large eggs

3 cups all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup heavy cream

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract (or you can use lemon or almond flavoring instead)

Generously grease and flour a 10 inch bundt pan. Do not preheat oven.

Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Alternately add the flour mixture and heavy cream to butter sugar mixture, beginning and ending with flour. Stir in flavoring.

Pour batter into prepared pan. Put into a cold oven and set the temperature to 325 degrees F. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes without opening the oven door. Bake for an additional 15 minutes if necessary. Remove from the oven and cool in pan for 15 minutes. Invert cake onto cake plate. For a real treat, serve yourself a slice while it's still warm.