Elvis Presley's Pound Cake

This blog post for certain has to be dedicated to my family.  My stepfather and sister are huge Elvis Presley fans.  They may not be the biggest fans in the world, but they are most certainly the biggest ones that I know.  I am a casual fan of his music, and was forced to watch his movies at a young age (there is only so much Blue Hawaii that someone can take), but I can safely say that I am more of a fan of his taste in food than I am anything else.  There are a bunch of "Elvis" Cookbooks including "Are You Hungry Tonight?" and "All Cooked Up: Recipes and Memories from Elvis' Friends and Family" and I'm sure they include recipes like "Hunka Hunka Burning Chili" and "Ain't Nothin' but a Hot Dogs", but supposedly one of his favorite sweet treats was this Pound Cake recipe from his child hood friend Janelle McComb.

The recipe itself (as found in the October '12 Saveur Magazine - click here for the recipe on Saveur.com) is simple (7 ingredients - unsalted butter, cake flour, sugar, vanilla, kosher salt, eggs and heavy cream) and even I had no issues producing a two fantastic pound cake loaves.  That may sound a little self deprecating, but I have issues baking.  I'll expound on that in a future post.

I gathered the ingredients - letting the eggs, butter and cream come up to room temperature (having learned my lesson from my Spaghetti Carbonara experience) on the counter.  I greased two loaf pans with unsalted butter and sprinkled them with cake flour, setting them aside for later.

Another best practice that I'm trying to adopt from other experiences in the 101 Recipe Challenge is to use the exact ingredients listed on the recipe.  In my initial recipe, Kibbeh, I used regular grind bulgur instead of fine grind and it affected the final dish.  The Elvis Presley Pound Cake recipe called for cake flour which I had never heard of.  I figured that it was to flour what confectioner's sugar was to table sugar.  Come to find out,  that couldn't be farther from the truth.  Cake Flour is a low protein flour, usually around 8%, made from a softer winter wheat.  Because of its low protein composition, when it is used in a recipe, less gluten forms in the dough or batter, creating a smooth texture with a finer crumb than recipes using all purpose flour.

After prepping the pans and starting up the oven (350 degrees...of course) I pulled out another of my beloved kitchen tools, my Kitchenmaid Stand Mixer.  To quote Ferris Beuller "So Choice.  If you have the means, I highly recommend that you pick one up."  Honestly, I love that thing and don't use it nearly as much as I should.  I put the softened butter, sugar and salt in the bowl and beat at 1/2 speed for six minutes, until the mixture was pale and fluffy.  I then added the eggs one at a time, beating well and scraping down the sides of the bowl between each. 

I then added the flour and cream, alternating between the flour and cream, making sure to begin and end with the flour as the recipe called for.  I believe I added a cup of flour and 1/2 a cup of the cream at a time.  I then followed the direction to increase the speed to high and beat until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.

The batter was unbelievably light and fluffy.  Between beating each egg into the batter individually, then beating it for a full 5 minutes on high with heavy cream in the batter, it had become the consistency of slightly loose whipped cream.  The taste was heavenly, almost like a vanilla mousse and it melted on my tongue.  If the final product was half as good as the batter, I was in for a treat.  As it was my family fell all over themselves to be the first to get a lick off of the rubber spatula and whisk attachment for the mixer.

You may ask...why the sieve?  The recipe called for the cake flour to be sifted and I do not have a sifter (uni-tasker), so I used my hand sieve to sift the flour when adding it to the batter.  Then I divided the batter between the two loaf pans and smoothed the tops with a rubber spatula. 

The loaf pans went into the oven for about an hour and 15 minutes, until a toothpick was inserted and came out with a little crumb sticking to it.  The recipe called for letting the loaves cool, in pan, for 30 minutes, then cooling them completely until slicing.  Well, I can assure you that that did not happen.  They sat in pan for 30 minutes and cooled for about 5 after I took them out of the pan, but that was all I could take.  I cut a few slices and though the smell had been great in the kitchen while it had been baking, the smell was 100x better after it was sliced.  A thick, sweet smell with traces of vanilla and warm butter that made me a happy man.
 

Elvis Presley's Pound Cake - Schuler Version

Elvis Presley's Pound Cake - Saveur Example Photo

 The cake was very dense, but not heavy, with a very fine crumb.  The texture was very smooth and even the crust seemed to melt in my mouth.  To be sure, the cake was sweet, but not overpoweringly so.  You taste the vanilla almost as an undertone, but it is distinct.  I will make this recipe again, but using a higher quality vanilla as opposed to the private label Aldi's version.  I think the flavor profile would change and you would get a much more complex flavor from a better vanilla. Sometimes when you have pound cake, you need to have some sort of accompaniment (fruit, ice cream, rum, etc) because the cake itself isn't remarkable.  My friends, this pound cake has entered my system unadulterated every time that I've eaten it.  It is so tasty that anything with it, I believe, would be distracting.

I will be making this recipe again....and again and again.  I think that it might actually become my go to dessert, or possibly SPOILER ALERT FOR MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS the bulk "Christmas Gift" that I make for everyone this year.  But don't call me cheap until you try it.

4 down, 97 to go!