Pound cake

During the Wilder children's week keeping house (Farmer Boy), Alice made a pound cake to go along with the ice cream she had made. An old-fashioned pound cake is rich, sweet, and buttery. The Little House Cookbook, from which this recipe comes, comments, "After you have made this recipe you will have great respect for her [Alice's] enterprise and her strength." The recipe is easy to remember - a pound of everything! 

Ingredients and supplies are in red.

At least an hour before starting, set out all refrigerated ingredients (below) to warm to room temperature.

In 4-quart bowl, cream 1 pound (2 cups) butter with wooden spoon until fluffy. Gradually work in 1 pound (2 cups) granulated sugar by pressing with spoon against bowl side, and blend until mixture is no longer grainy. This is hard work; it will help to work standing with the bowl at arm's length on a low table, or sitting with the bowl on your lap, or perhaps resorting to the modern convenience of a hand mixer.

Break an egg into a saucer. Unless it is bad, put it in a 2-quart bowl (this old-fashioned two-step method keeps a bad egg from polluting the others). Repeat to total one pound (8 medium) eggs. Add a generous pinch of salt. Beat eggs with a fork until light-colored and foamy, about five minutes. (A modern mixer, of course, takes less time.) Add 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg and 1/2 teaspoon mace to eggs.

Stir eggs gradually into sugar-butter mixture. Sift 1 pound (4 cups) white flour and beat in gradually, stirring only long enough to blend all ingredients. The finished batter will be quite stiff.

Smooth the batter into an ungreased 9 1/2 inch by 4 1/4 inch tube pan. Bake in a preheated 350-degree oven for 30 minutes, then reduce heat to 325 degrees and continue to bake another 30 minutes. When a new broomstraw or toothpick poked in the center comes out dry and the cake edges pull away from the pan, remove pan from oven and cool. Turn cake out and serve unfrosted.