All ingredients must be at room temperature before you begin. Most importantly, butter must be soft. Remove it from the refrigerator at least four hours before you plan to bake. Eggs will hold on your counter for an hour or more, unless you inhabit a sauna.

Butter wrappers make ideal pan-greasing implements.

If you are terrible at cracking eggs (Hi!), use two bowls: crack one egg at a time into the first bowl. If you get shell in the egg, use half an eggshell to pluck it out. It works. Then pour the eggshell-free egg into the second bowl; proceed in this manner until all four eggs are in the second bowl.

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Preheat oven to 350F/180C

Unwrap the butter and dump it in the mixing bowl of the stand mixer. Use the butter paper to grease a 9inch/two pound/23 cm baking pan (or just grease the pan with butter).

Now measure the flour, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl and stir it with a large metal spoon or whisk. Set the bowl and the unwashed measuring cup aside.

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Set two medium sized bowls or measuring cups into the sink. Crack each egg into first bowl, one at a time, removing any bits of shell with half an eggshell. Transfer the clean egg into the second bowl. Proceed until second bowl has four eggshell-free eggs. (If you are an expert cracker of eggs, feel free to use a single bowl.) Set eggs beside mixer.

Measure vanilla or extract of your choice into the eggs.

Measure sugar into cup you used to measure flour.

If you are adding anything to the cake, have the addition ready on the counter beside the mixer.

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Now start beating your butter. Using the paddle, set the mixer on high speed and beat butter for at least five minutes. As Reichl says, you cannot overdo this: the butter should turn white. While it mixes, clean up.

Gradually add the sugar. You may need to stop the mixer to scrape down the bowl and beaters.

Keeping scraping down the mixing bowl if necessary. Once all the sugar is added, tip in the first egg. Allow each egg to blend completely before adding the next. As the third and fourth egg go in, the butter may appear to curdle. That’s okay. Once you add the flour the batter will cohere.

Reichl recommends adding the flour by hand. I find it easier to add the flour in three batches, giving the mixer a few turns on low speed. Whatever you choose–adding flour by hand or mixer–be gentle but firm, and don’t overmix. You don’t want to lose all the air or toughen the cake.

Now gently fold in any additions, swirling carefully through the batter. Or just leave the cake well enough alone.

Using a large metal spoon, dollop the batter into the baking pan. A spatula is helpful to scrape remaining batter from the bowl without deflating. Smooth the cake as best as you can–I make a horrible mess–and slide it into the oven.

Bake for about 60 minutes. A tester will come out clean. Place pan on a rack to cool. After about 20 minutes, remove cake from pan. Allow to cool completely before eating.

Perfect Pound Cake will keep, well-wrapped, up to five days at room temperature. Freezes well up to three months.

Notes:

Cake flour is lower in protein than all purpose flour, leading to a finer-crumb. All purpose works perfectly well here–I’ve used it often.

Reichl recommends a high-fat cultured European butter like Plugra. I most often use Kerrygold, but have also plain old American butters with good results.

Some of the suggested additions to the cake contain a great deal of sugar themselves. In these cases I prefer reducing the amount of sugar in the cake to 3/4 cup. This is a question of personal taste. Do not go below 3/4 cup or the cake structure will suffer.