Perfect poundcake starts with plain mix

My aunts are a delightful group of older ladies — opinionated, lively and big-hearted — and they all love good food.

When you are invited to one of their houses for a summer potluck party, you know to tote along something really good. You want to bring a dish that will pique their curiosity and have them talking.

So it is with this poundcake recipe.

It was for a barbecue in summer, perfect poundcake season, when I had the nerve to bring a poundcake that began with a cake mix. Oh, they might have expected a layer cake or a Bundt cake started with a mix, but a poundcake? In the South? Let’s say they were skeptical … and then thrilled with the taste.

This is a terrific poundcake to serve alongside the best sliced peaches you can find. It is the ending to a nice Sunday lunch, one that begins with chicken, mashed potatoes and fresh peas and quickly moves into dessert. This recipe surely will have folks talking in your town.

Five time-shaving desserts using frozen or fresh poundcake:

• Strawberry trifle (layers of poundcake, vanilla pudding, fruit and whipped cream, drizzled with sherry or orange juice)

• Lemon curd trifle (substitute lemon curd for the pudding)

• Layered ice cream and poundcake slices, frozen, then sliced

• Toasted poundcake slices topped with sweetened berries

• Cake cut into cubes, tossed with liqueur of your choice, and placed in a goblet with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream and fresh fruit or chocolate sauce on top.

The best poundcake

Store this cake, loosely covered with plastic wrap or in a cake saver, at room temperature for up to 1 week. Or freeze it, wrapped in aluminum foil, for up to 6 months.

Solid vegetable shortening for greasing the pan

1 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting the pan

8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, at room temperature

cup vegetable oil

1 cup sugar

5 large eggs

1 18.25-ounce package plain yellow cake mix

1 8-ounce container sour cream, at room temperature

1 cup evaporated milk

1 tablespoon vanilla

½Lightly grease a 10-inch tube pan with vegetable shortening, then dust it with flour. Shake out the excess flour. Set the tube pan aside.

P

lace butter and oil in a large mixing bowl, and beat with an electric mixer on medium-low speed until creamy, 1 minute. Add sugar and beat until creamy, 1 to 2 minutes longer.

Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating each until the yolks have just been incorporated. Stop the machine and scrape down the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Add the cake mix and 1 cup flour and the sour cream, evaporated milk and vanilla.

Increase mixer speed to medium, and beat until batter is thick and well-blended, 1 to 2 minutes longer, scraping down sides of the bowl again if necessary. Pour batter into prepared tube pan, smoothing it out with a rubber spatula.

Bake cake on center rack of preheated 350-degree oven until it is golden brown and springs back when lightly pressed with a finger, 60 to 65 minutes. Remove tube pan from oven; place it on a wire rack to cool for 20 minutes.

Run a dinner knife around the edge of the cake, shake it gently to loosen it, and invert it onto a rack, then invert it again onto another rack so that the cake is right side up. Allow cake to cool completely, 20 minutes longer. Makes 12 servings.

½Note: Tube and Bundt pans have holes in the center. Bundt pans have fluted, curving sides. The sides of a tube pan, sometimes referred to as an angel-food cake pan, are straight. Tube pans sometimes come with removable bottoms.

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