Bea's Damn Cake!

This is a pound cake recipe given to me by my very good friend Bea Mingo. I have called it 'Bea's Damn Cake' as the first several times that I made it the cake was a complete disaster! Now I have been baking a very, very, very long time having started at age 7 under the tutelage of my maternal grandmother Bertha Jones (who knew a thing or two about cake), but I could not for all my experience get this recipe to turn out. That is until I learned the 'secret' by watching my dear friend prepare it for baking. The secret is to beat the heavy batter into submission! That is until the gluten in the flour breaks down sufficiently to result in a cake with the most excellent crumb, texture and flavour. Do not be discouraged if your first attempts fail and you resort to swearing at this recipe (as I did and hence the name)! Below is the recipe for the cake. Once mastered, I promise that you will make it again and again.





1lb (500g) unsalted butter
1lb (500g) powdered (icing) sugar
6 large eggs (fresh as you can find and NOT refrigerated)
3 Cups (500g) cake flour (finely milled)
Flavourings of your choice (use extracts and not essences)

DO NOT PREHEAT OVEN. Cream butter and sugar together using a heavy-duty home or professional [I use a standing mixer] electric beater (whisk) until light and fluffy (about 10 minutes). Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add flavouring of choice. Example: 1/2 teaspoon (tsp) rum extract, 1/4 tsp vanilla extract, 1/4 tsp Almond extract. 1/2 tsp Orange extract (or Orange Blossom Water).

Add flour in thirds, beating after each addition to incorporate well into the batter. After the final portion of flour is incorporated, beat the batter for another 5-8 minutes or until the batter is silky smooth. Pour into a buttered and flour dusted ring or bundt tin and swirl the batter and tamp the tin against the worktop to remove any trapped air bubbles.

Place in a cold oven and bake at 325F (170C) for an hour or until a wooden skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean (dry) of any batter. Let cool in tin on wire rack for ten minutes then turn out of tin onto wire rack and let cool completely. Optional: Dust with powdered (icing) sugar.