Grandma's Best Buttermilk Pound Cake Recipe

I think I have mentioned before that my favorite dessert is peach cobbler.  However my favorite cake is always going to be some version of a pound cake!  I love them so much, that they were often my requested birthday cake.  Can you imagine a pound cake with candles on top?  Since I love pound cake, I could not resist squeezing in just one more cake recipe this year.  

Why are they called pound cakes?  My mom told they are called a pound cake because they usually had a pound of butter (and/or other fats) in them and you end up with a heavier cake.  Grandma said they were called pound cakes because eating them  guaranteed you would put on pounds after wards.  The real reason can be found in the history on BakingKneads blog.

Best Buttermilk Pound Cake

Ingredients:

1/2 cup margarine (softened)
1/2 cup Crisco
5 eggs
2 & 3/4 cups sugar
3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 360 degrees.
2. In large bowl, cream margarine and Crisco together.
3. Gradually add sugar, beating until mixture is light and fluffy.
4. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
5. In another bowl, combine and sift flour and soda.
6. Add [2nd bowl] to creamed mixture [1st bowl] alternatively with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture.
7. Stir in vanilla.
8. Pour batter into a greased floured tube pan.
9. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
10. Cool in pan 10 minutes.

Removal Tip:  

To remove the cake from the pan, place a plate on top and turn it over while holding the plate to the pan, so it will loosen from pan onto the plate.  Once up-side-down cake is out of the pan, place another plate on what is supposed to be the bottom of the cake.  Turn cake again with a hand on the bottom of each plate to get cake facing upright.