Vanilla Pound Cake with Home-made Blueberry Sauce

My mom has been making a basic pound cake since I was a kid... The intoxicating aroma of melting butter mixing with sugar, flour and vanilla, and the greed with which my brother Rahul and I would watch her sift, whip and fold the ingredients, knowing she was literally creating magic in that mixing bowl, is the kind of stuff that I remember most distinctly from my childhood... And ofcourse, the best part would be, being allowed to lick the batter off the mixing bowl and spoon and making the most obscene 'yummy' noises. :)

A traditional 'Pound cake' refers to a type of cake made with a pound of each of four ingredients: flour, butter, eggs, and sugar, hence the name...

To make this cake a little more decadent, I made some blue-berry sauce to drizzle over it...and this made the Indian Victory, even sweeter :)

Ingredients:

3 Eggs @ room temperature

3 tbsp Milk @ room temperature

1-1/2 tsp Vanilla extract

185 g Unsalted butter @ room temperature

1-1/2 cups All purpose flour (maida)

3/4 cup Sugar -1/2cup brown+1/4 cup white

1 tsp Baking powder

1/4 tsp Salt

Method: 

Before you begin, preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Prepare the a 9"x2" cake tin by rubbing the insides with a little butter and dusting with flour.

1. In a mixing bowl, sift the flour and baking powder together. Mix in the salt and set aside.

2. In a seperate bowl, beat the butter, sugar, milk and vanilla extract till soft and fluffy. Add the eggs, one and by and continue to beat slowly till well integrated.

3. Add the dry flour mix into the wet ingredients, and mix until just combined. Increase the speed to 'aerate' the cake.

4. Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin and bake @ 180 deg C for about 55-60 minutes, or till cake tester comes out clean.

5. Allow the cake too cool for 8-10 minutes. Run a clean knife around the edges and loosen the cake from the tin. Allow the cake to cool completely before serving.

HOME MADE BLUEBERRY SAUCE

In a sauce pan, combine:

2 cups Blueberries + 1/3 cup Sugar + 1 tbsp Lemon juice + 1/4 tsp Lemon zest + 1/4 tsp Salt + 1/2 tsp Vanilla extract.

Set the saucepan over a medium flame. As the sugar begins to melt, the berries will begin to pop and cook. Bring the mixture to a boil - about 8-10mins. Stir occasionally to prevent it from boiling over.

Allow the sauce to cool completely. Pour into an airtight bottle, preferably glass and chill for atleast 2-3 hours. The cooling will thicken the consistency of the sauce.

Drizzle generously over cake or ice-cream. Enjoy!