Tallgrass Kitchen:

Everyday Vanilla Poundcake.

This basic vanilla poundcake is lightly adapted from marthastewart.com. It is lightly sweet and dense, perfect with seasonal fruit. Follow instructions carefully, as the cake depends only on eggs and incorporating air through vigorous mixing to rise — no baking powder here. Makes one standard loaf pan-size cake

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature (see note)

1 cup sugar

4 large eggs, room temperature

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1⁄2 teaspoon salt

2 cups flour, spooned gently into measuring cup and leveled

Thoroughly butter and flour a standard-size (8 1⁄2-by-4 1⁄2-inch) loaf pan. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

This recipe works best if you have a stand mixer. If you use a hand-held electric mixer, add a few minutes to each recommended mixing time for best results.

Add butter and sugar to bowl of stand mixer. Mix on high speed at least 8 minutes, stopping several times to scrape down the side. You should end up with a pale yellow mixture that looks like buttercream frosting.

Add eggs one at a time, mixing at least a minute between each addition. When all of the eggs are added, mix an additional 2 minutes. You should have a fluffy, golden mixture. Quickly mix in vanilla and salt.

Remove bowl from mixer and fold in flour gently with a spatula. Batter will be thick. Scrape into prepared loaf pan and gently even the top.

Bake in preheated oven 55 to 60 minutes. Cake should rise, the top will crack and it will be a deep golden brown. A toothpick stuck into the center should come out clean.

Let cool 15 minutes, then run a knife around the side to loosen. Tip out onto a cooling rack, put right side up and let cool completely before slicing and serving.

Note: Room temperature butter is soft enough so that when you press a finger into it, it leaves an indentation. If butter is too soft (if your kitchen is very warm or it has been sitting out for hours), it won’t hold as much air.

I typically take butter out of the fridge when I’m ready to cook and slice it thinly into the mixing bowl. Butter will be to the correct softness in about 15 minutes, about the amount of time that it takes to get the rest of your ingredients organized.