Perfect Pound Cake

I tried many pound cake recipes over many years, using duck eggs, sour cream, grated zest and lots of other ingredients, and I’ve found this simple recipe produces the perfect pound cake. It contains nothing fancy—just butter, flour, sugar, eggs, vanilla, heavy cream and salt—but the result is equally at home at a church bake sale or a fancy dinner party. By definition, it is a true pound cake (it calls for a full pound of butter), yet despite its richness, it’s still remarkably light and t