VANILLA-NUTMEG POUND CAKE

4 cups cake flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla extract
2 cups buttermilk or sour cream, divided use
Confectioner's sugar (for dusting)

Butter and flour a 12-cup tube pan. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Sift flour, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg together; set aside.

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each egg is added. Stir in vanilla.

Stir half of the sifted flour mixture into the butter-sugar mixture. Add 1 cup of the buttermilk. Add the other half of the flour mixture, then the remaining buttermilk. Pour batter into prepared tube pan.

Bake until a wooden skewer inserted 2 inches from edge comes out clean (about 1 hour and 5 minutes). Cool cake in pan 10 to 15 minutes; invert onto a cooling rack, remove pan, and cool completely before serving.

Transfer to a serving plate. Dust with confectioners' sugar.

Makes 1 tube cake, 12 servings
Source: the California Culinary Academy