Old-Fashioned Pound Cake

I made this recipe for a recent monthly birthday celebration at work. They requested a pound cake so I scoured my cookbooks and this recipe was the one I ended up using. The outside of the cake baked up crisp and golden while the inside had a dense, velvety texture. I added a teaspoon of lemon extract but I think that the addition of lemon zest would have really made a really good lemon pound cake into a spectacular one.

Old-Fashioned Pound Cake
Recipe from Southern Living

2 cups butter, softened
2 3/4 cups sugar
6 large eggs
3 3/4 cups flour
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Beat butter at medium speed with an electric mixer 2 minutes or until creamy. Gradually add sugar, beating 5 to 7 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating just until yellow disappears.

Combine flour, salt and nutmeg in a large bowl; add to butter mixture alternating with milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture.

Mix at low speed after each addition just until mixture is blended. Stir in vanilla. Spoon batter into a greased and floured 10-inch tube pan.

Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour and 15 to 20 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack 10 to 15 minutes; remove from pan and cool completely on wire rack.