Buttermilk Pound Cake

I bought buttermilk with the intention of making cola cake. I had some left over and decided to put it to use in another dessert for Shabbat lunch (yay for dairy meals!). I wound up baking the pound cake recipe from Alton Brown's baking book. It called for one cup of buttermilk, which made a significant dent in the container, which in turn, made me quite happy. It turned out that the cola cake was quite underwhelming (you know it's not great when the frosting is the only redeeming factor- unless you eat cake just for the frosting) but this simple cake served with homemade chunky plum sauce was delicious. Fine crumbed and dense but moist, just like a good pound cake should be. There was quite a bit of it leftover so I froze it for use in later applications. Trifle, pound cake croutons or pound cake toast all sound promising. Topping toasted pound cake with some ice cream and chocolate sauce makes for a humble but delicious dessert any day of the week.

Buttermilk Pound Cake
From Alton Brown's Baking Book

3 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup buttermilk, room temperature

Preheat your oven to 350. Grease and flour a large bundt or tube pan.
Whisk together your dry ingredients in a bowl. Set aside.
Place the margarine and sugar into the bowl of your mixer. Cream until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time beating well and scraping the bowl after each addition. Add the dry ingredients alternately with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl to incorporate all the dry particles. Scrape the batter into your prepared pan and bake for about an hour, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Cool for ten minutes on a wire rack before turning out of the pan to cool completely.