Heirloom Grandma Smith's Pound Cake

Grandma Smith made a pound cake every week for Grandpa and he'd eat it all week. I'm not a big cake lover, more of a pie girl, but Grandma's buttery, dense pound cake makes me weak in the knees. I dare not make it because it's just that good! When she or my mom made it, we children always had to tread lightly in the house, not making jarring vibrations or slamming doors that could "make the cake fall." Still don't understand that one. You shouldn't open the door of the oven until the cake is more than halfway baked. And even then, it's problematic if you keep opening the oven door every couple of minutes to check progress. Opening the oven door, you can interrupt the reactions that are kick-started by heat, which cause a cake to rise correctly. Falling means the middle of the cake kind of collapses in the middle because the air pockets collapse and the dense batter falls in. It's a chemical reaction. As the cake cooks, air bubbles are formed and existing air bubbles expand, as any substance does when it's heated. A cake that has fallen in the middle will be dense and kind of doughy in the middle and obviously doesn't look to great. Never stopped us from eating it though. An improperly calibrated oven is another falling hazard so invest in an oven thermometer if you take your baking seriously. Temperature is important. (Are you starting to think maybe you'll just buy a cake mix?  DON'T!  I'm telling you, this is totally worth it!)

Ingredients:
1/2 lb. country butter (don't you dare use margarine!)
1/2 c. shortening
3 c. granulated sugar
1 t. vanilla extract
1 t. lemon extract or 2 t. Lemon zest 
3 c. sifted flour (I use cake flour)
1/2 t. baking powder
pinch of salt
1 c. milk (room temp)
6 eggs (room temp)

Directions:
Cream butter, shortening, sugar until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and lemon extracts and blend well. Add eggs, one at a time, beating in between (always go one direction with the electric mixer and don't overbeat your batter. Just mix ingredients well. Sift together the dry ingredients and add slowly, alternating with the milk (wet ingredient). This is an important step so don't cheat! I'd usually alternate back and forth about 6 times, starting and ending with the dry ingredient.

Generously grease a tube cake pan with shortening, don't miss any spots, then sprinkle flour onto the greased pan and distribute but tilting back and forth until the flour is sticking to all the greased places. Don't use cooking spray or your cake won't come out of the tube pan. Pour your batter evenly into the large greased and floured tube pan and Bake at 325 degrees for 1 1/2 hrs or until you can stick a toothpick in and it comes out clean with no raw batter. Make sure when you start testing you are careful to open and shut the oven door gently. Don't laugh - you could make this sucker fall and then what would you do?! You'd eat it of course because it's insanely good whether it falls in the middle or not!!!! 

My mom sometimes made a thin lemony sweet drizzle to pour over the cake, but I like it just the way it is!