Vanilla Pound Cake

This is my all-time favorite pound cake to serve plain or dressed-up with some beautiful berries and ice cream - it's so buttery and has the ideal amount of sweetness to it.  It also works great as a (much more delicious!) alternative to shortcake for Strawberry Shortcake.  For Memorial Day, serve with some blueberries and strawberries for the perfect patriotic dessert!

Ingredients:
(all ingredients need to be at room temp for best results so set them out in advance)
5 eggs
3 cups sugar
3 cups flour
1 cup milk
1 Tbsp vanilla
1 cup butter
1/2 cup Crisco

Directions:
(Do NOT preheat oven and ensure you have two shelves available in the oven - a bottom rack and one positioned at the middle of the oven.)

1. Add vanilla to milk.

2. Grease and flour bunt pan (or 3 large loaf pans).

3. Mix butter, Crisco, and sugar until fluffy and pale yellow throughout.

4. Add one egg at a time, mixing well.

5. Add 1 cup of flour, mix until combined, then 1/2 cup of milk, mix again.  Then add another cup of flour, mix until combined, then 1/2 cup of milk, and mix again.  Add last cup of flour and mix for 2 minutes.

6. Place a large pan/baking sheet with 1" water on bottom rack in oven.

7. Pour batter into bunt pan (or divide among 3 large loaf pans) and place on rack in middle of oven.  Turn oven on to 300 degrees F and cook for 1 hour.

8. After an hour, carefully remove pan with water.  Increase oven temp to 350 degrees F and cook an additional 30-35 minutes.

9. Remove pound cake from oven and let cool in bunt pan on baking rack for 15-20 minutes, then turn out of pan onto baking rack and let cool completely before serving.

For best results, after cake completely cools, store in air-tight container for a full day before serving.  The flavor really sets in and the cake is even more-perfectly moist!

Hope you enjoy!  This recipe is so versatile, it's a keeper for all-year-round.  Let me know if you have any cool pound cake serving ideas.