Mrs. Adams' Delicious Pound Cake

1. Stage

Make the batter: Beat together the margarine and sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and beat lightly, mixing in well after each addition. Add flour and mix well. Add vanilla before, during, and after adding the flour.

2. Stage

Bake the cake: Pour batter into a stick-free or greased and floured bundt cake pan and bake for 1 to 1 1/2 hours on 325°F. Begin watching the cake at 1 hour. The cake is done when a tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Cake should be cracked on top and golden brown.

3. Stage

Cool: Cool for 5 minutes on a cake rack. Loosen the sides with a knife. Gently remove the cake from the pan while still warm. ** Note: before I get raked through the coals by my fellow foodie purists (or in my case, semi-purists if such a thing is possible), note that I did ask if I could use butter for this recipe. The answer was that this particular recipe requires not only margarine, but Imperial margarine, and not in the tub either - you need to use the kind sold in sticks. I have often been given recipes that require margarine from people who tell me that it just works better in their particular recipe. Even so, personally, I don't cook with margarine, and if I were to cook this pound cake, I would substitute butter for the margarine. Most pound cake recipes do call for butter (1 pound butter, 1 pound flour, etc).