Amidst pumpkin pralines and toffee tiramisus, curiosity has a way of temporarily luring me from my general mistrust of sweets and desserts. I don’t feel shame when I indulge; rather, only moments following the second or third exploratory bite, I retreat to the comfortable notion that I’m happier with a beef pie. I’ve been called smug, and shrugged in semi-agreement.

But there is one member of the dessert world that consistently appeals—pound cake. I like how it exists, uncertainly straddling genres while remaining fundamental. It is cake, as is anything made of butter, flour, sugar and eggs. This point is made especially well with a bundt pan, which surely produces the most festive cake shape. But done in an ordinary rectangular pan, pound cake resembles the humble pullman loaf—a utilitarian shape for passing slices and convenient storage. It might be my imagination, but a slice of pound cake from a pullman pan feels austere compared to the same from a bundt pan.

Pound cake is also a pillar of basic baking technique, stripped bare of ornament and pomp. Creaming sugar with butter is how so many sweet recipes begin that it often seems a purely ceremonial step, like the clockwise rotation of a chawan during a Japanese tea ceremony. But creaming is essential to a pound cake, as is beating the eggs; without raising agents, the dense batter would merely stiffen if not for all the incorporated air. Density is also why a pound cake does best started in a cool oven, which allows ample time for the batter to warm up before setting shape.

A word on flavorings. Nutmeg, or its lacy covering, mace, is traditional, as is vanilla and brandy. These all work well together in a muted way. Lemon peel doesn’t seem much of an affront either, although its use might embolden festive experimentation with candied fruit, nuts, or chocolate, but folding them into a pound cake ruins its elemental balance.

One pound of butter
One pound of sugar
One pound of eggs
One pound of flour
Dash of brandy
Vanilla extract
Scant nutmeg
Pinch of salt
Restraint

Cream the butter and sugar and then continue beating until pale and well aerated. In a separate bowl, beat eggs until frothy. Add flour and egg mixture to whipped butter in alternating stages until all in incorporated. Mix for an additional minute. Incorporate well remaining flavorings. Pour batter into either a pullman loaf pan or a bundt pan that has been well greased with butter and dusted with flour. Put in a cool oven and set to bake at two hundred and seventy five to three hundred degrees (f) for between seventy and one hundred and ten minutes. Some experimentation is likely required to get time and temperature correct. A toothpick, plunged into the thickest portion, should emerge cleanly when cooked through. Let cool on a wire rack.