All Cakes Considered: The Mancatcher

After waking up at 6am with the dogs once again on Sunday morning, I decided that instead of crawling back in to the bed I would try and do some baking. Even though I've vowed to make new recipes from my books, I couldn't resist revisiting the sour cream pound cake called The Mancatcher, which has gained a certain fame in my house. First, I just love saying it. I'm making the mancatcher this morning, I told my husband. Watch your back. Melissa Gray's All Cakes Considered is chock full of the kind of cakes I want to make---you know, the kind that you wake up at 2am thinking about.

Instead of writing out the recipe, I'm redirecting you here, because it's intense. The ingredients and the actual cake making itself are simple and straightforward, but one of the points of All Cakes Considered is learning to do things the correct way. If you are an old hand at baking, you're doing what you need to anyway, but following the directions to a T will get you a delicious cake with a moist, dense crumb.

As soon as it was done, I immediately cut it into thirds, sending one each to two friends in town. The mancatcher is just powerful enough to persuade me to make bad choices.