My husband asked me to make cake the other day. Our conversation looked kinda like this:
Him: cake would be nice.
Me: what kind of cake?
Him: you know, cake.
Me: yah, but like chocolate cake or layer cake or something?
Him: I don't know what else it's called, we just call it cake.
Then I realized he was talking about Dutch cake and sure enough in one of my cookbooks, that's simply what it's called: cake. I would say it's very similar to a pound cake by looking at the ingredient ratios and the texture of it when it was baked. You could easily play with the flavors of this simple cake to make it your own or add a powdered sugar or chocolate glaze to the top to fancy it up.
Ingredients
200g butter, room temperature
200g sugar
Insides of one vanilla bean (or 1tsp extract)
Lemon zest
Dash of salt
4 eggs, room temperature
200g flour or cake flour, sifted
Directions
Preheat oven to 320F. Grease and flour a loaf pan and set aside. I think my pan is a 9" pan; I've had it for years and bought it somewhere in Germany.
Beat butter, sugar, salt, and vanilla until it is light and fluffy.
Add eggs one at a time, mixing 2 minutes between each egg.
Slowly add the flour and mix until the batter is smooth.
Fill the loaf pan with the batter and bake for about 1 ¼ hours until the cake is golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.
Let the cake cool in the pan for a few minutes and then remove to a cooking rack.