Butter Cake

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Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup Butter                                            - 1/2 tsp. Baking Powder
- 1 cup Sugar                                                - 2 Eggs
- 1 cup Flour                                                 - 1 tsp. Almond Extract
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Directions:
Cream butter and sugar. Add remaining ingredients. Heat oven to 350 degrees and bake about 40 minutes.
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Well, the weather outside's craptastic...
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... so I thought I'd try to bake another of my Dutch Mother's recipes. This one is called Butter Cake, or in Dutch, Boeter-Koek. This is very easy to make. In fact, I remember making these all by myself as a little kid. The hardest part is dealing with the sore arm you'll get from mixing it all together. I was thinking of renaming it Bachelor Cake... but, since it's still baking in the oven and I don't know if it turned out right yet, I'll hold off for now.
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Ingredients:
1 Cup Butter
1 Cup Sugar
1 Egg
2 Cups Flour
1 Tsp Baking Powder
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
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Directions:
- Separate the egg yolk (and keep the egg white for later) 
- In a large bowl, mix together the sugar, butter and egg yolk (keep the wrapper from the butter stick... you will use it later).
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(I heated up the cold butter from the fridge for 30 seconds in the microwave, which is why there is a finger print in the top of it - I just had to check!)
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--- I mean really mix it together... and then mix it a bit more! It will end up looking almost powdery and crumbly when you are done.
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- Stir in the flour, baking powder and vanilla extract, then mix it some more... and some more!
--- Come on, what kind of a wuss are you? Mix it! More! Until it again looks all powdery and crumbly, but has a fairly even texture to it (no big lumps).
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- Take the wrapper from the butter stick and grease the pie pan with it. Without it, you won't be able to get it nicely out of the pie plate. Of course, if you substituted margarine for butter (and made a margarine cake) you can spray the pie plate with Pam or something similar.
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- Place the mixture into the pie plate and press it all down tightly with a fork.
- Add the egg yolk on top of the cake and spread it around with a spoon, shaping the cake into the pie plate and smoothening out the top.
- Place in oven and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
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This is actually a very filling little snack - my Mom often takes a piece along with her if she travels on the bus or in the plane. Another nice thing about Butter Cake is that you can easily freeze it - and if pre-cut, you don't need to thaw it out to eat it because it will still eat fine frozen. In this way, it is easy to keep "an extra butter cake" in the freezer just in case unexpected guests drop by for a cup of coffee. 
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(Note - It looks like I put a little too much egg-white on top. Next time, I'll try putting it on with a brush).
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