Pound cake is the white sofa of the dessert world: sophisticated, classic and easy to accessorize. And this may be the year for pound cake, just as it is for understated white and neutral home furnishings. If you've avoided pound cakes, preferring a "knock-'em-dead'" chocolate dessert, you've been missing out on the luscious flavor and texture that an excessive and essential amount of butter, sugar and eggs can produce.

Well-made pound cake has a texture as fine as $200 bed sheets and a delicate and rich flavor. But even if you couldn't care less about elegance, you'll be sold on how durable the dessert is. Pack a pound cake for a holiday party and it won't crumble before you get there. Accidentally leave it in the car overnight, and the cake won't spoil. Unlike some confections, a pound cake actually improves when made a day in advance. It becomes firmer and easier to slice. The flavors become more pronounced.

The classic pound cake recipe also is easily adapted to small-batch baking.

Prepare this lemon pound cake for your holiday enjoyment. Serve the cake with a thick, intense lemon sauce. Add frozen, thawed strawberries or raspberries for color if you like, or stay with pales. For a New Year's Eve dessert, add a glass of champagne and toast the new year in fashion.

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Lemon Pound Cake With Lemon Sauce

Makes 6 to 8 slices

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1 cup sugar

3 eggs

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Grated zest of 1 lemon

1/4 cup whipping cream

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups cake flour

Lemon Sauce (recipe follows), optional

Combine butter and sugar in bowl of electric mixer. Beat at medium-high speed until mixture is creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, scraping down bowl occasionally. Add lemon juice and zest. Stir in cream and salt. Remove bowl and gently beat in flour by hand. Do not overbeat.

Spoon batter into greased and floured 7x3-inch loaf pan. Bake in preheated 325-degree oven 70 minutes or until toothpick inserted near center of loaf comes out clean.

Remove pan from oven. Let stand 10 minutes, then turn over to remove cake. Cool on wire rack. To serve, slice and serve with Lemon Sauce.

Lemon Sauce

Makes about 1 cup

1/4 cup sugar

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1/2 cup water

1 tablespoon butter

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

3 tablespoons whipping cream

Combine sugar and cornstarch in small saucepan.

Stir in water. Cook and stir mixture over low heat about 3 minutes or until thick and smooth.

Stir in butter and allow to melt. Stir in lemon juice. Add cream, stirring briskly so mixture doesn't curdle.