vanilla bean pound cake with strawberry sauce

I'll always be a chocolate girl at heart... but I can't help cheating on my old favorite sometimes with a little vanilla bean. What is it about those little black specks that put it worlds ahead of typical vanilla? I've never made a pound cake before, so I thought I'd give this recipe a try. Before even starting, I anticipated that I'd want a little extra oomph on top. Enter strawberries. I made my strawberry sauce up from scratch, by heating sliced berries, a little water, and Splenda (because this recipe is sooooo health conscious), but you can find a more exact recipe here. The cake was dense, moist and flavorful but the strawberries in my opinion were a necessary addition. Mine also took longer than 1:15 to bake throughout, but was well worth the wait!