Pound Cake Withdrawal #TBT
I could sure go for a piece of pound cake right now. And not just any pound cake, my mother’s homemade Sour Cream Pound Cake. Her mother taught her to make it and she passed the recipe down to me. In fact, during my primitive years I was the designated cake maker. You see we’d get requests, or orders, from family members for cakes. Not slices, mind you, but entire cakes. We’d make one for Granddaddy, one for Deb, Carrie, Mr. Steve, Auntie and so on. I’d spend hours mixing the batter for each one. I’d beat the wet ingredients first: butter, eggs, sour cream, vanilla. Then, I’d add the dry ones: flour, sugar. Me and the mixer would whip it good until the formula was just right. Ma would flour the pan and prep the other side dishes i.e. dressing, ham, collards.
Anyway, there is a reason people want an entire cake to themselves. It’s irresistible – light, fluffy, moist and creamy all at the same time. I arrived in S. Florida on Wednesday night (Thanksgiving Eve) and started eating slices of that cake approximately every 4 to 6 hours, sometimes less. You’d think I was suffering from some ailment and was prescribed Sour Cream Pound cake as a remedy. That’s just how diligent I was about eating it up until my departure Monday night.
I know it was wrong, I even know just how much sugar, butter and sour cream goes into each one, but it didn’t matter. Who cares that I’d been torturing myself with sunrise workouts for the last month. It was all worth it. That cake is nostalgia in my mouth and satisfaction for my soul.
I can’t remember when I’d had it last. I haven’t been home for Thanksgiving since my first year of college. And a LOT has changed. My elementary school has been razed and replaced with a new massively modern structure. The mail carrier in the all black neighborhood where I was raised is Latino (and the neighborhood is following suit), the movie theatre has been replaced by a gigantic Kohl’s department store, my baby cousins have babies now, Grandadddy, Auntie and numerous others are no longer here to celebrate Thanksgiving with us anymore or to place cake orders.
Even I’ve changed. I’m no longer a pensive coed, I’m a wife and mother now.
But the cake remains the same. Maybe that’s why it was so good.
Click here to read about how this cake is affecting the next generation: CakeHeads
| Sour Cream Pound Cake | | Print |
- 3 cups of sugar
- 4 sticks of butter
- 6 eggs
- 3 cups of cake flour
- 1 cup of sour cream
- 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
- Bring your butter to room temperature. Combine the sugar and butter in a bowl and mix until they've combined. You will see the butter and sugar turn from yellow with granules to a creamy white.
- Add the eggs, one at a time and mix until smooth. Add in one cup of flour at a time and combine until smooth after each addition.
- Add the sour cream and vanilla and blend again until smooth and everything is combined. If you've done this right, it should take about 30 minutes to beat this cake.
- Add the batter to a buttered cake pan and bake for at least an hour or until a toothpick comes out clean when stuck into the cake.
2 Comments
Cami
i love this post. and the cake sounds delish.
MAMA
YES BABY GIRL,
I TOO WAS SMITTEN BY THE WHOLE IDEA OF COOKING, AS I WATCHED MY MOTHER COOK HER DELICIOUS DISHES. YOUR GRANDMA’S DISHES COULD MAKE YOUR TOES WIGGLE, POP BACK AND FORTH, AND CURL UP AT THE SAME TIME. AS TIME FLEW BY AND I GREW UP, SHE FORGOT TO SHOW ME HER TIPS AND TRICKS OF THE TRADE WHILE SHE ACTIVELY COOKED THOSE DELICIOUS MEALS. I LEARNED TO COOK BY TRIAL AND ERROR. I DECIDED THAT MY CHILDREN WOULDN’T BE COOKLESS WONDERS NOT KNOWING WHAT TO DO IN THE KITCHEN. I’M GRATEFUL THAT YOU WERE WILLING TO LEARN. ALL THOSE CAKES AND OTHER DISHES HELPED TO BUILD MEMORIES OF FAMILY TOGETHERNESS. FOR ANYONE THAT KNOWS LAYLA, SHE DOESN’T STAND A CHANCE OF NOT HAVING A LOVE OF COOKING-SHE’S AROUND IT WITH YOU AND I (WHEN SHE VISITS FOR THE SUMMER). THIS IS A GOOD THING. SHE’LL HAVE MANY HAPPY MEMORIES OF “” LIFE IN DISHES”