SOUR CREAM POUND CAKE

Memorial Day Part II -

I am SO EXCITED about this post.  It gives me a chance to redeem myself after an awful showing on Mother's Day.  Remember the mini Coconut Cake that I made last month?  Well, my mother bragged on it so much that my family asked me to make a larger version for Mother's Day.  I'm not sure what went wrong but my cake that day was heavy, dense and dry.  It was by far, the worse cake baking mishap I've ever had.  Granted, it had a good flavor but it was so dry that it was like eating a bowl of shredded wheat without the milk.  My family was definitely NOT impressed and believe me, they don't mince words when it comes to questionable cooking.  They speak their minds and it's a good thing that I'm not overly sensitive or I would have slit my wrist by now. 

Anyway, that's in the past and although the Mother's Day Coconut Cake won't soon be forgotten, I have a new contender that even my grandmother Lillie would be proud of.  Ever since Mother's Day, my family has been urging me to continue baking.  I've said on numerous occasions that I can make a pie, a cookie or a pastry like nobody's business but when it comes to cakes, I'm about 50/50.  I've had some success with my Red Velvet and Italian Cream cakes but with others, it's been more of a miss than a hit.  Being from a cooking family in the South, there has always been the assumption that I should've been able to bake a cake at birth, particularly since that was my grandmother's specialty but truthfully, I don't. 

My uncle had even agreed to call and talk me through the process of making one of my grandmother's recipes but I really wanted and needed to do this on my own to prove to myself that I actually could.  I decided to step out there a little and try my hand at pound cakes.  Growing up, this was something that we could always find on my grandmother's dining room table on any given day.  Unfortunately, as she's gotten older, she doesn't bake as much so I've really been craving the taste of an old fashioned pound cake.  You all know that I'm a big fan of Paula Deen so of course, when I ran across a recipe for her Sour Cream Loaf Pound Cake, I knew it would be the perfect one for me to try.

Special Notes:  This is a loaf cake that serves about 6-8 people.

 

Final Thoughts:  AWESOME!  It is totally and absolutely awesome.  So much so that I'm patting myself on the back right now.  It's moist, it's full of flavor and it's the type of cake that is so good that it doesn't need anything else.  No fruit, no powdered sugar, no icing....just a fork and big cold glass of milk.

Ingredients:

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 large eggs
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour


Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together. Add the sour cream and mix until incorporated. Sift the baking soda and flour together. Add to the creamed mixture alternating with eggs, beating in each egg 1 at a time. Add vanilla.

Pour the mixture into a greased and floured loaf pan. Bake for 40 minutes to 1 hour or until toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Addendum (June 14, 2011) - I just wanted to add a little note here to let you know that I made this cake a 2nd time this past weekend for my grandmother Lillie to sample.  Mind you, my grandmother is the queen of pound cakes back home in Selma so I was a little intimidated when she said that she wanted to try it. 

A hush came over the room as she opened the plastic wrap, took a sniff, pressed down on the center with her finger and then pinched off a piece to take a bite.  My heart almost skipped a beat as I eagerly anticipated her response.  Then I heard the most wonderful sound: "Mmmm," followed by, "This is good girl! Taste like one of my cakes."  (I don't suppose I have to tell you how great that made me feel.)