Sometimes A Recipe Is More Than A Recipe

Lemon Pound Cake

Sometimes a recipe is just a recipe. But every now and then a recipe is more like a love letter. Or a sympathy card. Or a thinking of you card. This pound cake is one of those special recipes. Every time I make it I am reminded of a teacher who loved my children dearly. She loved all her students. She was a miracle worker as far as I could tell, teaching band class to middle school students. I marveled at how she could take several classes of seventh graders, most not able to read music, hand out assorted instruments and by mid-December put them all on stage and present a Christmas concert, playing songs we could recognize. It was a miracle. Year after year. 

She was tough as nails in the classroom. She had to be to create music out of potential chaos. (Do you remember your seventh grade?) But there was always love underneath the tough. This pound cake was her calling card. I don't know exactly how many she brought to us over those band years. I particularly remember the one I found waiting on us in the front seat of our car. The cake was still warm. I don't have a clue what had happened that time, but this cake was waiting on us when we got home. It was her way to say "I care." Those were some hard years for us as we cared for ailing parents (all of them) and our older daughter had a serious surgery. It felt like we lurched from one challenge to the next for a time. But when it started to feel like too much, a cake appeared. And I knew we were not alone.

Paula was generous enough to share her recipe with me years ago. But like many of those special recipes I never thought mine was a good as hers. But last week I think I hit the mark. It was my shining pound cake moment! This was an early birthday cake for Jessica. I went down to play with the baby while she packed and packed and packed. They are moving soon. I am pretty sure that both of us worked off any extra calories from the cake.

I had a learning curve with this recipe. I remember the year I wanted to make one for a baby shower. The first one rose so high that it collapsed and ran down the outside of the pan. When that one finished baking (it still tasted good) I cleaned it all up and made another one. By supper time, I had made FOUR pound cakes to get one that looked good enough to serve. So glad those learning days are behind me. But the nice thing with pound cake is the homely ones still taste good. I figured out that I was over mixing the batter after I added the flour and milk. Too much air was incorporated and they puffed up too much. Now I make sure to mix it plenty good with the butter/sugar/egg part, but not overdo the flour part.

For the most part, I like pound cakes plain—no frosting. If it's a really good one, it doesn't need anything else. But this time I added a lemon glaze to Paula's recipe. It was a birthday cake. And we like things really lemony. 

You mix this in the standard pound cake method. Paula's directions didn't quite tell me step-by-step. But in the years since, I have made many pound cakes (mostly chocolate) and have a better handle on how it's done.  Check my notes that follow the recipe. 

LEMON POUND CAKE

2 sticks butter, softened

8 tbsp. butter Crisco

3 cups sugar

5 large eggs

1 cup milk

4 cups plain flour (I like to use White Lily flour for this)

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon lemon flavoring

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Cream butter, sugar and eggs until consistency of paint; then add dry ingredients alternately with milk.  Add flavorings last.

Bake for approximately 1 hour and 20 minutes at 325 degrees in a floured and greased tube pan.

This cake freezes well.

That is the recipe just as I got it from Paula. I've always teased her that I needed to know what brand of paint she used. 

Make sure your lemon flavoring is not old. I use a lot of vanilla and it doesn't have time to sit on the shelf long. But lemon flavoring is another matter. If it doesn't have a good strong lemon smell, go buy a new bottle. Like I had to do.

Standard cake directions apply here. If you are not a cake baker, let me help you out...

• Whisk baking powder and salt into flour to blend it in.
• Cream butter and shortening until lighter and fluffy. Add sugar and mix well, until sugar is nearly dissolved.
• Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each one.
• Add flour and milk alternately, starting and ending with the flour, mixing just until blended after each addition.
• Add lemon flavoring and vanilla extract and mix another 30 seconds. 
• Use a spatula to scrape to the bottom of the bowl and make sure everything is mixed.
• Pour (or spoon) into a well greased tube pan. (I use Baker's Joy to grease the pan.) Spread it evenly. 
• When done, let cake cool in pan on a rack for about 15 minutes. Turn out and cool completely.

I didn't use a recipe for the glaze. Just mixed powdered sugar, fresh lemon juice and a little melted butter until it tasted good and was the consistency to drizzle. I'm sure you can look up measurements if you need them.

If you have an extra minute, go read what the Bitter Southerner has to say about pound cakes. There are some excellent tips there. One day I'll try their recipe. And I want to make the other recipes in that article as well.

Here is my "fitness trainer" for the week. This was one of her rare, still moments. Oh, those are long, tiring days. But then you blink and that hard part is over. Glad I got to spend some extra time with her. While I can still keep up!