From the Recipe Box: Miss Lou’s Pound Cake

Good evening my friends.  I hope that you all have had a relaxing day, reflecting on the true meaning of Memorial Day.

  

My Daddy J

I have been a horrible blogger lately but I hope to “sweeten” you up by sharing one of my favorite recipes.  I had promised Vicky from Life on Willie Mae Lane that I would give her this recipe and I thought I would offer it to you at the same time.

First, I should tell you a little bit about Miss Lou and why this is my favorite pound cake…which, technically, is a half-pound (I’ll explain why in a bit).

Miss Lou is a wonderful, caring, talented lady from my hometown in Alabama.  She and my Mama have been best friends for 51 years.  Miss Lou used to make me this cake for my birthday every November.  It would be covered in home-made caramel frosting…oh yes, Happy Birthday to Me! 

I moved from our little town in Alabama 31 years ago but Miss Lou was very kind to give me the recipe so I could make this cake for myself.  She explained everything step by step and also mentioned that the recipe had been used in her family for over 100 years.  So by now, the recipe is over 130 years old.

I make this cake many times throughout the year and it has become one of my family’s favorite…especially my daughter’s.  It’s topping depends on the time of the year and what is available, so today…we have strawberries.

Miss Lou’s Pound Cake

This is really a half pound cake because it only take ½ pound of butter and a ½ dozen of eggs

I start with ALL of my ingredients at room temperature:

½ pound real butter

1 ¾ cups of sugar

6 large eggs

2 cups of plain flour (sifted)

Dash of salt

1 tsp of vanilla

Heat oven to 300^o

Cream butter

Add sugar and cream until smooth

Add eggs one at a time, cream well after each addition (IMPORTANT)

Add flour one cup at a time and cream well after each addition

Shake in a dash of salt

Stir in the vanilla

I pour my batter into my favorite Nordic Ware tube pan.  Original instructions tell us to butter and flour the pan first but I have started using Baking Pam and found it to work just as well.

Pound the pan on a towel on the counter top to get rid of any air that may be in the batter.  No bubbles!

Bake for one hour.

Cool in the pan...

 ... then transfer to a cooling rack

Cut the top (bottom?) until it sits evenly on a cake plate

Serve with your favorite topping.  

Tonight is was sugared strawberries 

and my sweet husband’s homemade whipped cream.

This cake is very moist and delicious.

I hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

Thank you Miss Lou!