ALZHEIMER'S IDAHO SUPPORT GROUP MEETING & DOOR PRIZE

Last Friday night was the Alzheimer's Idaho support group dinner and as usual I provided the dessert and it was my time to provide the door prize.

My personal favorite cake to serve guests is a pound cake. The name is derived from the original pound cake recipes which were a type of cake traditionally made with a pound of flour, a pound of butter, a pound of sugar and a pound of eggs. There are so many different pound cake recipes but the Southern pound cake has always been a favorite of mine and I love to give some at Christmastime for gifts.  When I lived in Colorado at 7,200 feet I had so many failures in the cake department.  Baking at this elevation is tricky and Hubby ended up taking my failures to work for his team to eat - they did not mind that they had risen and then dropped, they still tasted good.  One of my dear DIL's gave me a wonderful cookbook for high altitude baking and I loved the name Pie in the Sky - I did all the things I was supposed to do but still no luck until I later found a different cookbook that had recipes that did work for me.

This particular pound cake has a twist - at the end you pour a butter sauce on the still warm cake after you have pierced the cake - this is definitely  company grade cake!

Pound Cake Recipe:

Preheat oven to 325°

2 cups sugar
3 cups flour (preferably King Arthur)
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup butter, room temp
4 eggs, room temp
1t baking powder
1/2t baking soda
1 t salt
2 t vanilla extract (real vanilla if possible)

I like to make this cake in an angel food pan.  Using one of the butter wrappers, butter the pan, making sure you get all of the pan, then put about 1/3 cup of Wondra flour in the pan and shake it all around to cover the entire pan.

In your mixer bowl cream the butter on medium speed until light and fluffy.  Slowly add the sugar and beat for several minutes, until the mixture is fluffy then add the vanilla, mixing to combine.

In a small bowl mix together the buttermilk and the eggs, whisk until combined, set aside.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Alternate adding the flour mixture and then the buttermilk mixture mixing well after each addition, scrape down the sides if necessary.

The mixture will be this lovely thick, fragrant mixture, do not over-mix or the cake may become tough.

Pour into your pan and bake 55-60 minutes, depending on your oven. 

Butter Sauce Ingredients:

1/3 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons water
2 tsp vanilla extract

Combine all ingredients into a small sauce pan and stir until the butter is melted and all ingredients combined. Cook for a few minutes but do not let this come to a boil - you don't want to make candy!

Turn off the heat and once the cake is done, take it out of the oven, pierce the cake with a fork (see the meat fork in the photo, works well), let the cake sit for about ten minutes and then turn the cake out onto a rack and let it cool completely.  After the cake is cool dust with powdered sugar.  I like to serve this cake with some homemade, sweetened, whipped cream.

Ready for delivery.  This cake is so fragrant and your kitchen will smell so good.  By the time I was at the hostess's home to make the delivery I was tempted to ask if I could cut out a couple of slices to take home, my car smelled like a bakery!

Keeping with the St. Paddy's theme I took a cute teapot, affixed a sticker to the front, a bow under the handle and just placed some greenery along with cut up lengths of the wire shamrocks into the pot - I did not glue them in because I wanted the winner to be able to easily remove the greenery, etc. from the teapot so they could use it as a teapot.

I took a little strip of the double sided foam tape and adhered the lid to the top of the pot.

Tied up with some cellophane and a green ribbon - ready for the drawing.

Resource

Greenery, Dollar Tree
Shamrocks, Dollar Tree
Green Ribbon, Michael's
Sticker, Hobby Lobby
Cellophane, Hobby Lobby
Black & White curled ribbon, Hobby Lobby
Scalloped cake plate, Pier One
Cake Pan, Nordic Ware Heavyweight Angel Food Cake Pan, 10 Inch
 
Thank you for stopping by.