Mama Dean Pound Cakes

My mom was famous for her pound cakes.  Oh they were sooooo good.  Every since she retired she made one almost every day.  I never went in her house that there wasn’t at least one sitting on the counter.  It didn’t matter if you weren’t hungry you still cut a big chunk and enjoyed it.  Oh and if you were lucky enough to get one hot out of the oven.  Well heaven could be any better.  Hot pound cake, a glass of cold “whole” milk (none of that crappy thin milk in her house) and you were at heaven’s door. 

She called it her pound cake ministry.  If you were sick, you got a pound cake.  If a family member died, you got a pound cake.  If you had a birthday, you got a pound cake.  Any friend who stopped by for a visit, you got a pound cake.  You worked on her house, you got a pound cake.  The UPS man made a delivery, you got a pound cake.  Her attorney was paid in pound cakes.  He would do house calls just to get one.

It was unusual to get a whole cake.  It always had one very thin piece missing where she would cut it and see it was acceptable to give away.  Most people never knew it was missing a piece.  She could cut the piece so small it only had one side. 

There are many stories about her cakes.  I sure I don’t know all of them but just to share a few.

Our son’s Paul and Michael were in the First Methodist Youth Group.  Every year they did a mission trip, for which, the youth had to raise the funds for the trip.  One year she volunteered to make pound cakes for them to sell.  Well even though mom wasn’t a member of our church, everyone in our church who had ever been to an event had tasted one of her cakes.  Needless to say, they were a hot item and very easy to sell.  So they sold a lot of them.  As best as I remember, it was like 72 of them that she made.  The good part about her pound cakes is they freeze easy and keep fresh for a long time if you freeze them.  Freeze them she did.  The only problem she ran out of freezer space, so they went to neighbors, friends and anyone else who had freezer space.  The real adventure came when it came time to go collect all of them.  Carole and my sister DeAnn went with mother and it took all day because you had to visit with everyone when you picked up the cakes. 

My business partner in Tuscaloosa loved my mom’s pound cakes.  She declared them the best she ever had.  Jennifer is a real connoisseur of pound cakes, so that really meant something.  She loved to get them and always called my mother to thank her.  Of course that made mom’s day mostly because she just loved Jennifer.  (Hell who doesn’t love Jennifer.)  Jennifer admitted to me that she would hide mom’s cakes and not share with her girls or Forest.  She said they just didn’t know how to appreciate what they were getting and she wasn’t going to waste it on them.  They could eat Win-Dixie cookies and be happy.  Many of the pound cakes never left the office for the trip home.  Of course she got caught a couple of times by her girls and would have to share.

Talladega Tractor would come get my mom’s grass cutting tractor every year and service it.  (She loved to cut grass, until her back got too bad to do it.)  They always got a pound cake when they picked the tractor up and when they returned it.  So one of the trips the guy brought the tractor back and unloaded it.  He gave mom the repair ticket.  But then he didn’t leave, he just kept standing around.  Mom finally asked him if there was something she was supposed to sign or did he need her to do something else.  He told her, he was instructed not to come back to the shop without a pound cake.  Apparently the mechanics at Talladega Tractor had threatened him with his life if he did not return with a cake.  She apologized for not thinking to give him one.  He left with the cake, his life was safe and the mechanics were happy until next spring.

There was one lady who was taking chemo and swears the only thing she could eat was mom’s pound cake.  It was the only thing that kept her alive. 

Of course pound cakes take lots of sugar.  Since sugar is expensive when she could buy it on sale she would.  As a matter of fact lots of people got to buy sugar.  They always limit the amount you can buy when it is on sale.  So she would go to the three grocery stores in Sylacauga and buy all she could.  Often she would go back the next day to the same three stores and buy more if they hadn’t sold out.  She would send my sister to all three stores and Carole would get to go to the grocery stores in Pell City to buy all they could buy.  We were always concerned that the Revenuers would show up and cart her off the jail for making whiskey. 

There were two different periods of time when her cakes didn’t come out they way they always had.  She started working on what the problem was.  She wasn’t happy.  As a matter of fact it was one of the few times in her life she wasn’t happy.  After several weeks of work, she confronted the margarine company; they admitted they had changed their process.  They told her to buy Fleischmann’s Original, it was the old formula.  She did the same thing with the flour company when they changed their process.  She knew her pound cake material.

Michael decided that he was going to learn how to cook her pound cake.  So he went and stayed a few days with her and she instructed him on how to make the cake.  Having a scientific mind he timed each of the different mixing times.  In three days she never varied more than 15 seconds in how long she did each of the operations. 

Mama Dean’s Cream Cheese Pound Cake

½ lb of butter

8 oz cream cheese

3 cups of sugar

6 eggs
3 cups of flour

¼ tsp soda

1 tsp vanilla & lemon flavor

The rest of this is Michael summary on how to do one of her cakes.  One of these days I will do a blog about her life.  But that is going to have to wait.  I will always miss her and her pound cakes. 

Here is the general process for making any cake Mama Dean quality.

Products to use:

Butter = Land of Lakes Salted butter

Margarine = Fleischmann's Original

Flour = White Lilly All Purpose

Sugar = Domino (only from the 5lb bag)

Milk = Whole milk

Extract = Watkin's Brand

Eggs = Large and preferably from Aunt Sally's farm

Sour Cream = any brand just make sure it's not low fat

Stand Mixer = Kitchen Aide (her's was classic white but I assume any color will do)

Any deviation in product will produce a different cake, not necessarily a bad cake, just different.

All refrigerated ingredients should be removed from the refrigerator 1 hour prior to beginning the recipe.  Room temperature of the products should be at least 70 degrees F.

Sifting of dry ingredients:

Always sift the flour before measuring it for the recipe, regardless of what the written recipe says.  If it calls for 4 cups of flour, put four cups of flour in the sifter, sift it and then measure out 4 cups and proceed with the recipe.  Even cake flour should be sifted before you measure it out for the recipe.

Creaming:

To correctly cream the butter and sugar, add all the butter to your Kitchen Aide Stand Mixer.  Beat on high 30 seconds.  With the mixer running, begin to slowly add the sugar to the butter.  It should take at least 30 seconds per cup of sugar.  Once all the sugar is added turn off the mixer and scrape down the bowl.  Make sure you go all the way to the bottom of the bowl (I cannot stress the importance of this enough).  Turn the mixer back on setting 6 and beat for 60 seconds.  Turn off the mixer and scrape the bowl again.  Turn the mixer back on setting 6 and beat for 60 seconds, for a second time.  Turn off the mixer and scrape the bowl again.  Turn the mixer back on setting 6 and beat for 60 seconds, for a third and final time.  Turn off the mixer and scrape the bowl again for the third time.

Adding the Eggs:

Turn the mixer on setting 6 for at least 30 seconds before adding the first egg.  Always crack the egg into a coffee cup before adding it to the bowl and check for a bad egg or a stray shell fragment.  Wait until each egg is fully incorporated before adding the next one.  Halfway through the number of eggs, turn off the mixer and scrape down the bowl, again making sure you go all the way to the bottom.  Turn the mixer back on and add the remaining eggs.  After the last egg is fully incorporated, turn off the mixer and scrape down the bowl again.

Adding the Flour & Wet ingredient:

With the mixer on the lowest setting, slowly add the flour in 1/4 cup increments alternating with the wet ingredient (milk or sour cream).  Begin and end with the flour.  Half way through, turn off the mixer and scrape down the bowl.  Turn the mixer back on and add the flavorings before resuming with the flour.  After the last addition of flour, turn off the mixer and scrape down the bowl again. Turn the mixer back on high speed for a final 30 seconds.

Doneness:

A too hot oven is your worst enemy.  Either calibrate the temperature correctly, or reduce the temperature by 25 degrees.  Set a timer for the lowest time setting suggested in the recipe.  You are looking for 3 things.  Smell: you should smell the cake, this is your first indication you are nearing the done stage.  Your whole kitchen should be filled with the heavenly scent of baked deliciousness.  Look: the cake should pull away from the sides of the pan slightly.  Touch: lightly press the top of the cake; you're finger should leave the slightest impression in the top.  If all else fails use the toothpick test.  If the toothpick comes out clean it's ready.  (Approx 1½ hours)

Follow this process and any cake will turn out as best as it can possibly be.