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
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.
