LET THEM EAT CAKE

"They might not need me, but they might.

I"ll let my head be just in sight;

A smile as small as mine might be

precisely their necessity."

........Emily Dickinson

Here I am with some of my jellies. We had a great summer, as you can see--who says life is not a bowl of berries?
This has nothing at all to do with today's subject (unless you like jelly cake, which is probably the only connection you can find.)

At length I recalled the thoughtless saying of a great princess, who, on being informed that the
country people had no bread, replied, "Then let them eat cake!" Marie Antoinette must have
had a lot of cakes, but I doubt she made many more of them than I have. This one is my
signature cake ( and honestly, like my penmanship, has shown no improvement with time and
practice.) Upon reflection, I realized that my fixation on pound cakes had its origin in the
Bethlehem Primitive Baptist Church in New Orleans. You know I have to go back to the Garden
to tell you about it!
For a long while I had wanted(and I thought needed) a heavy duty mixer, but I certainly
considerated that a luxury and as such it was but a dream. One of the fifteen churches Brother
Lonnie was serving at the time was , you guessed it, that "precious little band of soldiers" at New Orleans. They are such generous saints, and there were times that without their help we would have been in trouble. Boy, that's a refrain that I can repeat over and over about these and many more people of the living God. But in this instance, it was Christmas, and they gave Brother Lonnie an extra gift, in an envelope, and you can guess the next part of that story, can't you? Yes, he gave it to me and insisted that I buy that mixer, the one I use to this day, used yesterday, and hope to use for many more cakes to come. We all know that was a sacrifice for Brother Lonnie, for he NEEDED that money to pay bills. But as he would say "you can't outgive the Lord!"

My cakes greatly improved with the advent of the new mixer, and Brother Lonnie often came in and said "Shulley, make me one of those good cakes," and I did, and off he would go to deliver it to someone to whom he wanted to give a gift. I still hear, here and there, literally, " that dear man brought us a pound cake, and we remember it to this day." I have a strong suspicion that they remember the man more than the cake , don't you?

Here is the recipe for my Bethlehem Pound Cake.
Remember to always read the recipe before you begin. While it is so very nice to have a big stand mixer, the cake will do just fine when mixed with a hand mixer. The butter must be at room temperature and one of the most important steps is to cream the shortening and sugar together until they are light in color and very fluffy.Preheat the oven to 325. You will need a bundt pan that has been sprayed generously with Baker's Joy or another kind of spray that has flour in it.( believe this).

Cream together two sticks of butter, yes, butter, not the whipped kind--two heaping T. Crisco( each the size of a large egg), and 3 cups sugar.

This process will take about ten minutes, or longer depending on your mixer. However, this is the most critical step in making the cake.

Add five eggs, one at a time, beating after each one.

Measure 1/2 t. soda into 1 cup fresh buttermilk (be sure to shake the buttermilk)

With mixer running at low speed, alternate buttermilk mixture with 3 cups plain, all purpose flour, beginning and ending with flour.

Add 2 t. vanilla flavoring, scrape sides of bowl and continue beating, now at medium speed for 3 minutes. Pour into prepared pan and bake for seventy minutes. At that time, test by sticking a cake tester, or broom straw if you don't mind, into the center of the cake. If said tester does not come out clean, bake for ten more minutes. Remove cake from oven and invert it onto a plate immediately. (Place plate upside down on cake and turn pan over. ) Cover lightly with foil, which will allow the cake to sweat and stay moist. When cake is cooler, you can cover it tightly so you can deliver it to a shut-in or maybe to a shut-out. Who knows, that cake and your smile might just be-----precisely their necessity!