Happy Birthday, Sage!

Okay, so it's not actually her birthday till tomorrow, but we had to celebrate early, since she was heading up to Vancouver before the real day. She mentioned that she just received her Granny Mom's (grandma's) recipe for pound cake, so when I said that neither myself nor Ethan had ever had pound cake before, she was astounded! I asked her if she wanted me to bake her one for her birthday & she said "yeah"! The morning of the last full day that she stayed here, she went off to run errands & I got to work baking.

I was a little tentative about the recipe, because it mentioned "3 heaping cups" of flour, which is an estimate, not a measurement. The precise baking part of my brain was all **illogical! illogical!** I was nervous! How much should I heap?! I guess I did alright. It came out delicious---buttery w/a hint of vanilla.


Here's the recipe. If you're planning on making it, make sure that the butter, shortening, milk & eggs are at room temperature beforehand. Also, Granny Mom says you shouldn't even attempt this cake without a stand mixer. The world might end if you were to mix it by hand. Super important!

Granny Mom's Pound Cake

• 2 sticks butter (1 cup)
  
• 1/2 cup Crisco (I used Spectrum)
• 3 cups sugar
• 5 eggs
  
• 3 heaping cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup milk
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 325*F. Grease a bundt or tube pan & set aside. Cream together the butter, shortening & sugar till fluffy.

Here's the Spectrum shortening I used in place of gross Crisco:


Add eggs, one at a time, stopping often to scrape down the bowl of the mixer. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, salt & baking powder. Add part of the flour, alternating with some of the milk & vanilla, mixing just until combined. Repeat until all the ingredients are added.


Pour into prepared pan & bake for 1 hour to 1 hour & 15 minutes. Apparently the usual toothpick test doesn't work well for this cake. To test for doneness, press your finger into the top of the cake---if it feels firm, it's done. If not, put it back into the oven for 3 more minutes, then check again.

Here's the baked cake, cracky & gorgeous:


Sage made me eat the first piece. I made a raspberry sauce to go with it.



Thankfully, I've been eating food other than cake too. Mainly messy, delicious sandwiches. This one has Vegenaise, Tillamook pepper jack, veggie burger, tomato, avocado & pickles, on cracked wheat sourdough. YUM!


Today, when we took Noodle on a walk, I brought the camera along. He's so cute! We can only go on very short walks, because his hips hurt him, but he has so much fun sniffing around. :)