Thanksgiving, Legacies, and an Infamous Pound Cake

 

 

My name is Charles Davis, aspiring actor/singer/writer/beast in the kitchen and this is my Grandmother’s Infamous Pound Cake…kinda. Ok, its the closest I can get to it being hers. I can remember how it tasted and its pretty close. To fully understand the reason that it is infamous, I must give you a little backstory.

 

I am the child of two 20 year retired military parents. As a child, I would always come back to Macon for the big holidays and for a couple of months during the summer. And when her 6 kids and tons of grandchildren were here, my grandmother would pull out all the stops. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, cake, pies: you wanted it, she cooked it. She was the poster child for the Southern African-American grandmother.

 

One of the dishes most requested was her Pound Cake. Now this thing here- is the stuff legends are made of. Every Thanksgiving, I would end up in the kitchen with her, watching her every move. Never once did she refer to a recipe or cookbook.  She was the type of woman who didn’t use measuring spoons and cups, just always knew when enough was enough.

 

I would help her cook the cake and always got to lick the spoon once it was in the pan. The smells that would permeate from that kitchen while it was in the oven were magical. The finished product was sight to behold. The cake was everything and then some.

 

She passed away October 17, 2004 after a long battle with illness and the recipe was never written down.

 

Since then every member of my family, including myself, has tried to duplicate the cake that she is remembered for. I failed at doing this numerous times for years until one day I was thinking about her and decided to try it one more time.

 

 

That night she must have come down and placed her hands on me while I was making it because the cake turned out exactly how she used to make it. When I had my first bite of it, my thought immediately went to her and it brought a smile to my face.

 

And that’s exactly what food can do for you.

 

It can take you back to times long gone, to people we have lost years ago. That’s why to me Thanksgiving and the big holidays are important to me. It is sometimes the only time in the year where different generations of family get together and enjoy each others company. Stories are told, traditions passed on. So this year, when gathering with you family, take the time to relish in the history in your home. If there is a dish that someone makes that you absolutely love, ask them about it. You would be surprised at what you learn and you never know when that person wont be around any more. My grandmother, Mattie Pearl Cottle, may not be here to enjoy this holiday with us but with this dish, her legacy will live on forever. Now I couldn’t leave you without passing the greatness on, so below is the recipe. I wish you all the best Thanksgiving ever!

 

Mattie’s Infamous Pound Cake

Ingredients:

4 sticks of butter

1/2 cup of shortening

3 cups of sugar

5 eggs

3 cups of all purpose or cake flour (I like using cake flour for this but all purpose works just as well)

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1/2 teaspoon of baking powder

1 cup of whole milk

1 and 1/2 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix the butter and shortening together until well blended. Next, slowly add the sugar into the butter/shortening mix. Once the sugar is incorporated, add one egg at a time, mixing after each egg. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, salt, and baking powder together. Once combined, add the flour mixture and milk to the mixer, starting with flour mix and ending with flour mix (basically: flour, then milk, then flour, then milk, and then end with the rest of the flour mix). Once the cake batter is smooth, add the vanilla extract to the mix and blend thoroughly. Spray a round tube pan with baking spray,( I use Baker’s Joy but just greasing the pan with butter and then sprinkling flour around the pan works as well), and then pour cake batter into the pan. Place the cake into the oven and cook it for an hour and a half or until it has reached desired color. To check and see if its done, place a toothpick in the center. When the cake is finished, the toothpick will come out clean. Once out of the oven and cooled, place cake plate on top of  the pan and flip the cake over. If the pan was properly greased, the cake will come out perfectly. Only thing left to do is enjoy!