Mother's Day Buttermilk Pound Cake

I had a sweet mother's day yesterday. No, literally. I surprised my mom with a huge supply of baked goods to keep our sweet teeth satisfied. I started brunch off with homemade cinnamon roll waffles and later in the day we had Old-Fashioned Buttermilk Pound Cake, topped with fresh strawberries and whipped cream.

When my mom and I go to Georgia to visit our family there, one of our favorite things to do is eat the amaaazing desserts we find. So for Christmas, my aunt gave my mom this amazing cookbook, called Sweet Auburn Desserts, by Sonya Jones, who owns the Sweet Auburn Bread Company in Atlanta. My mom had met her at the Marietta Square farmer's market and had tried some of her fabulous pies. Chef Jones' catalog of desserts is incredible, and I asked my mom which recipe she'd like best if I could make it. She decided upon a pound cake.

courtesy of Pelican Publishing

First off, there were a lot of recipes to choose from--chocolate buttermilk, brown sugar, old fashioned...etc. Traditionally, a pound cake got its name from the choice of ingredients: a pound of sugar, a pound of flour, a pound of eggs, and a pound of butter. Today's recipe is a little more sophisticated than that, but it certainly does have a lot of ingredients baked in to one cake. Its very dense and very sweet. I decided upon the Old-Fashioned Buttermilk Pound Cake recipe, mostly because I had all the ingredients in the house already (and I needed to use up the rest of that buttermilk!)

So here is the recipe, courtesy of Chef Jones and Sweet Auburn Desserts:

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter (at room temp)
1 cup vegetable shortening  
2 cups fine granulated sugar
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup buttermilk
4 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

note: based on what I had in the kitchen, I changed this to 3/4 cup shortening and added an extra 2 tablespoons of butter to the recipe. I also had 3/4 cup buttermilk and subbed the last 1/4 cup with half & half. Both alterations worked well.

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease and flour a 10-inch tube or bundt pan (like my Ikea model).

In a large mixing bowl, cream together sugar, butter, and shortening until it is light and fluffy. Add eggs in one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla and beat until well combined.

Sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda in a separate bowl. With your mixer on medium, alternate between adding the flour mixture and the buttermilk into the creamed mixture (begin and end with flour mix). Mix well after each addition.

Pour batter into the prepared tube pan. Bake for 75 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted 1 inch from the edge comes out clean. Allow the pound cake to cool in the pan for at least 10 minutes.

Turn out on to a wire rack and let cool completely before serving

Now you could do anything you like for topping. I decided upon fresh strawberries and whipped cream (super easy, just ask Alton Brown! Whip heavy whipping cream together with a few tablespoons of sugar and a few drops of vanilla until soft peaks form). I like a less sugary whip cream--its smooth creaminess offsets the sugary cake and tart strawberries. However, you could also make Chef Jones' chocolate glaze, which I have listed below:

Chocolate Glaze:
1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
3 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

In the top of a double boiler, combine the chocolate chips, butter, and corn syrup. Stir until the chips are melted and the mixture becomes smooth. Remove the double boiler from the heat and stir in the vanilla. Drizzle the warm glaze over the top of pound cake and serve.

Whatever you chose to do with the pound cake, it will be delicious. Enjoy!

Happy Snacking!

Antonia