LABOR BY THE POUND

The party is almost over.  The coffee for cake didn't drip.  The cake didn't flip out.  The bundt was rusty.  And looks aren't everything.

Another Labor Day will end without much hoopla or a hamburger or a lake outing.  A family reunion occurred for the sixty-second year on usually the hottest day of the year, so it seems.  Two hours to the south.  All because one family hitched up their wagons and moved all of their possessions, one step at a time.  To fertile fields.  Grass is greener.  My great-great grandmother was born days later.  Georgia to Arkansas.

I set out to bake a cake for the occasion of the reunion lunch.  When you haven't cooked in awhile you can't cook anymore.  For a bit of time.  Mixing olive oil and butter and onions and mushrooms with chicken and wine is easily tweaked.  A little salt and pepper.  This cooking gets raves but doesn't exact a toil.

Baking is unforgiving no matter how long you've been turning out perfect cornbread or Deep South Crescent Rolls.  Baking soda is not baking powder.  Hot water will kill the yeast.  Baking is an exact science for reasons I don't have to know as I am not a food editor or a meal production director with NASA.

But I love the results of baking.  Yeast bread.  Cookies. Cornbread. Cakes. Biscotti.  Cheesecake. Flour, sugar, butter and yeast are the essence of a well-lived life.

Long story short.  When the recipe calls for six eggs, add all six eggs.  Same goes for two teaspoons of vanilla.  Otherwise. you will have to jerk the cake out of the oven and add the vanilla to the batter which just went into the bundt pan and just now into the oven.  Courting disaster.

Too ugly to party

Overall, this Whipping Cream Pound Cake is delicious.  But how it ended up that way is beyond me.  I used cooking spray and flour on the nonstick surface.  But the bundt wouldn't budge.  I put it into the fridge for awhile and it finally came out onto the platter.  But it wasn't pretty and it didn't all arrive at the same time.

I went dessert free to the reunion.  I shared the cake with dinner company the night before and sent a good portion to Burt's parents.  The rest of the cake has languished in my cake carrier waiting for stolen nibbles and outrageous sliced chunks.  Too ugly to party but good enough to enjoy.

The inside of the cake pan wasn't rusted.  When the cake finally let go of the pan, I sat the pan in the sink to soften the chunks still attached.  And then company came for dinner and I forgot.  The lesson from this story is check the addition of all ingredients.  And don't forget the soaking bundt pan resting in your brand new stainless steel sink.

WHIPPING CREAM POUND CAKE      (Southern Living Recipe)

 1 c. butter
3 c. sugar
6 eggs
3 c. flour
1 c. whipping cream
2 tsp. vanilla

Cream butter and sugar for 5 minutes.  Add eggs and blend well.  Alternately blend in flour and whipping cream.  Add vanilla.  Pour into a greased and floured bundt pan.  Bake @ 325 for 75 minutes.