Recipe for old fasioned cold oven pound cake from my 98 yr old best friend,Connie

[laundromat]

DO NOT PRE HEAT OVEN!
No baking powder or baking soda is needed

3 sticks butter
3 C sugar
5 eggs
1tbsp vanilla extract
3 C flour
1 12 oz can evaporated milk

Grease and flour bunt or tube cake tin.

Melt butter and place in a large mixing bowl.Add eggs one at a time.Add evaporated milk.
Add sugar.
Cream it all together for about 2 minutes on high.
Bring speed back down to low and add vanilla.
Add flour 1 cup at a time using a spatula to guide it through the beaters.
Once flour is all added,increase speed to high and mix for 3 minutes.

Pour into greased and floured tube pan and place in cold oven.

Set oven at 325F and set timer for 1H 45M.

DO NOT FOR ANY REASON WHATSOEVER OPEN THE OVEN DOOR.LIKE A SUFLET'THE CAKE WILL FALL IF YOU DO.

Once the time is up,remove the cake and let it cool for about two hours.

You can use any type or flavor extract other than vanilla.Sometimes I do it with pure almond,rum,butter rum,cinamin,or pumpkin pie spice.The crust gets hard like apple crisp once it's cooled.Yummy!!!

 

[laundromat]

Just FYI
In using the spatula,I ment to scrape the sides with it.
Do not attempt to ever scrape or get anywhere near the beaters.

 

[polkanut]

Question,

Is the flour sifted? Do you use all-purpose, or cake flour?

 

[laundromat]

You may if you wish.I don't.I just add it to the mixture gradualy. not all at once.Mine comes out nice and even w/no tunnels.when I first began,back in the 70's, making it,I would use hard butter.But it would leave dark greasse marks.I decided one day to let it soften and that made a heck of a difference.I don't ever use fake or imitation flavors. I use the real extract or spice the recipe calls for.I always use evaporated milk in place of water or milk in cake recipes.It realy makes a difference in the flavor.My grandmother (Mado)used to get 4 of the Washington (Maryland based company in Ellicot City)brand cake mixes for a dollar.The yellow cake version and doctor it up using 6 instead of 3 eggs and extra butter instead of cooking oil and added a small package of instant pudding mix then some almond extract or butter rum extract.That cake came out so big and heavy and nobody ever even guessed it came out of a box.

 

[jeffg]

Chuck, that recipe sounds wonderful. Van De Kamp's used to make a milk chocolate iced angel food cake, it was my family's favorite store-bought cake. Your recipe sounds very similar.

Is there an easy way to convert a pound cake recipe to angel food cake? Would using egg whites and no yolks do the trick?

 

[peterh770]

I had just read the box of Swans Down cake flour a few hours ago, and now this thread is here! That recipe is very close to this recipe that I just read on the back of the box:

Whipping Cream Cake

3 c. sugar
3 sticks butter
6 eggs
3 c. shifted SD cake flour
1/2 pint heavy whipping cream
1/2 tsp. vanilla

DO NOT preheat oven. In a large bowl combine sugar and butter until creamy. Add eggs one at a time. When well mixed, add flour and whipping cream alternately. Then add vanilla. Pour into well greased tube pan. Bake at 300 for 1 1/2 hours. Cool completely.

 

[appnut]

Jeff, angel food cakes are rather delicate and have recipes/ingredients chemical reaction (baking is simply chemistry) vs. a pound cake. I DOUBT a conversion can be done.

 

[laundromat]

Hey Pete!,

That is hysterical!I have no clue where Connie got the recipe but it was past on to me way back in 1979.I went to visit a neighbor across from her to give them my condolences on the passing of her husband of 23 years and saw connie shoveling snow from her sidewalk.I went over and took the shovel out of her hand asking her to go make some hot coco while I finished shoveling.About an hour nd a half later,i finished and went in to sit by her wood stove and have some coco.She had made this and included a slice along with the coco.I told her it was the best pound cake I ever had so she wrote down the recipe out of her file and gave it to me.

She and Bill,her late husband had no children and sort of adopted me.I had been abused and they were like my secret garden.The original washer she had was a 1953 Westinghouse Laundromat that was built with the houses in our neighborhood.She had some issues with their small kitchen and her brother Dick and Bill,her husband did some serious readditions onto the house and replaced all the appliances with FRIGIDAIRE Custom Imperials in canary yellow in 1958.I would go up the street with my teddy bear and wagon and she'd see me and say"Hi Chucky!Are you running to everybody's house to see their washers run?" " I have some washing going now,would you like to see?" I'd get all excited and literaly run into her kitchen to watch her Three Ring Agitator do its thing and be wringing my hands and jumping for joy as she and Bill would stand there in joy to see a little boy be so overwelmed by something so simple.

In 1971,we got a call from her to have me go up and talk to her.When I arived,she had me come in covering my eyes with her hand and removing her hand so I could see all of her brand new FRIGIDAIRE appliances that replaced the original ones.The new ones(Custom Imperial again)were harvest gold and her other brother,Joe who lived down the street from me, got the same appliances she got but in coppertone.

When I got sick and was basicly a severe basket case losing tons of weight and running a constant 103C temperature,Connie would pick me up at my home and drive us to Stacey's Buffet where they had a smorgasbord and Connie would get a salad then come and pile food on a plate and make me eat at least two plates of food to try and fatten me up.she was always (and still is)there for me. Now that I live thousands of miles away,I miss her emensly and worry about her.She's a tough German though and has lived a wonderfull life.when I last spoke to her,we discust how much she loved her FRIGIDAIRE appliances especialy her washer,cooktop and wall oven.If I had to describe her physique,I'd say she looks exactly like Mrs.Trumble (even sounds like her!)from some of the later episodes of "I Love Lucy".But,she is real petite(4 ft tall)but has a heart as big as her house.I only hope that everybody here has a dear friend like mine.there are many more friends I have here and abroad but Connie and I go way,way back and have spoken thousands of times of our closeness and care.Even death.There are certain things you try not to talk about because it makes you feel uncomfortable or guilty.I can say anything in any manner to her and always feel open to be frank and honest.i have only two other friends I can say that about but they are my age not as old as she is and not as wise.God bless her!

 

[spiceman1957]

This cake sounds like

a southwest Georgia pound my mother/grandmother use to make. But you had to swift the darn flour three times (I'm not joking!) in this recipe. I really messed up the first time I made this cake by using self-rising flour. Yep, the cake boiled over in the oven..what a mess.

 

[scott55405]

What a great story. Funny how those who have no children are sometimes the ones seemingly best suited for parenthood.

Does Connie remain in good health?

 

[gyrafoam]

One would be wise to ALWAYS sift the flour used in cake recipes THREE times before measuring UNLESS the recipe says otherwise. I usually end up sifting again after the measure when adding salt/baking powder/soda, cocoa, etc. to make sure it is well blended amongst the dry ingredients.

 

[laundromat]

She has a sort of nerve dissorder and has a difficult time writing but,damn it,she still,to this day,writes and sends me different news clippings and keeps me up to date on current events in my old neighborhood.She sold the house about 10 years ago to move into a senior citizen's apartment complex. She still drives and takes care of her aunt who is younger than she is and is a quadroplegic due to diabetes.Connie makes all her meals for her and keeps her fresh and clean.She's been doing this for 35 years.She also took care of Will,her late husband who,after having a severe stroke,lost 85% control of his right side.Connie went and got him the materials to make loop rugs and he got 75%of his motor control back!He lived another 8 happy years together with her and past away in 1980.
Due to her inability to bare children,they traveled a lot and bought a nice motor home.I liked it because it had a Magic Chef (philco of Italy made) washer dryer stacked in the walkway next to the full bath.When Bill died,she sold it to my Uncle Alvin.He still has it.

I worry because she is lonely and,being 98 and alone,has her wanting to just die.She is not at all suicidal. She has just lived a full,good life and is ready to part.i didn't want her to sell her home but the maintainance she had was too much.She took the money and invested it so that the nursing home would take nothing but her Social Security check monthly.The money she made on her property goes toward her other bills.I always send her a monthly allowance? It's usualy between $75 and $100 ,depending on my commision, that month.I wasn't revealing who it was from but,after I moved,she figured it out and raised hell with me at first.in 2003,she fell and broke her hip and pelvis.That money really helped her.One day,she and I were on the phone and she asked me what made me decide to do that and I told her that it was a gift from God to her.He just uses me to pass it on.She cried and I said that her helping me when I was down and out and nobody else could even begin to fathem what torchur I was experiencing from my battle against thyroidism,she was there and did whatever she could to care for me.There is no price to claim for that kind of unconditional love.So,if the money I send her is at all usefull,so be it. So I get fewer mixers and ffun appliances to play with.Those are all temporary.They rust,they break,they get stolen or damaged and they wear out.Our friendship is genuine and will never tarnish,never rust,nobody can steal it and its free for the asking.

 

[scott55405]

Thanks for telling that great story, Laundromat. I'm glad you are so blessed as to have this lady in your life.

 

[dynaflow]

we need more of the generation of people

The young people of today cant hold a candle to the stock that they came from
I have a little lady in my life that is just as special

 

[laundromat]

Growing up when and where I did,neighbors realy knew one another.We never locked our doors and didn't dare to make any dirogitory remarks about anybody.You knew who your babysitter was.Usualy,in our family,the babysitter was our grandmother,aunt or cousins.My Mom's parents lived in our house and my g'father worked in the Chevrolet plant and my g'mother was a housewife.
Today,married couples both work to make ends meet and take the kids to daycare centers where they have no family members to love them and guide them teaching them morals,values and learning right from wrong.If we were bad,we either got sent to our room,put in a corner,slapped,spanked or all of the above.Now if you are that stricked with your kids,you're taken to court for child abuse.
Mind you,I was abused and sodimised as a child but other families weren't abusive like mine and would think nothing about slapping or spanking their children either at the mall,downtown or on the bus.
I was lucky to have friends much older than me to vent and get the "strokes' I desperately needed to assure me that life was not as bad as it may have seamed and that "this too shal pass" and there were better things ahead.

 

[spiceman1957]

Laundromat,

I'm sorry about your situation and for your friend Connie. Sometimes when I read these posts regarding recipes, I don't always look and realize that there are stories behind the food and I often overlook what's important. Without going into details, I went through the same thing myself.

 

[norgeway]

Sifting flour

I sift mine before measuring and 3 times after,and most always use cake flour, you can really tell the difference in the texture.

 

[laundromat]

Spiceman,

I am doing o.k. I just never knew I would be able to be an Hawaiin resident!!! I am a true "city boy' and now live in a 'country town' where the sidewalks are pulled in around 6PM and everybody is shut down on Sundays.If you're out of anything,you better have some backup or you're sunk.When in Florida,Costco was next door across from Target and Walmart.There was also a Wynn Dixie behind Walmart.I had a 22 cu ft upright FRIGIDAIRE frost free freezer and would be able to take advantage of WDs buy one get two free sales once a month.We never ran out of anything and had plenty of places to get away to.Here,milk is $7/gal.

 

[appnut]

bump