Old Fashioned Simplicity

My great-grand mother, Ossie Mae Snellgrove, whom we referred to as "Big Mama," was known far and wide for her pound cakes. I grew up with pound cakes cooling on the kitchen counter of both Big Mama and my Grandmother, Nana's kitchen my whole life. It's by far my favorite cake in all the world. And although I have been baking my own delicious versions of the family staple, I only recently took the time to realize just how easy they are to make. When I see all the packaged cakes and cookies in the stores I honestly don't understand why anyone would bother when it's not that difficult to make something so simply delicious and beautiful from scratch. It takes close to a pound of each of 6 ingredients that you most likely have on hand.  So here goes...

Take 3 sticks of butter and an 8 oz. block of cream cheese and cream in your mixer until well combined. Add 3 cups of sugar, mixing well after each addition. Crack 6 eggs into the running mixer and combine completely. Slowly add 3 cups of sifted flour and mix well. Add 2 tsp of vanilla. Scrape off the beater from your mixer with a spoon. Hand the beater to your kids to finish cleaning.

Scrape the batter into a greased and floured tube pan. (Or you can spray the pan with Baker's Joy. What an amazing invention!) Then lick the spoon if you can manage without your kids seeing you. Put it in a preheated oven (325 degrees) for roughly 1 1/2 hours checking after an hour to keep it from over baking.

Take it out of the oven and allow it to cool completely on a wire rack. Serve it with berries, ice cream, chocolate sauce or just with a napkin and a glass of milk as you walk out the door. And never look back!