Pound Cake Withdrawal

I could sure go for a piece of pound cake right now. And not just any pound cake, my mother's homemade Sour Cream Pound Cake. Her mother taught her to make it and she passed the recipe down to me. In fact, during my primitive years I was the designated cake maker. You see we'd get requests, or orders, from family members for cakes. Not slices, mind you, but entire cakes. We'd make one for Granddaddy, one for Deb, Carrie, Mr. Steve, Auntie and so on. I'd spend hours mixing the batter for each one. I'd beat the wet ingredients first: butter, eggs, sour cream, vanilla. Then, I'd add the dry ones: flour, sugar. Me and the mixer would whip it good until the formula was just right. Ma would flour the pan and prep the other side dishes i.e. dressing, ham, collards.

Anyway, there is a reason people want an entire cake to themselves. It's irresistible - light, fluffy, moist and creamy all at the same time. I arrived in S. Florida on Wednesday night (Thanksgiving Eve) and started eating slices of that cake approximately every 4 to 6 hours, sometimes less. You'd think I was suffering from some ailment and was prescribed Sour Cream Pound cake as a remedy. That's just how diligent I was about eating it up until my departure Monday night.

I know it was wrong, I even know just how much sugar, butter and sour cream goes into each one, but it didn't matter. Who cares that I'd been torturing myself with sunrise workouts for the last month. It was all worth it. That cake is nostalgia in my mouth and satisfaction for my soul.

I can't remember when I'd had it last. I haven't been home for Thanksgiving since my first year of college. And a LOT has changed. My elementary school has been razed and replaced with a new massively modern structure. The mail carrier in the all black neighborhood where I was raised is Latino (and the neighborhood is following suit), the movie theatre has been replaced by a gigantic Kohl's department store, my baby cousins have babies now, Grandadddy, Auntie and numerous others are no longer here to celebrate Thanksgiving with us anymore or to place cake orders.

Even I've changed. I'm no longer a pensive coed, I'm a wife and mother now.
But the cake remains the same. Maybe that's why it was so good.