The Saga of a Cake

As I was growing up, we would visit my mother's family in North Carolina and part of the summer ritual was Aunt Lalah's Sour Cream Pound Cake. One day when I was living in Denver, Aunt Lalah came to visit and I asked her to make me a sour cream pound cake. She did ~ and at that altitude, it fell. This amazing North Carolinian cook was Devastated. And I never tried it again but I always kept the recipe close at hand. Then I moved to Tahoe and was once again living at altitude so when visiting daughter Michelle in Oregon, I asked her to make me a sour cream pound cake. This is how it turned out ~ and it tasted just as good as it looked and as good as I remembered. 

In Tahoe I have a neighbor who is a culinary schooled pastry chef, so I asked him what I might do to make this cake at altitude. I tried his suggestion and the cake tasted really good and . . . it crumbled coming ut of the pan. 

Oops. But it tasted good ~ what to do? 

I had lots of fresh fruit so I made a fruit bread pudding ~

with rum sauce (another story). 

Delicious, moist and truly wonderful. But I still hadn't accomplished making

the sour cream pound cake at altitude.

"Give it another try", suggested my bakery chef friend, "only this time make

no adjustments to your original recipe. And bake in loaf pans instead of the bundt 

pan the recipe calls for."

Ta-dah!! Perfect!! No falling, no crumbling. Just wonderful,

delicious, as I remember it pound cake. Slices tasted so good under

strawberries, ice cream and whipped cream on the deck with

grandsons. 

It was with joy and sadness that we celebrated Kyle's leaving us after five years in Tahoe that started with his living 9 months in our guest room ~ and the fun of welcoming his brother Carter who has been in Tahoe all summer and is staying around. Although not living with us, we look forward to seeing him occasionally for more dinners on the deck and some skiing with Grandpa over the winter. We love you guys and I am so glad the sour cream pound cake was a success just in time for the start of new journeys for you both!