Recipe: Cream Cheese Pound Cake

This delectable pound cake makes a fabulous strawberry shortcake. This is now my cake of choice for my birthday. (None of my pictures turned out, sorry!)

Cream Cheese Pound Cake

Ingredients
1-1/2 c. butter, room temperature
8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
3 c. white sugar
1 t. vanilla extract + 1 t. almond extract (or 2 t. vanilla)
6 eggs, room temperature
3 c. cake flour (1 c. cake flour = 1 c. all-purpose flour less 2 T.)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease one 10-inch tube pan or bundt pan.
2. Cream together the butter, cream cheese, and sugar until light. Stir in the vanilla and the almond extracts. Add the eggs one by one, beating well after each addition, scraping down the sides. Add flour slowly just until mixed well. Pour batter into the prepared pan.
3. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Do not overbake.

Cook’s Note: By creaming the butter and sugar and eggs, air becomes trapped in the batter, eliminating the need for modern leaving agents (baking soda or powder). This is not for the faint-hearted, but it is WELL worth the effort. The texture is so fine and tasty that you won't mind the extra work. If you are going to be eating this pound cake with frosting, ice cream, strawberry glaze, or whipped cream, you may want to only use 2-1/2 cups sugar. A traditional American pound cake would contain one pound each of flour, butter, eggs, and sugar.

Strawberry Glaze
by Alana Lee

Ingredients
1 c. water
3 T. lemon juice
1 c. sugar
3 T. cornstarch
1 c. strawberries, smashed
2-4 c. strawberries

Combine the cold water, lemon juice, sugar, cornstarch in a saucepan. Add smashed strawberries. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and cool. Add a few cups strawberries to the cooled glaze, as desired. Divine on pound cake with or without whipped cream!

Recipe: Daisy Coffee Cake

Helen Wride's Apricot Daisy Coffee Cake (Stollen)

Ingredients:
1 package yeast (1 tablespoon)
1/4 cup warm water
1/2 cup milk, scalded
1/4 cup butter
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 to 3 1/2 cups flour, sifted
2 eggs, beaten

Jam Topping:
apricot jam
1 cup powdered sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons milk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla


Directions:
Combine yeast and water. Let proof. In a large bowl, combine milk, butter, sugar and salt; cool to lukewarm. Add 1 cup flour and beat well. Stir in yeast mixture and eggs. Add enough flour to make a moderately stiff dough. Turn onto floured counter top and knead until satiny (8 to 10 minutes) or use dough hook in bosh 3 minutes. Transfer to a well-oiled bowl. Cover with a pizza pan or plastic and let rise until double. Punch down and let rest 10 minutes.

To form the daisy, roll dough into a 14-inch circle. Transfer the circle to a greased cookie sheet. Place a glass in the center, top down. Cut circle into 4 sections just to the glass. Cut each section into 5 strips. Criscross 2 strips together and pinch to seal ends. Remove glass and coil one criscross strip in the center where the glass was. Continue to make criscross strips, pinch to seal the ends and arrange loosely around the center coil. When it is done it looks like a bouquet of daisys. Let the daisy rise some, then bake at 350°F for 25 minutes, until golden.

While still warm, spread jam in center of each daisy. Drizzle with confectioner's icing made from powdered sugar, milk and vanilla.

Cooks note: This sounds complicated, and it does take a little creativity, but it tastes delicious. Helen brought this recipe with her to Ohio and made it for our family during one of her visits. We loved it!

Just make sure the criscross strips are coiled around the center coil. I think that is how it looks, a center coil and other coils around the center one. Then when you spread the apricot jam it goes on each little coil.

Recipe: Waldorf Astoria Red Velvet Cake

Waldorf Astoria Red Velvet Cake
Recipe from my Grandmother, Helen Wride

Ingredients:
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 ounce bottle red food color
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups sifted cake flour
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

Directions:
Cream shortening, sugar and eggs. Combine cocoa and food coloring and add to the creamed mixture. Add the salt and vanilla. Add buttermilk alternately with the flour. Mix the vinegar and soda together and fold gently into batter. Do not beat! Spread evenly in 9 x 13 inch prepared baking pan, or 3 9-inch layer pans or two 10-inch square pans. Bake at 350°F for 35 – 40 minutes (9 x 13 inch pan) or 25 – 30 minutes for layers.