Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Everybody Needs Some Chocolate Pound Cake Lovin'!

Hello, everybody!

  Well, Fall has arrived and I have a NEED for pound cake. Don't laugh. I know you know what I mean! Cold weather hits and I suddenly need to pack on pounds through pound cake. It doesn't matter if I have no need of more pounds! Luckily, I have lots of hungry people roaming through my house so I can make it and get a nibble (hopefully) before it's gone.

Now, I usually make the normal orange or lemon or vanilla pound cake. But I found a recipe for chocolate. SO! You know the drill...

3 c flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cocoa powder
1 c butter
1/2 c vegetable shortening
3 cups sugar
5 large eggs
1 c milk
2 tsp vanilla extract

 Here is a little picture of some of the ingredients. Notice there is no dish of artfully displayed SHORTENING. Nobody wants to see that. We're going to pretend it's not there... until we need it.
 My new pyrex bowl with sugar in it! Is there nothing better???
Preheat oven to 350F and grease a ten inch tube/flute/bundt pan.
 Edna is giving Edward advice on how much butter to put it. Yes, I see that it's four sticks and not two. Edna likes to double the recipes so she's sure everyone will get a slice... or two. That Edna! I blame her for the way my pants fit (or don't fit).
 Cream the butter, shortening (it's in there!), and sugar until fluffy.
 While Edna does her "thang", sift the flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa together 3 times. It's magic. Not two and not four or it won't work!
Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Add the flour mixture and the milk, alternating until it's all gone. Add the vanilla.
 Mmmmmm. FLUFFY DELICIOUS GOODNESS!!!
 And then tragedy struck! I was wiping down Edna (she was hot and sweaty and covered with batter) when suddenly her head came off!

 I screamed, "EDNA!!!!!" All my children came running.

There was much weeping and gnashing of teeth. The toddlers covered their eyes. The older kids covered their mouths. It was gruesome.

And I heard a little giggle.

Apparently, Edna's head can be removed from her body and she never told me this. She can be used as a hand mixer... if you're able to hoist 14 pounds of machinery in one hand and hold it at chest level for ten minutes at a time.

So, I found the little black switch I'd hit accidentally and reattached her noggin. Very odd. (Don't tell her I said that. I don't want to hurt her feelings.) My family was very relieved that Edna was going to be okay!!!
 So, here is the chocolate pound cake, hot from the oven. I have no idea why some of that tasty, crunchy top is missing.
 I heated up some dark chocolate ice cream topping and dripped it over the top. Hm. not sure about that. but the kids loved it.
And it seemed like it needed some bananas and some strawberry syrup... and it was a banana split pound cake! Yeehaw! Take that, top button on my jeans!

 Ok, I'm off to wrangle another deadline. I finished my newest historical and it's up here. It was just in time for the first in the series to go free. 65 thousand downloads and #3 in the free list made me very happy! If you go click, it just MIGHT BE FREE TODAY! Not promising anything, because you know how Amazon likes to punk us when we're promoting books. But I'm pretty sure, that just for today, it will be free. :D

Anyway, as I said, now it's back to reality and another project.
At least I have chocolate pound cake for energy.

 Until next week!!

21 comments:

  1. Here I thought the reason Matilda's noggin came off was for ease of cleaning. She was holding out on me! Tell Edna thanks for the info :) That pound cake looks amazing!

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  2. hmm that hand mixer would be a great arm workout! good thing her head didn't fall off when she was still mixing..that would've been exciting!

    cake..sigh...

    Susanna

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    1. I mean, I'm assuming it's to be used as a hand mixer. Why else would it come off the stand? And it is HEAVY!!

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  3. Oh my goodness, you gave me heart failure! And it wasn't the chocolate induced kind. Thunk! I thought you had actually posted a picture of...well, I can't dwell on it. Just know that I screamed "Edna!" as loud as you did. I'm feeling very weak and light-headed now. Naughty Edna playing a sick joke like that on you and she had the audacity to giggle. Humph! But I'm glad she's okay. Not sure my heart will be though. :-0

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    1. You know what's really awful?? Don't tell Edna, but I'd seen a KitchenAid mixer on sale. It had all the attachments and a great big bowl. Edna weighs a lot but for big jobs sometimes I have to break things up into two batches. Well, I had just MENTIONED THAT to my daughter right before Edna's head came off!! I thought she had given up living because of the KitchenAid comment!

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  4. Oh my stars, we had a Mixmaster and Lacey (beautiful daughter-in-law who manages to deal with our insanity) and I knew that about them, and yeah it's like gazillion pounds to hold... but what a surprise for Edna, a bit of a fright for all! And yet, a lesson learned.

    Hey, that gorgeous book is STILL FREE but I'm waiting to pay for it fair and square so keep us posted if I forget to look and no, do not lecture me about overstaying a book's welcome, we;re writer/cooks, we talk books and cook in our little Kindle (Notice I changed the name, recognizing the obvious). :)

    I love chocolate cake. I just had a veggie omelette which I shared with Brody and Joss. Meg said, (lip curled) "No, thank you." Mary ate two corn muffin English muffins and she's a SKINNY THREE YEAR OLD. Life is not fair when it comes to carbs.

    I'm just sayin'.

    Kav, if you need CPR, call me. I'm closest. At least someone will hear you breathe your last breaths, darling!!!! :)

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    1. LOL, Ruthy! I'll be sure to drop you an e-mail when it goes back to the fat ol' price of 2.99! With a second in the series, I would wait a little longer before the free run but we're headed out of town and I need to be able to watch the numbers. Why? No idea. I have no control over them. But I can't see a thing on this 'smart phone' so I'm going to run it now, instead of in two weeks.
      I am LOVING my new editor, though. She not only catches all the junk, but she writes little hilarious notes on the side. My favorite from this book?
      "Margaret closed her eyes and fought to focus." Her comment: How about 'fought to concentrate'? If she's really trying to focus, I want to tell her, "Open your eyes, Margaret! Open your eyes!!"

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    2. ROF, LOL, I love that!!!! I like editors with humor. Laughing in upstate!

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  5. LOL!!! I'm sorry, but I'm dying laughing. You have an amazing gift for telling a humorous story, Virginia. :)

    So glad all turned out well! Who knew Edna would turn out to be a gadabout!

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  6. Oh, wow. Chocolate pound cake. Oh wow.

    I need to make this. I mean, really. I need to. But I'm going to take your hint and wait until many minions are around to help....

    And I grew up with Sunbeam Mixmasters, and had one for the first 20 years of my marriage. I've tried using it as a handheld mixer...once...when I was young...and strong from wrangling toddlers all day. It was exhausting.

    But I wonder what other secrets Edna has hidden.....

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  7. Love the vintage bowl you are baking with. I bet your kids love when it's time to bake for Yankee Belle. Yours are so pretty!!!

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    1. Did you see that week's post? I was at a friend's house and this was her DOG DISH! I almost passed out! She very sweetly ignored by rude comments and gave me the bowl. Probably to shut me up, but still.... SCORE.

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    2. Old Pyrex retro dishes are displayed in retro "kitchen" settings in our little antique co-ops up here. And it's so funny, because it's all kind of "Pleasantville" era, and white and pastel.... But I feel like it's a movie set!

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  8. Ooo, I must try this. We love everything chocolate around here, so this pound cake should fit in nicely. YUM!

    That Edna is such a card. She definitely scared the fire out of me.

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    1. Me, too!

      And I think it needed a little more chocolate. Or something. Not sure. Maybe I'm not used to chocolate pound cake but it seems not as chocolatey as I'd hoped. I think next time I'll use more cocoa.

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  9. I'm with Missy, I had to take a bathroom break at Edna's "death"! I thought she was taking a bow at all she had just accomplished but then I scrolled up and saw all the grief and carrying on. I knew she would be okay though, my mom had one just like her....

    Piper

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  10. I had no idea, Piper!! I really thought I'd killed her off. My thoughts? "Right. This mixer has survived 60 years and I'm the one to break it!" Sooooo glad she's still kicking!

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  11. I've really gotten into old pyrex - am I the only one who clicked the pick to enlarge JUST to see which pyrex bowl it was?! :-)

    I think the mixer scene needs to go in a book - some heroine tries to bake her dead grandma's cookie recipe with her granny's old mixer (like edna) and it falls off and she jumps back shrieking and hunky commando hero catchers her AND manages to know the mixer comes off like that! and with his bulging muscle he demos how it can be used as a hand mixer..sigh...

    Susanna

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