My Special Birthday Cake

My mom was not a fantastic cook. She had a couple of specialties, but we ate a lot that came from jars, boxes and cans. She was, however, a fantastic baker. She made the best M & M cookies around. She made wonderful oatmeal cookies. She even made me snickerdoodles after I discovered them at my friend Alice's house. My favorite thing that she made, though, was a Sour Cream Pound Cake.

Me with my Mom and Dad

This was definitely our go-to cake in my house. Don't get me wrong, She made great "regular" cakes. She was even great at decorating them. She took a class when I was young, so I always had pretty cakes, but my favorite was the Sour Cream Pound Cake. It wasn't pretty by "birthday cake" standards, but boy was it good.

When I got old enough to pick my cake, that's what I asked for. When I moved to Tennessee and she came to visit, that's what I asked for. It just became understood that if she was here for my birthday, she was making me a cake.

Momma went to heaven 11 years ago. I miss her every single day of my life. There is so much that I want to tell her. And on my birthday, I miss her more than ever. For the past several years, I have taken the time to make myself my mom's cake. It makes me feel close to her.

Our Family Cookbook

When I was young, Mom's family did a family cookbook and her cake was one of the things she submitted. That book is one of my most prized possessions. It was bound with those plastic binder things and my mom melted it years ago. Typical mom stuff! (One day I will tell you about when she set the kitchen on fire because the oven turned on and the chips that she stored in the oven started burning.) Anyway, I keep the book in a ziplock bag, but you can see from the picture how worn and loved it is.

READ THIS - Mom has a typo in this recipe. It should be 325 degrees, not 300. Other than that, it is just perfect. This recipe calls for more vanilla and almond extract than other recipes that I have seen before, but I love it just as written. I wouldn't change anything at all, except I always use butter not "oleo."

I made my cake yesterday and it was delicious. I didn't let it cool long enough and it broke a little coming out of the pan. That just means that you can start snacking on it right away and you don't have to wait till a meal for dessert! Happy birthday to me!!

Warm out of the oven!

Thanks for asking for the recipe! I'm sure it would make my mom happy that it is being shared.

Till next time,

Frances