Kara's Sights & Bites: Search for pound cake recipe stirs up pleasant memories

By Kara Kimbrough 

   I’ve shared my love of pound cake before. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that I recently spent a few hours following the comments of members of an online food and recipe group as they helped someone search for a long-lost pound cake recipe.  One of the members was trying to recreate a specific cake made famous at Memphis-area parties decades ago. The fervency with which group members discussed their favorite pound cake recipe and the associated memories made me stop and search for a specific pound cake from my own childhood.

    I remember my grandmother making an old-fashioned pound cake with a crunchy top in an angel food pan many years ago. However, during the latter part of her life, the type of pound cake underneath the silver domed cake cover in her kitchen changed. I searched the family cookbook, but the recipe for this specific, shortcut-type pound cake was not listed. All I could recall from the recipe is that the cake was not the “old-fashioned” kind and the subtle taste of Wesson Oil (not in an overpowering way, but just part of the equation) was present.

   After searching, I located a recipe for Wesson Oil Pound Cake. I quickly gathered the ingredients and made the cake. It was moist and delicious, but like many things recreated from the past, it didn’t taste quite as good as I remembered enjoying in my grandmother’s kitchen. Maybe it was due to the fact that the silver cake dome was missing, along with the smell of coffee brewing in the silver percolator.

   Speaking of those two kitchen items…as I get older, the things I value most in life are items attached to pleasant memories of the past. I hope to someday recover the cake dome and percolator and display them in my kitchen. The monetary value and functionality of both items may be low, but the memories associated with them are priceless.

   As far as the group member’s quest for the Memphis pound cake, the exact one was never found. With Memphis on my mind, I located the recipe for Elvis’ favorite pound cake. It happens to be my favorite way to make pound cake due to the inclusion of heavy cream.

    I’ve read that Elvis would eat an entire pound cake in one sitting. I’m not one to judge because as we all know, there’s nothing on earth quite as good as a slice of hot-from-the-oven pound cake.

Wesson Oil Pound Cake

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

3 cups sugar

1/2 cup Wesson oil

5 eggs

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon lemon extract

Cream butter and sugar. Add Wesson oil, eggs (one at a time, beating after each one), flour, milk and flavorings. Pour into a greased Bundt pan and bake at 325° degrees for 1 hour to 1 hour, 10 minutes.

Elvis’ Favorite Whipping Cream Pound Cake

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened, plus additional for buttering pan

3 cups sifted cake flour (not self-rising; sift before measuring) plus additional for dusting

¾ teaspoon kosher salt

3 cup sugar

7 large eggs, at room temperature for 30 minutes

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup heavy cream

    Put oven rack in middle position, but do not preheat oven. Generously butter pan and dust with flour, knocking out excess flour. Sift 3 cups sifted cake flour and ¾ teaspoon salt into a medium bowl. Repeat sifting into another medium bowl.

    Beat together 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened and 3 cups sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 5 minutes. (If using a stand mixer, use paddle attachment. If using hand mixer, beat 6 to 8 minutes).

    Add 7 large eggs, 1 egg at a time, beating well after each addition, then beat in 2 teaspoons vanilla. Reduce to low speed and add half of flour mixture, then 1 cup heavy cream, then remaining flour mixture, mixing well after each addition. Scrape down sides of the bowl, then beat at medium-high speed 5 minutes

     Spoon batter into prepared pan. Place pan in cold oven and turn oven temperature to 350 degrees. Bake until golden and a wooden pick or skewer inserted in middle of cake comes out with a few crumbs adhering, 60–75 minutes. Cool cake in pan on a rack 30 minutes. Run a thin knife around inner and outer edges of cake, then invert rack over pan and invert cake onto rack to cool completely.

Kara Kimbrough is a food and travel writer from Mississippi. Email her at [email protected].