Who can resist an old-fashioned Southern cake laden with butter, sugar, and cream? asked Charles Perry in the Los Angeles Times. Personally, I seldom eat desserts, and when I do, I prefer pie. But Nancie McDermott “has made a convert of me.” The author of a half-dozen Southeast Asian cookbooks, she recently returned home to North Carolina after a long absence. Getting
back to her roots meant, in particular, getting back to Southern baking. Her latest cookbook, Southern Cakes (Chronicle), is a collection of 64 recipes for everything from the classic Lady Baltimore to the quirky tomato soup cake. McDermott’s version of Brown Sugar Poundcake is simply amazing.
Recipe of the week
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Brown Sugar Poundcake With Caramel Glaze
Cake
3 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
1-1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter, softened, plus additional for greasing the pan
1 (1 lb) box dark brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
5 eggs
Heat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour 10-inch tube pan. In mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt; stir with fork; set aside. Into small bowl, pour milk and add vanilla; set aside.
With mixer, beat butter at high speed until light and fluffy. Add brown sugar
in three batches, then all the white sugar, beating after each addition. Add eggs one by one, beating well after each addition. Reduce speed to low, add half the flour mixture, then half the milk, beating until flour and milk have disappeared into batter. Add rest of flour and rest of milk in same way. Quickly scrape batter into tube pan; bake until cake is nicely browned at edges, springs back when lightly touched at center, and wooden skewer inserted into center comes out clean, about 1 hour and 10 minutes.
Remove pan from oven and leave on wire rack for 20 to 30 minutes. Loosen
cake from pan with table knife and turn onto wire rack or plate, then leave it to cool completely. When cool, glaze with caramel glaze.
Caramel glaze
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup evaporated milk
4 cups sifted powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
In large saucepan, place butter and brown sugar over medium heat. Stir until butter melts and blends with brown sugar to smooth sauce, 2–3 minutes.
Add milk and let icing come to gentle boil. Stir well, remove from heat, add
powdered sugar and vanilla. Beat well with mixer, whisk, or spoon until glaze thickens and loses a little of its shine, 1–2 minutes. Use at once. If glaze hardens, stir in 1–2 spoonfuls of evaporated milk to soften it. Serves 10 to 12.
