I made an Uncle Bubba* Pound Cake exorcising a bad memory. Who ever heard of good hospital food? Well maybe my hubby, he never wanted me to bring in food for him after he started chowing down following his hernia operation. Even worse, when Olivia was born he ate up all of Leilah’s hospital meals[!!!] – I swear he went up to the hospital to eat. Meanwhile I kept running home and cooking and taking edible food to the hospital for our daughter.
I was displeased with hospital food right from the beginning – as a kid every hospital stay made me sicker. That’s because I refused to eat. But wait… there was that pound cake at the Péterfy Sándor Utcai Kórház. All right, I was warned to eat the soup first, but I gagged on it so I started on the cake instead. Then Nurse Ratched comes over and pours the soup over my cake! All these years I never made a pound cake… whoever said there was no food therapy?
UNCLE BUBBA POUND CAKE
1/2 cup butter, softened
3 cups sugar
5 eggs
3 cups flour [must be all purpose]
1 cup milk
2 tsp lemon extract
• Note: Do not accidentally grab “self-rising” flour out of your cabinet. Only use “all purpose” flour.
• Preheat the oven to 325F.
• Fully line a 10-inch tube pan with parchment paper.
• Spray the center tube with cooking spray.
• In a large bowl, using a mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
• Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
• Add the flour and milk alternately, beginning and ending with the flour.
• Stir in the lemon extract.
• Spoon the batter into the prepared pan.
• Place in oven and bake at 325F for 1 hour.
• Increase the temperature to 350F and bake for 30 minutes more.
• Do not open the oven door while baking.
• After 30 minutes, insert a toothpick into the center of the cake to see if it comes out clean. If it doesn’t, continue baking at 350F until the toothpick comes out clean.
• Place the cake on a wire rack to cool down completely.
• Run a blunt knife around the middle and gently remove cake.
• To serve, cut a slice and sprinkle it with icing sugar.
• Nice with sliced strawberries or drizzled with strawberry coulis.
