It's "Let's Bake a Cake" Day

And I have THE book for finding THE perfect recipe.


I was up very late last night.  I was reading an advance copy of Ruth Reichl's "Save Me the Plums: My Gourmet Memoir."


I love every word Ruth Reichl has ever written and reading her stories about her time with Gourmet Magazine is sublime.  


I was a Gourmet fanatic for many years and saved several year's worth of magazines until it was just ridiculous to continue.


It was hard to toss them all, but toss them I did.  


But only after tearing our many, many, many articles and recipes.


One article was saved for a lot of years until that particular dream came true.


It was about Greece.  And it mentioned a jeweler and a tiny shop which could be found on an out of the way side street in Athens.


(I think I'll save that story for another day . . . )


Suffice to say, I did finally get to Greece and I did find the little shop and I did buy a little something and I will treasure it forever - the trip, the experience AND the piece I brought home.


Back to Ruth Reichl . . . 


As my eyes started telling me it was way past my bedtime last night I realized I was starving.  You cannot read too much written by Ruth Reichl without wanting to eat.


At 3 a.m. I was prowling about the house eating pecans and looking for my old Best of Gourmet cookbooks, which refused to show themselves.


But I did find Bibb Jordan's "The Pound Cake Cookbook."


I adore this little cookbook!

If you've been reading Meanderings and Muses for awhile, chances are you've seen some recipes I've posted here.


I "almost" pulled out a Bundt pan at 3:20 a.m., but realized that was just a dumb idea - only because I'd probably fall asleep while the cake was in the oven and, at the very least, burn the cake to the cinder, if not the house.


So.


I got up this morning (okay, I admit - late morning) with  a plan.  

A plan which was tempered by the fact that every recipe that appealed to me asked for something that was not here, and me getting in the car, leaving the house, driving 10 miles to the grocery store, was not in today's cards.  No. 


Not going to happen. 


So I found a recipe that didn't ask for much, but which I knew would be delicious.  It's Bibb Jordan, after all.


I had eggs, I had sugar, flour, butter and an unopened bottle of orange extract.  


Perfect!


Susan's Orange Pound Cake is cooling as we speak.





While it's cooling - here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

3 sticks of butter (room temperature)
2 cups of sugar
6 large eggs (room temperature)
3 cups of sifted flour
2 Tbsps. orange extract (1 fluid ounce jar)


Instructions:

Butter and flour a 10 inch tube pan.
Cream together butter and sugar.
Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Add flour gradually.
Add orange extract.
Pour batter into prepared pan.
Place cake into a COLD oven.
Set temperature at 325 and bake for an hour and 15 minutes.
Allow the cake to cool in the pan on a wire rack for about 15-20 minutes.
Turn cake out onto the wire rack and allow to cool.


If, you're like me and Donald, you won't be able to let it cool for long . . . 

Ummmm, ummm - Enjoy!


And now I'm going back to finish reading my new Ruth Reichl book!


Here's wishing you something good to read, AND eat!