Category Archives: pound cake

blogging, Christmas, Christmas Memories, classic movies, Crockpot Cooking, December, dessert, family, hardware store, Hardware Store Life, Holiday Baking, holiday cooking, Home, Hometown Holidays, Life experiences, Life In Wilkes, memories, old hardware stores, old school hardware store, pound cake, recipe, Shop Local, soup, southern cooking, Southern food, southern living, stew

Hometown Holidays, The “Old School Tradition” of Homemade Holidays-Blog Post 4

Leave a comment

Statistics show that a resurgence of baking takes place between Thanksgiving and New Year’s holidays. Over 73% of folks get excited about getting into the kitchen to either prepare meals for their family holiday meals or BAKE the holidays away. Speaking from personal experience, I do have a relative who begins baking cookies right after the Thanksgiving holiday concludes and he bakes cookies the entire month of December! He generously shares with his mailman, delivery drivers, friends, family, etc.

An “old school tradition”, homemade holidays.. sharing with neighbors and even the postal carrier

A trip into the grocery store will confirm these earlier facts… finding stacks of baking supplies which are definitely impulse purchases waiting for those who experience the urge for a making a sweet treat during Christmas.

Yes, there are a few holiday traditional foods that I always enjoy making each year. As you read this you are probably making a mental checklist as well, maybe even your finalizing the grocery shopping list to get started with your homemade holiday. I hope you enjoy this glimpse into a homemade holiday season. Happy Homemade Holidays!!!

Baking for the holidays for gift giving purposes is an “old school” tradition of Christmas. In our Agricultural rooted traditions, folks harvested their abundance, and at Christmas offering a time to share in holiday joy by sharing a homemade treats with friends and neighbors.

Cakes are often shared around the table over Christmas, if you haven’t read this previous blog: Pound Cake, A Southern Staple

Even in 2024, I must admit, nothing is better than homemade for the holidays. I feel very honored to receive the homemade gifts that we have been given. These are homemade gifts took a considerable amount of time and effort for the gift to be completed prior to giving. That can’t be purchased online either!

The gift of homemade can be found inside Wilkes County Hardware!

I know that I don’t necessarily fit neatly into that category of homemade gift giving, but there are other ways we can observe the “old school” tradition of homemade holidays.

Gathering together around the table to “break bread” and celebrate the season with those traditional homemade holiday foods that we all know and love can make our time together memorable. All pitching in…sharing the load of preparing the family favorite foods, what could be better!!!

And yes, I’ll say we had the best biscuits on the holiday table when we gathered at Granny’s house on Christmas Eve. Those little buttery, golden treats, literally melting in my mouth and warming my full stomach into a blissful holiday slumber as we awaited Santa’s arrival made for some delicious homemade memories of Christmas that I still recall fondly.

Granny used an old, vintage metal dishpan smaller than this one to make her homemade biscuits. I used to sit and watch her make them. She would create a “well” in the middle for the milk after she worked the shortening into the flour. Granny did this effortlessly every single time. I’m thankful that she taught me how to recreate them. I don’t think mine are quite as tasty as Granny’s were. Wilkes County Hardware offers these dishpans for sale year round.
Apple Butter and a biscuit… homemade goodness!
Or honey and a pat of butter???

The homemade holiday… Offering all, a time to reconnect, laugh, share the joy of the holiday. Traditional homemade holiday meals AND desserts bring a sense of nostalgia, comfort and belonging to those gathered together, a sense of HOME.

Gingerbread buttercream! Oh my!!! (See recipe below)

Looking back, the first time I ever gathered with Richard’s family at Christmas, their homemade holiday looked slightly different from what I experienced growing up. His grandmother made fresh coconut cake every single year as well as Ambrosia. Let’s just say, she loved coconut and fresh oranges for the homemade holidays.

Fresh oranges 🍊 an “old school” homemade holiday tradition. Oranges were a staple treat found inside Christmas stockings for many years. Fresh orange slices were always on the Christmas breakfast table at home. I always looked forward to Christmas breakfast with my family, featuring…fresh biscuits, country ham, and fresh orange slices

Besides the love of oranges, one other shared homemade food that Richard and I both enjoyed each Christmas, Sausage Balls. I still make them every year around the holidays to honor our combined family homemade holiday traditions.

Christmas mornings are made for these yummy treats! Benjamin now helps me make these each time as a tradition that we started many years ago when he was younger.

And let’s not forget about those great snacking foods and warm cozy drinks! Chex Party Mix takes me back to the Christmas memories of my parents making the mix in the kitchen, while my sister and I were busy eating the Chex Mix at the table as they finished it up. I also love the white chocolate version with M&M’s.

Whatever you may call this version of heavenly Chex Mix… Reindeer Food, Christmas Chex… it’s a definite keeper for Christmas (recipe below)
Sipping on a hot mug of mulling spices, Russian Tea, or a cup of hot cocoa overflowing with melting marshmallows, all the while munching on a homemade holiday cookie, Christmas homemade holidays are definitely underway.

New memories can made each year around all these shared homemade meals or treats. Homemade holidays, such as Thanksgiving and Christmas are the perfect opportunity to get back into the kitchen and celebrate the holiday with a bit of homemade goodness. And the opportunity for Christmas nostalgia reigns supreme as we reconnect with these special homemade holidays memories. Happy Homemade Holidays!

Essential ingredient for Gingerbread Buttercream (see below)

Gingerbread Buttercream

Recipe Ingredients (perfect for 13×9 cake pan) Please double recipe for a layer cake.

1/2 unsalted butter (softened)

2 1/2 c confectioners sugar

1/4 t ground ginger

1/8 t ground cinnamon

1/8 t ground cloves

1 t vanilla

1 T molasses

3 T maple syrup

2 T Heavy cream

Step by Step Process for success:

  1. Place softened butter and sugar into mixer and beat until blended.
  2. Add all other ingredients and beat on high for 3 minutes, stopping to scrape sides, blend until smooth, light, fluffy buttercream texture forms.
  3. Icing cake after cooling down completely and enjoy!

Reindeer Food

Key ingredients: (add what you love, this what I put into my Reindeer Food)

Rice or corn Chex (one box)

Cheerios (half box)

Pretzels (half bag)

M&M’s (one bag or more of Christmas colors)

Confectioners Sugar

White Chocolate Chips (2 bags- melted)

Mix all ingredients together (excluding M&M’s) in a very large bowl while white chocolate chips are melting. Pour the mixture onto sheet pans covered with parchment paper (prevent sticking) and adding M&M’s into mixture. Pour melted white chocolate evenly over the cereal mixture, allow to cool. I melted my white chocolate chips in microwave in glass bowl and added a small amount of vegetable oil and stir well until melted. Sprinkle confectioners sugar over top of Reindeer Food.

Christmas is a fantastic time to watch an old movie…. Start a new homemade tradition with this recipe: Hearty Slumgullion Stew: From a recipe adapted from the Classic Christmas movie, It Happened on 5th Avenue (1947)

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year
dessert, Hardware Store Life, Home, June, pound cake, southern cooking, southern living, Summer

Pound Cake, A Southern Staple

7 Comments

Southern Living 101:

Front porch swings, and rocking chairs with a slight breeze blowing.. can’t you smell the fried chicken cooking inside, the aroma of homemade biscuits, a glass of sweet tea in hand or a cup of fresh squeezed lemonade and let’s add a warm slice of pound cake…. Just another Southern Summer loading in 2023.

WCH Recommends: These 2 Rocking chairs are an amazing way to rock the summer away and enjoy the breeze.

My Thoughts about Southern Pound Cake:

1. Pound cake can probably be found at family celebrations & holiday gatherings especially if they are potluck type gatherings.

2. You will always find at least one pound cake at church picnics or potlucks in the South… after all, it’s an essential Southern staple!

3. Pound cakes are a central part of any good dessert table.

4. Pound cakes are either a grand mystery of baking to some and to others.. well, they seem to navigate any pound cake recipe like a pro.

5. Pound Cakes can be baked different pans… Bundt, loaf pan, or a tube pan AND Most Southern cooks have a definite preference on which they use regularly to bake a pound cake.

WCH Recommends: Tube pans and cast iron loaf pans are great baking standard pans for baking all goodies this summer.

A Trip Back Into Time Regarding Pound Cake:

Pound cake is exactly what you think it is. It’s a fairly simplistic looking dessert. The origin is quite literally what it sounds like… the first pound cakes were made with one pound of flour, eggs, butter, and sugar! In today’s recipe equivalent… 3 1/3 cups of flour, 8-9 eggs, 4 sticks of butter and 2 cups of sugar. When you begin to think about that, most traditional pound cake ratios are slightly different today!

My favorite Pound cake recipe uses 6 large eggs

I didn’t realize until recently, that the first recipe for pound cake appeared in 1796 in the American Cookery Cookbook and Pound Cake Recipe was rooted in Northern European cuisine… Europeans measurements were by weight, hence, a pound of butter, flour, sugar. I couldn’t even begin to imagine how to stir and create a fluffy pound of butter with only using a wooden spoon😳!

Strange Things about Pound Cake:

Personally, the strangest reaction I ever witnessed about a freshly baked pound cake, I encountered a few years ago. I had made a pound cake to share with the staff at the hardware store and as we prepared to slice the cake, a former employee shouted out, “let me go find some honey or molasses to go with the cake to cut the dryness of the pound cake”. I was stunned. What on earth was this person’s perspective concerning pound cake??? I realized that they had potentially NEVER eaten a pound cake that wasn’t dry. To never have eaten an amazing piece of pound cake… moist on the inside yet with a crust on the outside.

Comfort Food 101:

Comfort Foods tend to be hearty, homey, and let’s just face it, good for your soul. The mental boost that your favorite comfort food creates, can restore your equilibrium.

As far as dessert goes, Cream Cheese Pound Cake is a family favorite comfort food. My Mom regularly makes this one for us when we visit, so frequently that my niece named Mom’s pound cake, “Nanny Cake”. The name has stuck. We all call Mom’s Cream Cheese Pound Cake, “Nanny Cake.” Now that’s truly Comfort Food 101!

My Personal Tips for Baking A Pound Cake:

1. Grease pan with Crisco /flour dusting mixture instead of using a baking spray. I have never had a great success with using a baking spray. For making a chocolate pound cake, dust with a mixture of flour and cocoa powder.

2. I always preheat my oven… before I begin to mix ingredients. One of my cake cookbooks recommends that you preheat 30 minutes before baking. This allows your oven to fully come up to temperature and allows for even baking of cake layers… I would bet that would extent to a pound cake as well! (Note: Some pound cake recipes are cold oven pound cakes and you are asked to not preheat oven)

3. Use the oven light and your nose! If it smells like it is almost done then it probably is … the oven light keeps you from peeking inside and provides a nice visual . Each time you open the oven door your temperature drops about 25 degrees and adds to the chances of your cake falling.

4. Use a cake tester after baking time elapses to check for complete baking doneness.

5. Pound cake recipes calling for a tube pan won’t always fit in a Bundt pan. (Tube pans have higher sides and will hold more, while Bundt pans are more shallow and fluted.)

6. When unsure of size of your cake pan, use a measuring cup to fill the cake pan with water to determine the pan’s capacity.

7. Read entire recipe and make sure you have all ingredients ready before beginning! Gather ingredients prior to mixing. It’s important not to overmix pound cake ingredients.

8. Bring cold ingredients to room temperature before baking… items like… eggs, butter, cream cheese, milk.

Happy Summer Baking Y’all!