A Gift from my Mother...Grace Douglas Valverde

I've been doing some heavy cleaning today, trying to play catch up with the weekend that I missed. You know, it's that medicine thing. I'm sure that all is going to go well where that is concerned, I have no doubt. That's what makes it work, my belief in the power of myself. So, I'm moving the cook books around and dusting under them, packing up knick knacks so I have a place for my Snowmen...I have a lot of snowmen...I love snowmen. There is this cookbook that my mother gave to me a few years before she passed. It's the White House Cookbook from 1918. As I was dusting it and flipping through the pages I found a recipe for her Gold Cake with Butter Cream Icing. It actually fell out and landed on my feet. This is a cake that she was famous for, and I'm not sure but I think we sort of renamed it the "Mama, Make that Good Cake ". You know, I love Paula Deen, but my Mama could cook circles around her. Paula darlin', you ain't got nothin' on my Mama...So since Mama gave me this gift, and you know darned well that I know she gave me this gift...I've had this cookbook for at least ten years, I've cooked from it before, and until now, the "Mama Make that Good Cake" recipe has hidden from me. I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that I forgave her for going and dying on me this week? Denial lasted a long time too, my friends. I think she would like for me to share it with my friends, so here is a gift from my Mama, to you. I hope your kids and grandkids will be saying "Mama make that Good Cake" for many years to come.



Mama Make that Good Cake:

Ingredients: 3/4 cup butter

2 cups confectioners sugar

6 egg yolks

6 tablespoons sour cream

1 3/4 cups cake flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda (omit if sweet milk is used in place of the sour cream)

2 teaspoons lemon flavoring

1 teaspoon Yellow food coloring



Method:

Cream butter and confectioners sugar, add 1 yolk at a time, beating well after each . Add sour cream and beat well. Add flour mixed with baking powder and soda. Add lemon flavoring and yellow food coloring and beat well. Pour batter evenly into 2 nine inch cake pans. Bake at 325 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes. Cool on rack for five minutes, then turn out and continue till thoroughly cooled. Frost with Lemon Butter Cream Frosting



Lemon Butter Cream Frosting:

Ingredients

1/3 cup butter, softened to room temperature

1/8 teaspoon salt

3 cups sifted confectioners sugar

2 tablespoons lemon juice (or light cream, I use lemon juice)

1 teaspoon lemon flavoring



Method:

With electric mixer at "cream" mix butter, salt, 1 cup of sugar until light, add the rest of the sugar and lemon juice and beat until very smooth. Add lemon flavoring and blend well. Enough to frost two cake layers...



I hope you enjoy this cake. We did for years. It's one of those things that when the person who prepared it is gone and you don't know how it was made can be lost forever. You know, her name was Grace. She was pretty amazing. And now when I sing "I once was lost but now am found", it will have an entirely new meaning for me.