A Classic Pound Cake - definitely a keeper!

   Pound cake is a Southern staple.  Right up there with milk, bread, and butter!  Pound cake is a great, simple "go to" dessert that is wonderful alone or dressed up with fruit or a glaze. I was baking a couple desserts for a 4-H dinner the other evening.  Along with a tried and true brownie recipe, I decided to give a new  pound cake recipe a try.  Most recipes in my old fashioned church cookbooks called for Chrisco.  I was looking for one without that and this recipe fit the bill.  Bonus, I didn't have to create my own buttermilk as the Big Guy had purchased some recently to make homemade blue cheese dressing.  This cake baked beautifully!  It was golden brown, perfect crunchy on the outside with a moist and dense cake inside.  Best pound cake recipe I have found yet!  This is my future "go to" recipe!
Enjoy!
Copied from Allrecipes (fabulous site for tons of great recipes!).
 

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter (no substitutes)
• 3 cups sugar
• 4 eggs
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• confectioners' sugar

Directions

1. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Combine flour and baking soda; add alternately with the buttermilk and beat well. Stir in vanilla. Pour into a greased and floured 10-in. fluted tube pan. Bake at 325 degrees F for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until cake test done. Cool in pan for 15 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. If desired, dust with confectioners' sugar.

Banana Pudding - the Southern Way!

See this empty dish.....
It's one of my favorite dishes.  We just recently added it along with a small identical dish and 6 coffee mugs from Lantern Hill Pottery in Seagrove, NC.  I really like this dish.  So much so, it won the prize of holding the most scrumptious Banana Pudding I do believe I have ever tasted!
Company was coming for dinner and I needed a good dessert recipe for the evening.  I debated between a pie or something with bananas as I had plenty of them.  But I did not have the old faithful - vanilla or banana pudding.  How hard could it be to make true from scratch pudding?  I found out - NOT HARD AT ALL!
As Big Guy stated after dinner, "That Banana Pudding was absolutely unbelievable!"  And he is not a sweets guy!  Got eggs, milk, flour, and sugar - there you go!  Add bananas and some cookies and you have one of the most amazing creations to hit your tastebuds!
And yes, I did make one change to the recipe - I used Scottish Butter cookies instead of Vanilla Wafers since I had them on hand.  And I broke them in bite size pieces.

This is two layers of sliced bananas and broken cookies.  Cookie on top is just an example of what I used.

Pudding has been poured over the 2 layers of cookies and bananas.  I had a few slices of banana left and crumbs so I just added them on top.
The recipe uses 3 egg yolks.  I took the 3 egg whites and left them out while I made the recipe.  This gave them time to become room temperature which helps to whip them into meringue.  Very simple to make meringue - egg whites and a couple tablespoons of white sugar.  Then whip and whip!  Tips for the perfect meringue are given by Christy Jordan over at Southern Plate.

Final Product!

Homemade Banana Pudding

1/2 Cup Sugar (or splenda)
1/3 Cup Flour
3 egg yolks
2 Cups milk
1 box Nilla Wafers
5 bananas
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla
dash salt

Place a layer of Nilla Wafers in the bottom of a medium sized mixing bowl. Slice a banana over the top. Repeat two more times with another layer of wafers and remaining bananas. In sauce pot (or double boiler) on medium low heat, add all ingredients except for vanilla. Stir well with wire whisk. Allow to cook, stirring constantly to prevent scorching, until thickened – about fifteen minutes. Add in vanilla and stir. Immediately pour over wafers and bananas. Let sit for about five minutes or so before serving, to allow wafers time to absorb pudding. Top with meringue, if desired.

This recipe can be found at Southern Plate.