Social Insurance, Anyone?

With an insurance policy to cover nearly every contingency, why not social insurance for homemakers? Master the art of making pound cake and you will be insured for any social emergency.

Serve the pound cake just as it comes from the oven—a slice of golden, fine-textured velvet encased in a thin shell of rich brown crust. Or, serve it with mandarin oranges steeped in chilled Catawba juice, or topped with a dollop of whipped cream and a maraschino cherry. A wide variety of frostings can be used to enhance the delicate flavor of this cake, and to produce as dramatic a dessert as you might desire.

Pound cake can be baked in an eight-inch spring-form pan or a regular-sized loaf pan. A kugelhupf pan turns out a spirally fluted product, especially beautiful when dusted with confectioner’s sugar. A pound cake mold, should you be fortunate enough to own one, is especially appropriate.

Have all ingredients at room temperature. Butter and flour thoroughly the pan you have chosen. The kugelhupf pan or pound cake mold takes a bit of extra attention to make sure that every bit of the design is well-coated.

Pound Cake

1 cup vegetable shortening (part butter if preferred)

1 2/3 cups sugar

5 eggs

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

Cream until light vegetable shortening (part butter is delectable but not at all necessary) and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition. Add almond extract and lemon juice. (This combination gives the cake a delightful flavor, but for a subtle Bavarian shading that is guaranteed to pique the taste buds, stir in additionally the grated rind of 1 large lemon. For another change, substitute for these combinations 1/2 teaspoon vanilla and 1/4 teaspoon mace.)

Sift together salt and lightly spooned cake flour. Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture. Beat well.

Bake in a preheated oven at 325° F. for 70 minutes or until nicely browned.

The hostess with a pound cake tucked away in her cake box can greet unexpected guests with composure. She knows that an important part of the entertaining is already done.

Don’t you need to bake yourself some social insurance today?

—Aileen Kilgore Henderson