CAKE TAKES A POUNDING

Now that the heat of summer has gone and the crisp cool autumn days are upon us, all sorts of baking inspirations bombard Old Mother Frugal’s brain. Time to try out those endless recipe clippings crowding the recipe box!

Earlier this fall, all things pumpkin appeared in the cooking repertoire. This included cooking those Halloween pumpkins and using the cooked pumpkin for the Thanksgiving pies this year. Fresh pumpkin has a different flavor than canned and a different coloring as well.

One recipe that has been hanging around the recipe box, front and center, was a lemon buttermilk pound cake. It looked delicious in the magazine picture. It was going to be a bit of clean-up for one pound cake. So why make one? Make two! One for now, and one will be for the freezer.

Being frugal doesn’t only apply to money; it applies to one’s time as well. Filling the oven with as many baked goods at the same time as possible is also a cost savings. A single layer round cake, a tray of cupcakes and a loaf pan will fit comfortably in an oven.

Back to the lemon pound cake…

The recipe called for the cake to be baked for 65-75 minutes. Timer set at 55 minutes, because they say “ovens will vary”. Undercooked at 55 minutes, it stayed in the oven an additional 10 minutes, bringing it to the 65 minute minimum. Through the glass baking dish, it appeared a bit too brown on the sides and on the bottom.

Once cooled and released from the baking dish, part of the pound cake remained attached to the bottom of the greased loaf pan. Burnt. The pound cake was more or less a “half pound cake”, looking very unattractive and unappealing to eat.

Of course, it could not be thrown away because there are now two of these and lots of ingredients. With the assistance of social media and Google, the pound cake was transformed into trifle. Old Mother Frugal’s pantry had the requisite ingredients and having never made trifle, the challenge was on!

This experience does show that one can turn lemon into lemonade. Adding some blueberries and whipped topping just was the “icing on the cake”.

SOUND THE BUGLE! Today’s tip: The prices of food and ingredients to cook food have escalated this year. Just look at the price of eggs. Don’t be so quick to toss a failure into the trash. With some ingenuity and social media acquaintances, your dinner guests will delight in your creation!