An Old-Fashioned Southern Cornmeal Pound Cake

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...I think I've been cooking too long. I was at the meat counter this morning and found myself wishing for a new kind of meat. I'm tired of beef and pork and my patience with poultry is starting to fray, so I'd really like to expand my horizons. I'm perfectly willing to go where no man has gone before, at least in my kitchen, but I've found that's easier said than done. There aren't a lot of new recipes out there. There are, to be sure, scads of recipes to which new descriptors have been added. You know the kind I mean - Bacon Wrapped, Egg-Stuffed, Herbed Meatloaf with Tomato Fondue and Cumin-Flavored Goat Cheese. The thing is, no matter what they do to it, it's still meatloaf. Things in the dessert world aren't any better. I was looking for new cake recipes and found the only way I'd find them was to move back in time rather than forward. I had the good fortune to stumble on an old recipe in Eat Drink Film in an article that was written by Dianne Boate. She found a recipe for cornmeal pound cake in a regional cookbook called Vittles. As it happens, this old, but new to me, cake would make a perfect base for local berries that are appearing in our farm markets. I decided to give it a try, and I was pleased enough with the results that I am comfortable passing the recipe on to you. The cake has a unique texture and it makes a gutsy berry base. Here is how this old-time favorite is made.


Southern Cornmeal Pound Cake...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite courtesy of Dianne Boate

Ingredients:
1-1/2 cups plain flour
1-1/2 cups plain cornmeal
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
6 egg whites
3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 cup unsalted butter
2-1/4 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
6 egg yolks
1 cup sour cream
Glaze
1 tablespoon butter, melted
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2/3 cup confectioners' sugar

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Generously grease and then flour a 10-inch tube pan.
2) Sift flour, corn meal, baking soda and salt together three times.
3) Beat egg whites until foamy, add cream of tartar and beat until stiff. Set aside.
4) Cream butter and sugar together for about 5 minutes. Add vanilla. Add egg yolks one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add sour cream, then flour mixture on low speed. Fold in egg whites.
5) Spoon batter into prepared pan and bake for 60 to 70 minutes, or until cake tester comes out clean. Transfer pan to a cooling rack. Let sit for 15 minutes.
6) Meanwhile combine glaze ingredients. Run a knife around outer edges and tube of pan. Invert cake. Brush top and sides with glaze. Cool cake to room temperature. Wrap in clear wrap and refrigerate.

                    

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