Anyone who knows me or reads my blog realizes I’m a pie queen. I make lots of pies both sweet and savory. But my friends, my really good, close friends know I’m a slut for cake. Any cake. At my old job co-workers never ceased to enjoy making fun of me for my cake whoring. Birthdays in the office? Better tell Jenée. Cause there will be cake. To this day, I have old co-workers who have since become friends who post to my Facebook wall around 3 (the time I crave it most) asking, “So, what kind of cake are you inhaling right now?”
My mother loved cake too. Her favorite was lemon pound cake, sweet and buttery with a tart and sweet glaze. She was known for it, even getting her recipe published in the local paper. You’ll find it below.
Growing up she made it often, and on every holiday, changed the shape to reflect the celebration. Heart-shaped for Valentine’s, bunny-shaped for Easter. It was my job to make the paper ears every year for the bunny cake, a job I abhorred. Flecking the bunny with coconut, putting jelly beans in for eyes. But the eating was extraordinary.
Pound cake holidays included birthdays. A buttercream pound cake from Belle Bakery in Richmond topped with a plastic ballerina. I associated pound cake with birthday cake so closely once when I went to a birthday party at a friend’s house and her mother served yellow sheet cake, I proclaimed to whomever would listen, “THAT’S not birthday cake!” Yeah, I was a smartass little shit even then and boy, did I get it when Mom got me home.
My mother passed away from cancer 12 years ago today. This was after suffering 10 years as a brain trauma victim from a horrific car accident. The one thing people don’t tell you about losing a loved one is you never, ever forget it. The first few years were the hardest. March 27th was a day to be endured, hidden from by calling in sick to work, sleeping all day or drinking too much wine. Gradually as the years passed, the day was still hard, but almost bearable. Almost. I wouldn’t tell anyone, pretend to be happy, and just breathe, trying my best to get to March 28th.
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