Birthday cakes, favorite cakes and maple-bacon donuts to savor

Yellow Cake
Homemade Chocolate Icing

So, my 63rd birthday was a couple of days ago. Read all about it in my May 26 post. For my birthday, and not mentioned two days ago, my wife, Nancy, made my favorite birthday cake, a simple two-layer yellow cake with chocolate icing. It was delicious and what made it more delicious than ever was that Nancy made the icing from scratch. It was scrumptious, especially the piece offered to me the day before my birthday. Our neighbors also enjoyed it.

Duck Donuts
Maple Bacon Donut

Today, on my way to the United States Post Office in Cary to mail a package to our daughter to make sure she receives it prior to her birthday (June 8; she’ll be 30!), my car veered into the parking lot of the new Duck Donut location where they make the donuts before your very eyes. They drop dough into the vat of whatever they cook it in. The donut, keeping its shape, moves along until it is done when it exits onto a conveyor which drops it into a pan. The cooked donut is then topped with whatever topping you desire that is offered. For me it was a maple frosting that was then covered in bacon. Yum, yum! FYI: No donut holes at Duck Donut.

Annie Laurie's Oven Pound Cake

My favorite cake, though, has always been my mother’s Cold Oven Pound Cake. Here’s the recipe.

Annie Laurie's 

Cold Oven Pound Cake

• 3 sticks (1.5 cups) butter 
• 3 cups sugar 
• 6 eggs (Cold) 
• 3 cups sifted cake flour
• 1 cup whole milk (VERY Cold)
• 1 teaspoon vanila extract
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• NOTE: eggs & milk should be cold right out of the refrigerator (not room temperature)
• Prepare large tube pan by either spraying with bakers spray (and wiping gently with a paper towel to remove excess) or greasing with soft butter & dusting with flour. Set aside.
• Cream butter and sugar together.
• Beat in eggs, one at a time.
• Beat in flour, one cup at a time, alternating with milk.
• Add vanilla extract and almond extract.
• Beat on medium-high to high speed of hand mixer for two minutes, scrapping down sides of bowl.
• Carefully pour batter evenly into tube pan – use all that is in the bowl (a rubber spatula will help).
• Place on middle rack in COLD oven and bake at 275F. for 2 hours.
• Check it towards the end in case your oven cooks fast or slow.
• Remove pan from oven and place it on a cake rack on the counter for about four minutes.
• Run a dinner knife around the middle and edges.
• Turn cake out onto dinner plate and then upright onto a cake plate.
• Let the cake cool before cutting – best to use a serrated knife, at least while cake is somewhat warm.

Annie Laurie's Cold Over Pound Cake is good plain, but it's also good with your favorite ice cream or covered in fresh strawberries. You should bake one and try it!

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middling (adjective) [mid-ling] mediocre; ordinary