Anny's Red Plate: When I'm Sad...

Our family suffered a loss that came so quickly and so deliberately, I'm still reeling from the shock. This area experienced an epic flood; one that can easily be termed a one-hundred year flood. The local weathermen compared it to the Great Flood of 1927. The upshot, my brother and I lost the home we were raised in...totally. It's hard to fight a flash flood while trying to save the contents of a home in its' wake; there's a 100% chance you will lose and that's not odds I'll take. So we go on with the memories, accept the loss and give thanks for those things we had already taken from the empty rooms after Mama passed away. We do have something, where some affected have nothing.

This kind of thing makes me turn inward for a while, until I can process what's happened and compartmentalize each fragmented thought into an acceptable plan. And my kitchen is a good place to go for meditating, while I search for bowls and spoons and pans that I've had for a long time. Mementos from Mama, Ma and Mammy. There is no price for a kitchen thingamajig I used in their kitchens as a child. So I made a cake using Ma's recipe, Mammy's old milk bowl and Mama's circa mid-60's Bundt pan.

Sock-it-to-Me Cake

1 box butter cake mix

1/2 cup sugar

8 ounces sour creme

1/2 cup Canola oil

4 eggs

2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 cup pecans

Mix the first 5 ingredients together to make a smooth batter. Set aside. Next, combine the brown sugar and cinnamon and chop the pecans.

To assemble the cake for baking, pour half the batter into a well greased and floured (I used a baking spray) Bundt or tube pan and evenly sprinkle the brown sugar and cinnamon mixture over the top. Scatter the pecans over the sugar mixture and top with the remaining cake batter. Bake at 325 for 50 minutes or so. Check the progress at 40 minutes to be sure you're not over baking in your oven. When the cake pulls away from the sides of the pan you're good to go. Remove it and cool it slightly on a rack then turn out onto a cake plate. This cake doesn't need glaze, although you certainly could add a thin glaze if you like. It's an absolutely perfect coffee cake or one that travels well to a church pot-luck or picnic.

Note: This is a very simple and quite old recipe. One that my Ma loved so much. When she wanted a slice of cake to enjoy along side her coffee or tea, this is what she baked. I don't normally use cake mix (a quirk of mine) but today I caved on my quirkiness. And I used about half sour creme and half Greek yogurt. It worked great. One other thing...the addition of sugar in the recipe is there, I think, because it does this magic thing, a crunchy crust on the outside. Yum!