Some of my favorite mother-daughter memories growing up in Nashville were made while eating at a little tea room in Green Hills run by Daisy King. She was a local celebrity in her own right – known for her cooking and entertaining and loved by many, including Nashville’s celebrity residents. Her tea room was the perfect place for special occasions like wedding and baby showers, or just a quaint, intimate lunch with friends. I can still remember my favorite there: Frozen Strawberry Salad. The tea room closed down eventually, but thankfully Ms. King released a keepsake of a book, Miss Daisy Celebrates Tennessee, which includes many of those tea room gems and recipes from her celebrity friends. It also includes snippits of Nashville and Tennessee history (county by county). Mom got my copy signed by Daisy King and it remains a treasured part of my book collection.
For my second pound cake, I decided to try her Chocolate Pound Cake. This is the first time I’ve used cake flour, so I was curious at what the difference would be like from using all-purpose flower. I made a couple of missteps. I forgot to flour the pan after greasing it, and I didn’t wait long enough to invert the cake to cool on the wire rack – so it didn’t come out clean. It did stay in one piece though. I also didn’t wait long enough to cut the cake (it just smelled so good!) so it did not cut as cleanly as I would have liked. I say all that to say I’m not sure if the cake flour made the cake more delicate (it’s certainly the “softest” cake I’ve ever made). It’s velvety and smooth, but also a lot more delicate. Even if I had waited long enough to remove it from the pan and slice, I think I might have still had a little trouble.
Here’s the recipe adapted from Ms. Daisy’s – one unique characteristic of the batter is that it looks like a Wendy’s Frosty when it’s ready to be poured into the pan for baking!
Chocolate Pound Cake
Adapted from Miss Daisy Celebrates Tennessee by Daisy King (Hillsboro Press)
Ingredients
2 sticks of butter
1/2 cup shortening
3 cups sugar
5 eggs, beaten
3 cups cake flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons cocoa
1 cup whole milk
1 tablespoon vanilla
Directions
Bring cold ingredients to room temperature. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Grease and flour a Bundt cake pan or tube pan.
Cream butter, shortening and sugar in a large bowl. Add eggs and mix well. Sift dry ingredients. Add flour mixture to butter mixture alternately with milk and vanilla combined. Pour into pan.
Bake at 300 degrees for approximately 70 minutes (or until a toothpick or knife comes out clean when inserted).
Cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack before removing on pan. Cool completely before slicing.
I asked the princess what she thought after she had the first bite and she replied, “Mmm!!!” She ate two big pieces!
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