Memories from the Kitchen

The baking pan pictured above is most likely considered an angel food cake pan. However, my mother used this pan for baking pound cakes.  

When I was growing up, my mom, who is a lifelong homemaker, almost always had a dessert following our dinner meal. Sometimes banana pudding, sometimes vanilla custard, pies of all kinds, and coconut cakes were her specialties.

I've never been that much of a sweets eater so when she would climb up into the chair to reach into the top cabinet to bring down the pound cake pan, THAT grabbed my attention.  And it was her POUND CAKE pan.  I never knew her to have ever baked an angel food cake in that pan. Unlike some similar pans, this is made in one piece; the middle section does not lift up separately.

I think she would bake pound cakes on the days she knew she was preparing a not-so-favorite meal of mine for supper.  It was a done deal that I would eat supper so I could have a piece of pound cake. If I was very lucky, she would bake it late in the day and it would still be warm when it was time to eat.  I would always sneak and spread a little butter on mine.  

Oh, the crackly part on top?  The BEST texture and flavor in the world.

The pan pictured above? COUNTLESS pound cakes baked in that pan.  Pound cakes which were taken to family reunions, fellowship suppers, served to visiting "revival preachers," and those cakes that were assembled and baked quickly to carry to the homes of bereaved friends when family members passed.

About 20 years ago, for no reason in particular, my mother gave me The Pan one day as I was leaving her house after a visit.  I resisted and told her I couldn't take her pound cake pan.  She said she was tired of baking those cakes and it was my turn.

And now, I have baked COUNTLESS pound cakes in this same pan.

Yes, you can find these for less than $10 on e-bay or at thrift stores, but this one is priceless to me.  So many memories in something as simple as an aluminum baking pan.

So if you receive one from me as a gift, or served at my dining room table, or if you purchase one from me, you now know the history of The PAN.