Almond Pound Cake

My mother's Buttermilk Pound Cake was a regular dessert around my house growing up.  You could bet that at every gathering her pound cake recipe was requested.

Her traditional recipe calls for buttermilk and soda.   Though it seemed like every time, I would get ready to make her recipe, and I would have already begun to mix the ingredients and go to the refrigerator for the buttermilk, and there would be none.  I would be frustrated.

We live in a rural area not so close to grocery stores that you can just stop what you are doing and leave to get some. So I decided to substitute the soda for baking powder and substitute whole milk for buttermilk.  The recipe has become my family's traditional pound cake recipe, and later my daughter, Jennifer, added her touch to it with a teaspoon of almond flavoring that is so delicious. 

On occasion, l still make my mother's traditional Buttermilk Pound Cake just for that warm feeling I get when I think about her while I am making it.

Almond Pound Cake

1 cup shortening
1 stick butter
2 1/2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon almond flavoring
31/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 salt
1 cup whole milk

Preheat oven 325 degrees F. Grease and flour a tube pan or a bundt pan and set aside. Cream shortening, butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, beating after each. Add flavorings. Beat well Add dry ingredients, which have been mixed, alternating with milk. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 1 hour and 5 minutes. Remove pan from the oven and let set for 5 minutes and remove from pan.