Barely Scraping the Bowl – Southern Cakes

1 box yellow cake mix

8 oz. sour cream

Filling:

3 tsp. cinnamon

3 tsp. brown sugar

1/2 c. chopped pecans

Glaze:

3 Tbsp. butter

1 tsp. vanilla

3 Tbsp. milk

1 c. powdered sugar

Mix cake ingredients together and pour 1/2 of mixture into a 10-inch tube pan. In another bowl mix together brown sugar, cinnamon and pecans. Sprinkle ½ of brown sugar mixture over batter in tube pan and swirl with a knife or spatula. Pour remaining batter into pan and repeat sprinkling, swirling process. Bake at 325° for about 1 hour. Mix glaze ingredients together in a small saucepan and cook over very low heat, just until powdered sugar is dissolved and glaze is smooth. Turn off heat. Drizzle over cooled or lightly warm cake.

Red Velvet Cake

As a little girl, this was always my favorite cake partly because it was just so pretty. My grandmother would bake it for my birthday. Of course, it would make a beautiful heart shaped cake as well. If you saw the movie, Steel Magnolias, you might remember the infamous Groom's Cake that was red-velvet cake made into the shape of an armadillo and iced with gray frosting! Yikes! My suggestion is to stick to baked circles, hearts and squares otherwise your cake look will like an autopsy in progress!

Ingredients:

½ cup shortening

1 ½ cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 oz. red food coloring

3 Tbsp baking cocoa

2 ½ cups flour

1 cup buttermilk

1 tsp salt

1 Tbsp vinegar

1 tsp soda

Cream together shortening, sugar, eggs and vanilla. Make a paste with food coloring and cocoa, then beat paste in to creamed sugar mixture. Alternately add flour and buttermilk, blending well with each addition. Mix soda and vinegar in small bowl and add salt. Add this mixture to batter and blend well. Bake in 3 9-inch cake pans at 350° for 20-25 minutes. Frost cake when cool.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

¼ cup shortening

1 lb. box of powdered sugar, sifted

1 tsp. vanilla flavoring

Mix all ingredients well with electric mixer until creamy and smooth.

Here are a few helpful links for other well-loved southern cakes: A nice Bourbon Cake recipe -- http://www.edurant.com/recipes/BourbonCa...

Lady Baltimore Cake, a recipe and interesting history -- http://members.cox.net/jjschnebel/ladyba...

JournalNow.com has a recipe and discussion on variations for Old Fashioned Stack Cake -- http://www.journalnow.com/wsj/living/foo...

March Focus: Southern Breads with recipes for cornbreads, fry bread, hushpuppies, biscuits, fruit breads and more!

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