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Sweet Baked Goods Pound Cake (from kitchen of Varina Howell Davis)

pound cake (from kitchen of varina howell davis)
mrs-davis.jpg
(Personal Recipe of Varina Howell Davis, from the The Jefferson Davis Home and Presidential Library)

Ingredients:

12 eggs​
1 lb. sugar​
1 lb. butter​
1 lb. all-purpose flour​
1 wine glass of wine​

Instructions:

Cream the butter, stir the sugar into it, separate eggs, beat very light, mix in the ingredients, bake very slowly.​


This recipe is from the personal collection of Varina Howell Davis, Jefferson Davis' wife. Her original recipes were given to Beauvoir by her daughter, Margaret (pictured below).

This is Margaret's wedding portrait. She was the only one of the Davis children to marry, bear children, and outlive her parents. On New Year's Day in 1876 she married J. Addison Hayes in Memphis.

MargaretWedding.jpg

(Courtesy of Beauvoir, Biloxi, Miss.)
 
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what does it mean separate eggs - then put them together again in the mix?
I'm not a pound cake expert, sorry.

Great question! It just means the egg yolk is removed from the egg white. This allows one part of the egg to be used without the other part, or each part to be treated in different ways. You can actually purchase an egg separator or you can do it by hand.
 
Thanks for sharing this recipe @Eleanor Rose Ive never heard of wine in pound cake either, but if it has wine in it, you know its got to be good. @John Winn I know you enjoy fine wines. Have you seen this recipe? Can you tell us which wines might be best?
 
Thanks for sharing this recipe @Eleanor Rose Ive never heard of wine in pound cake either, but if it has wine in it, you know its got to be good. @John Winn I know you enjoy fine wines. Have you seen this recipe? Can you tell us which wines might be best?

I have to say I've never seen a recipe for pound cake that called for wine so it's a guess but I think I'd certainly stick to white and probably something relatively dry (typical in cooking); maybe a pinot gris, albarino, or chardonnay. Sauvignon blanc seems a little too dry for cake somehow. Best I can do !
 
There's precedent for alcohol in cakes, right?

There are a lot of recipes from the 1800s with alcohol in them -- or with a lot more alcohol than most modern versions, when it comes to things like Marlburough Pie -- in part, I would guess, for alcohol's preserving qualities. The wine is the major flavoring here so I'd go with something you know you like that won't over power it, a white wine probably, although somewhere I saw someone recommending sherry.

I've never seen a pound cake recipe where the eggs are divided before; most recipes for pound cake, air is beaten into the butter for the rising agent, then the butter and sugar are beaten, and then eggs beaten in after that. Once that mixture is all light and airy, you add the rest of the ingredients. She's got them in that order, and doesn't tell you want to do with the eggs once separated, so maybe she meant to write 'add eggs and beat them in'?
 
There are a lot of recipes from the 1800s with alcohol in them -- or with a lot more alcohol than most modern versions, when it comes to things like Marlburough Pie -- in part, I would guess, for alcohol's preserving qualities. The wine is the major flavoring here so I'd go with something you know you like that won't over power it, a white wine probably, although somewhere I saw someone recommending sherry.

I've never seen a pound cake recipe where the eggs are divided before; most recipes for pound cake, air is beaten into the butter for the rising agent, then the butter and sugar are beaten, and then eggs beaten in after that. Once that mixture is all light and airy, you add the rest of the ingredients. She's got them in that order, and doesn't tell you want to do with the eggs once separated, so maybe she meant to write 'add eggs and beat them in'?


I read a recipe that included brandy. It was wonderful. You went through all the steps- mix dry together, etc., whip eggs, sugar, butter, etc, combine everything- then drink the 1/2 cup of brandy. Laughed so hard I forgot to drink it.
 
When I make my Easter cake, in the lamb mold, the cake is really a version of a pound cake, but with spices in it.
 
Somehow only now have I seen that thread. One has to wonder how any woman can bake and enjoy such a cake and still have such a small waist! 12 eggs!!
Well, I have never seen a pound cake recipe with wine! This is new to me!
I am wondering what the texture of this would be.

Thanks for sharing this recipe @Eleanor Rose Ive never heard of wine in pound cake either, but if it has wine in it, you know its got to be good.

There are a lot of recipes from the 1800s with alcohol in them -- or with a lot more alcohol than most modern versions, when it comes to things like Marlburough Pie -- in part, I would guess, for alcohol's preserving qualities.

@Shalom Hobbitess you are right, it is mostly because of the preserving qualities and because the alcohol make the dough rise. The higher the vol %, the better it is. My Mom once made the aquaintance of a Chef from a famous German hotel and he gave her that recipe (although with half of everything, but with a bit of lemon zest added) but instead of wine he used 96% pure alcohol (named Weingeist = spirit of wine). He said that in the hotel they always do that because the cake won't become stale, even if it lasts for days and the pure alcohol does not add any flavor and is barely noticeable, it just helps to keep the cake moist and fresh.
 
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Faraway Friend good to see you posting. Was hoping you all doing okay. Is Germany still locked down? Sometimes we just don't get much news on other countries. We are always so much concerned with what happening in US they don't give reports from around the world. I was really glad to get news on the Pope's trip to Iraq. I prayed he would be safe. He was brave and a really good person to go to give support to Christians there.
 
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