cake fail

I think I have a pox on me. A cake pox, to be specific.

Growing up, my family baked. Not every day, but cookies, cakes, brownies - they were all apart of the fabric of my house. My sister grew to be the family's official baker. Despite my best efforts, I could only master cookies and brownies. Cakes always failed me. It's so sad. I even had trouble with boxed cakes. I don't know what it is, but I can literally count all of the successful cakes I've made on one hand.

Yesterday the pox struck again. Last week, pound cake recipes were hitting me from every corner of the interweb. I don't know what it was - but everywhere I turned was a lovely yellow cake - some topped with berries, others with frosting, but they all looked delicious. Have I mentioned that I love pound cake? So yesterday, I decided to try Paula Deen's Grandmothers Sour Cream Pound Cake. I mixed it all up, dug out my bundt cake pan and loaded the batter into the oven. At 45 minutes, I check it. It was beautiful - turning golden brown on top, it had risen above the pan just enough to make the removal of it easy. About that time, Heather started making pizza for dinner. The dough was rising and one of the pizzas was going to be bbq chicken. So after resetting my timer, I left the kitchen to let Heather cook the chicken. I came back 20 or so minutes later after the chicken was done, and noticed that the front burner was still on. I turned it off and checked my cake. It was still jiggly. Weird - it should be just about done. I set the timer for 5 more minutes. 5 minutes later, same thing. 10 more minutes went on the timer and 10 minutes later when I checked on the cake I noticed that it was starting to fall. Weird. Heather was getting close to being ready for the oven (we had timed the pizza and cake to coincide), so I set the timer for 5 more minutes. As the timer was beeping for the last time, I reached to turn it off and noticed that the oven had been turned off. I then opened the oven. The cake had completely fallen and it was still wet in parts. I was so sad. It smelled wonderful and the color was perfect. After it cooled, I naturally picked through the parts that were done to give it a taste. OMG - so moist and rich! It would have been so good with the strawberries I had cut up and the whipped cream we were planning on making later that night. I made sure everyone got a little taste of the cooked part so they could tell me how wonderful it would have been. Heather ran by the store and picked up a store made angel food cake, which is just not the same when you are all set for pound cake, so I passed on the strawberry shortcake and instead just picked out a few strawberries.

I really want to try this recipe or another pound cake, but I'm afraid the pox will somehow find a way to strike again.