We Shall Eat Cake!

I made a six-flavor pound cake for Sprout's birthday.  I love this cake.  When we visited Someone's mother two years ago, she made this cake and I declared it unfit for human consumption, and said that I would dispose of it properly - by eating it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner until it was gone.

Gramma B was kind enough to give me the recipe.  Did you ever read an old book and see a recipe called a receipt?  Anyway, she gave me the recipe AND her vintage bundt pan, and I made if for Sprout's first birthday (tasted great, looked a mess) and then for my birthday (came out terrific), and now I've made it again.

I don't dare make it too often, or I'll need new trousers.  Two sizes larger.

I thought I would share the recipe so you can avoid making it too often, too.  I warn you, it's a little costly at first, because of all the flavorings, but after the first bite, you won't mind.

The players
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For the cake:
2 sticks of butter.  Butter.  Nothing else will do.  No, it won't.  Butter, I tell you!  Ahem.
1/2 cup shortening.  Crisco makes it in bars, now, with easy-measure lines so you can just cut it.  I adore them, they make my kitchen life so much easier.
3 cups sugar.  Do your teeth ache?  Mine do every time I read that.
5 eggs, well beaten.
3 cups all purpose flour - none of that specialized stuff for us, we want the handy-man of the flour world for this!
1/2 teaspoon baking powder.  I didn't realize until a few years ago that some baking powder has aluminum in it.  I don't buy that kind, any more.  I like my aluminum outside me, like covering a delicious cake...
1 cup milk.  Now, some folks say skim is as good as whole, and if you're one of 'em that's fine, but I use whole milk.
1 teaspoon each coconut, rum, butter, lemon, vanilla, and almond flavors.  I pre-measure them and use pure extracts where I can.  I dig how the lemon makes the liquid cloudy - reminds me of chemistry class.

For the glaze:
1 cup sugar (oh, my poor teeth!).
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon each coconut, rum, butter, lemon, vanilla, and almond flavors.

Action
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Cream butter, shortening, and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add eggs (which have been beaten until lemon colored).  Combine flour and baking powder.  Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture, alternating with milk.  Mix in the flavoring.  I use a stand mixer, and once the flavoring is in I let it run for a few minutes while I prepare my bundt pan.  I spray my pan liberally with Baker's Joy.  Very liberally.  Perhaps I am a bit crazed about it, but the first time I made this cake I used cooking spray alone and it did. Not. Work.  Baker's joy lives up to its name. So, while your batter is mixing, prepare your pan, preferable a bundt pan but you can use a regular cake pan if you like.

Spoon the batter into a 10-inch tube/bundt pan.  Bake at 375 for 1 hour, 15 minutes or until done.

You may have more than enough batter.  The bundt pan shouldn't be more than 2/3 full.  Any extra can go into another cake pan or (in my case) mini-bundts.  I usually get one regular and three minis from one batch.  The minis make good individual cakes for kids or distractions for me.

About twenty minutes before the cake is done, combine the glaze ingredients in a pan and bring to a boil and stir until the sugar is melted.

Pour half the glaze on the finished cake while it's in the pan.

Cool for ten minutes, remove from the pan, and pour the rest of the glaze over the top.

I dare you to resist eating this.
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We are celebrating Sprout's birthday tomorrow when Mum and a friend come over.  I hate waiting.  Think anyone will notice if there's a bite or three missing?

What's your favorite cake?