Thursday, April 8, 2010

Strawberries, Cake and the South Beach Diet!

top of cake With strawberries in season soon, you may want to try this pound cake recipe, perfect with berries and cream. We enjoyed it topped with strawberries and real whipped cream on Easter.

strawberry shortcake

I know! You remember a few posts back I began the South Beach diet. Well……..we just took a little break for Easter and now we’re back on it again.

By the way, Cigar Man, daughter and I weighed in last Friday. We usually will weigh in once a week, but this time we weighed 4 days after we began since we knew we’d be eating BIG on Easter. J Are you ready?

I lost 3 pounds!

Too bad, I gained 1 pound back after eating cake topped with strawberries and cream. Well, truth known, the cake wasn’t responsible for the whole pound. I hate plenty of other FAT foods over the weekend. Of well, what’s a girl to do!

piece of cake I’m working on losing that pound again. Since, I’m beginning to think a big part of losing is to eat only when you’re hungry. I wasn’t hungry last night so no supper for me.

I was feeling pretty good about that till I found a half eaten bag of M&Ms and finished them off. L

Oh well, if you’re not on the South beach diet or you want to take a break, here’s the recipe. Sorry I don’t have the calorie count. I really don’t even want to know!

3 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup butter (YIKES!)

1/2 cup vegetable shortening

3 cups sugar (YIKES!)

5 eggs (YIKES!)

1 cup buttermilk

1 tbs vanilla extract

  1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. (I used an 8 1/2” pan and had enough batter to make a second cake in a loaf pan. I like to freeze one and eat one. If I’m going to take the time to bake, I want to make it worth my while.)
  2. Mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt and set aside.
  3. Using an electric mixer, cream the butter, shortening, and sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and mix well after each addition. Add the dry ingredients and the buttermilk alternately to the butter mixture. Add the vanilla and mix well.
  4. Pour the batter into a greased and floured pan. Bake for 1 3/4 hours, or until the cake is done. The cake will pull away from the sides of the pan when ready, and a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake will come out clean. Remove the cake from the oven and let cool in the pan for about 10 minutes. Invert onto a pretty cake plate .

Strawberries:

I like to sprinkle 1/4 cup of sugar over a cup of sliced strawberries in a bowl and let it stand for about 1/2 hour. It will make its on syrup that will moisten your cake and melt in your mouth!

Fresh whipped cream:

1 cup whipping cream

about 1/4 cup sugar

Beat together the cream and sugar with an electric mixture until stiff. Can’t beat it! hmmm…you actually just did. J

See ya later. I’m heading over to Gollum’s Foodie Friday. Who knows, I might find something I can still eat!

19 comments:

podso said...

Oh my, too good to be true. At first I thought this might be a southbeach cake! :-) And I thought how could one not be hungry? I seem to always be hungry. (Aha, the m and ms explained that. I could easily see myself doing that and then not being hungry.)

The Gardener tells me our strawberries are especially cheap this year because both of the usual "strawberry seasons" that we have here in NC are melded into one because of the weather this year, so there is an abundance, thus the lower prices. If that's true, I'll miss the second season of them but should be happy with the great prices now!

Blondie's Journal said...

Oh, this looks delicious! And congratulations on your weight loss. I had a friend that said she actually started losing too much weight on the South Beach Diet. So be careful!!! ;-)

xoxo
Jane

Courtney said...

3 lbs.?? That's awesome! I don't have scales but my clothes are fitting MUCH better! Keep it up!

Anonymous said...

One of my all time favorites is strawberries and cake. Yummy. That's a good recipe and I'm going to try it.

Regina said...

Wow yummy!
Congrats Marsha but it should not be on a long term.
Exercise is still the best.

Have a great day and weekend ahead.

xo Regina

Glenda/MidSouth said...

Congrats. on the weight loss! The cake and berries looks so good.

Maureen said...

Oh my... looks delish!

I made apple / blackberry pie. No whipped cream though.

But I did serve half and half with coffee....

I think I need that diet too. Congrats on losing!

Ceekay-THINKIN of HOME said...

Good luck on the diet. It is sooo hard. I did Atkins about 6 years ago...lost a lot of weight. I loved it. But now I can't do that per my oncologist. So, chunky it is! But you will lose on the Southbeach!!

Nancy's Notes said...

Way to go on the three pound gone forever! Thanks for the recipe, looks delicious!

Simple Home said...

Strawberry shortcake is one of my favorite deserts and these photos had my mouth watering. Here you are posting scrumptious picture and I'm posting decades old spices. I want to come to your house and eat :-)
Blessings,
Marcia

Unknown said...

WOW! Does that ever look yummy! I know I wouldn't be able to resist. I did the same thing last night with dinner. Didn't eat but the about midnight I was starving. Darn it!

GratefulPrayerThankfulHeart said...

Oh, I want to be on a diet where I can eat this dessert all the time! It looks wonderful!

Yvonne @ StoneGable said...

Okay, I'm going to report you to the "truth in advertising" squad! When I read, "Strawberries, cake and the south beach diet", I couldn't wait to get over to your blog and find out what great cake I could eat on South Beach! Liar, liar pants on fire! (haha)
I just had to giggle- I was so anxious for a good cake that I could eat! I too, am watching my weight. Blogging really has helped me put on some extra pounds.

Congradulations on your 3 lb. weight loss. That is 12 sticks of butter! That is how I look at it.

The cake looks amazing- this is companiy worthy!
Thanks for the recipe and the good laugh!
Yvonne

a quiet life said...

looks delish, i gained 3 looking!

SavoringTime in the Kitchen said...

Sadly, I have absolutely no metabolism left and gain weight even looking at a luscious cake like that but I will eat salad for two days to enjoy a luscious indulgence! A girl has to do with a girl has to do!

Good luck with the diet!

bj said...

Mr. Sweet and i have been on the SBD twice in our lives. Both times, we really do lose the weight..especially the first 2 wks on Phase One. NO WHITES AT ALL will make you lose weight. We just have a hard time STAYING on it...once we get to Phase Two, we both just throw caution to the wind. It is so so hard to watch what you eat...just about drives me nuts.
Good good luck, dear heart..I know you can do it. I am just.....weak!!
xo bj

EG CameraGirl said...

Very tempting! It looks so good!

Catherine@AGardenerinProgress said...

Yum! I've never made pound cake from scratch, but I do love to eat it. I just may have to try this one, it looks delicious.
PS I hate finding those half eaten bags of M & M's, I hate for them to go to waste :)

MrsJenB said...

Congrats on your weight loss! Keep it up! Or...down, depending on how you wanna look at it!

It's no secret that pound cake isn't a "diet" food - that's why we don't eat it every day! But it's a lovely treat.