Strawberries, Cake and the South Beach Diet!

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.

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!

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!