Pound Cake Fan

We are studying American colonial times in history.  When possible I like to add in some of the suggested arts and crafts- the easy, but memorable, ones.  Pound cake is a recipe (called a receipt in colonial times) that is easy to remember.  This isn't something that I would normally make because, well, it doesn't involve chocolate, so what's the point really?   But, we (I) need memories to cement history lessons in our minds.  And, I had all the ingredients already.  So, Caroline (age 12), Jesse (age 9) and Sophia (age 8)

 helped under duress...I mean, helped dutifully.

Well!  Was I surprised at how good pound cake is- even minus the chocolate!!  I like to make recipes where I can see  a picture ahead of time.  So I put a picture and the recipe below.  If you've never made/eaten/become a fan of pound cake, I highly recommend that you try it.  It reminds me of a shortbread cookies- so good and so easy. 

POUND CAKE from Colonial Kids by Laurie Carlson

Ingredients

1 pound butter/margarine, softened  (4 sticks)

1 pound sugar    (2 cups)

1 pound flour    (3 and 1/4 cup)

1 pound eggs    (8 large eggs)

1/2 cup water

1 tablespoon vanilla

Directions:  Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Grease 3 bread loaf pans (I think 2 might be better).  Stir all ingredients together (I used a 21st century mixer).  Pour batter into  greased loaf pans.  Bake for 1 hour.  I sprinkled with powdered sugar. 

  Not sure if you can see this well enough, but here is a start to Easter decorating.  Easter eggs and chicks hanging on tree branches.  For the past few years I've hung decorative Easter eggs on the bushes in front of our house.  I started doing it in Germany where during the Easter season all of the stores sell the eggs on strings ready to be hung.  This year I couldn't find where they are stored in our house so I went to buy some more and found out that it's actually a German tradition and there aren't readily available eggs-on-strings for sale in US stores.  I don't like to sound snobby about having lived in Germany so I try not to say, "Well, in Germany we did yada yada yada" but this was significant to me.  I love those hanging eggs.  Ok, so I found some at Michaels!!  I'm not sure how weather proof they are for my bushes out front like ones I had from Germany, but I'm buyin' em and tryin' em. 

And....in case you didn't know, Micheals give the teacher discount to homeschoolers!!!! 

Easter decoration.  Oh yeah, the Germans also have beautiful table cloths and table runners for all seasons.