November 14: Lemon Verbena Pound Cake

Saturday was my mother's birthday, but I didn't make her cake on Saturday.
There were more fantastic things than cake happening that day!

Gorgeous Mom, second from right

Saturday was the official opening of Conversations at the Eiteljorg Museum - a show featuring the work of the museum's 2015 Contemporary Art Fellows... of which my mother is one!  Her installation piece called Retracing the Trace, as well as some of her drawings, on display for the show, will become part of the museum's permanent collection.  Keith and I went to Indianapolis on Friday for the celebration and awards ceremony that night and stayed to visit the museum during the opening on Saturday.

Mom's gallery talks were very fine; they ignited many positive comments and interest from the attendees.  Retracing the Trace addresses the subject of sexual assault and specifically those sexual assaults which go unreported every day in the United States.  My mother is a survivor of a sexual assault in 1994; she was dragged off the road by a stranger during her morning jog in Piedmont Park in Atlanta.  Her rape was reported and investigated, but the police never found her attacker.  Mom has created art based on that experience in the past and has been very moved by the people who see her art and say "it happened to me, I was afraid to tell anyone."

The opening of Conversations was a lovely event and Mom has received great press coverage of her work, including an article in ARTnews online magazine.  Keith and I were incredibly impressed with the exhibit and the curatorial choices made.  Mom had a whirlwind week of docent training sessions, interviews, galley talks, catalogue signings, and PARTIES.  To give me a chance to bake, and her a chance to rest up for her birthday celebration, we postponed it until Monday.  I baked a Lemon Verbena Pound Cake on Sunday afternoon after I picked her up at the airport.

This recipe was one that my mother had been holding onto since 1989.  Like the Basil Pound Cake (see June 14), this cake recipe had been clipped from a magazine by my mom, and then passed to me for my Saturday Cakes.  Lemon verbena is my mother's favorite fragrance and the smell of it reminds me of her.  I've been saving this recipe for her birthday.

The recipe specifies "fresh" lemon verbena leaves to flavor the scalded milk for the cake.  I looked high and low for verbena at farmers' markets, gourmet stores, and nurseries, but I found none.  The recipe originally ran in the the August 1989 issue of House Beautiful.  I have to assume that in August 1989, verbena was easier to come-by than in November of 2015!

After some online research I felt confident that dried verbena could be substituted for fresh in a recipe, I just needed to use half as much.  The cake recipe calls for vegetable shortening instead of butter, which I found unusual for a pound cake.  The flavor of the cake comes from a small amount of almond extract in addition to the verbena-fragranced milk.  The cake is iced with a buttercream icing flavored with lemon extract.  The fragrance of the cake, once fully assembled, was rich and citrusy.

After dinner at our favorite neighborhood bistro on Monday night, we returned home for cake and the opening of presents.  Mom, Keith, and the kids loved the cake!  They suggested that the next time I make this recipe I try using butter instead of shortening to see how it turns out.  I will also strive to find fresh verbena next time to see how the cake differs.

I doubt that Mom has fully recovered from her week of celebration.  We need to start working immediately on planning her next birthday to make it top this one!

Tomorrow:  Peanut Butter Cake Supreme