Reflections from the dud parent

When I hear a Miley Cyrus song, or see her coaching on The Voice, or read about her marrying Liam Hemsworth in an article in Vanity Fair (thanks, Dylan), I think about watching Hannah Montana on the Disney Channel with young Cass and Brad and what, if anything, it says about me as a parent:


Hannah Montana


Driving home from the cult of Trader Joe’s,
“Party in the U.S.A.” came on the radio.
I’m not ashamed that I listened all the way through
(I may have even hummed along a little bit),
because we watched her show together
when you were little. The songs weren’t bad,
sorta like the Digimon movie that Grandma Pina
was sorry she went to with us (“So loud!”).
The show itself was pretty goofy, but
you liked it, and how was I
supposed to know about the twerking
and all that other stuff beyond the horizon?

Even so,
I admire that she identifies as queer
but still married Thor’s little brother,
because “you love who you love,”
as Mom says.
(There’s always a lesson in there somewhere,
waiting to be unearthed.)

Anyway, you turned out pretty well,
despite Hannah Montana,
so that, at least,
doesn’t make me a dud parent.

*********

Whenever we used to go for a Long Island trip, Grandma Pina would always have a big tray of warm Baked Ziti waiting for us when we arrived. She'd often make us her version of a strawberry cream cake for dessert, too. Grandma Pina would cut a rectangular Entenmann’s All Butter Loaf Cake into four pieces horizontally, then arrange the pieces into a square cake, with macerated strawberries and whipped cream between the layers and on top.

Cassie and I tried to recreate that cake recently, but we had trouble finding the formerly ubiquitous Entenmann's All Butter Loaf Cake anywhere nearby. Then we looked online at the ingredients:

Sugar, Bleached Wheat Flour, Eggs, Butter, Nonfat Milk, Water, Glycerin, Modified Cornstarch, Soybean Oil, Leavening (Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Baking Soda, Monocalcium Phosphate), Preservatives (Potassium Sorbate, Sorbic Acid, Sodium Propionate), Salt, Sorbitan Monostearate, Artificial Flavors, Cornstarch, Polysorbate 60, Xanthan Gum, Mono And Diglycerides, Phosphoric Acid, Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate, Cellulose Gum, Soy Flour, Coconut Flour.

Not exactly good eats, not to mention the coconut flour hiding in there, which ruled it out for Cassie anyway. So we made a homemade Classic Pound Cake (ingredients: butter, flour, eggs, sugar, milk, vanilla, baking powder, salt) and assembled the cake from there.

I only have a 6-cup loaf pan, rather than a 4-cup loaf pan that would make for a taller cake, so the pound cake was a little too short to cut into four layers horizontally. So I cut only three pieces and made a pretty unwieldy three-layer cake.

Looking back on it, I think it might be better just to make a deconstructed cake, placing individual slices of cake on serving plates with macerated strawberries spooned over and topped off with dollops of whipped cream. It'd be just as tasty, if not as visually striking. The instructions for both versions are included in the recipe.

Grandma Pina’s Strawberry Cream Cake

Time from start to finish: ~25 minutes (not including baking the cake)

Strawberries
1 pound strawberries, hulled and sliced thin
3 tablespoons (37 grams) granulated sugar

Whipped cream
1 cup (232 grams) heavy or whipping cream
1 tablespoon (12 grams) granulated sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

1 Classic Pound Cake (made in a loaf pan)

    1. For the strawberries: In a medium bowl, combine the strawberries and the sugar, and let sit and macerate for about 15 minutes.
    2. For the whipped cream: Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk the cream, sugar, and vanilla together until you have whipped cream that holds at least soft peaks. You can also do this using a hand mixer or a stand mixer, but it's actually quick and easy to whip cream by hand.
    3a. To assemble the cake: Slice the pound cake horizontally into 3 layers. Set the top 2 layers aside. Spoon half of the strawberries onto the bottom piece of the cake, then spread a third of the whipped cream over the strawberries. Place the middle layer of the cake onto the whipped cream, then repeat with the remaining strawberries and another third of the whipped cream. Place the top layer of the cake onto the whipped cream, and top with the remaining third of the whipped cream. Refrigerate if not serving immediately.
    3b. To serve a deconstructed cake: Slice the cake vertically into individual servings and place onto serving plates. Top each slice with strawberries and whipped cream.