weddings everywhere: chocolate pound cake

I don't know about ya'll but this summer has been just like the last few: the beginning of wedding season. I've been invited to six between July and November, and am making it to five of them - which means 8 flights, 4 hotel rooms and 4 rental cars. I'm at that late 20's stage where many friends are participating in one (or more) of three life stages: getting married, having babies, or buying their first homes. Three major decisions that many girls make before they turn 30 - well, unless they live in New York City.

You see, we breed a specific type of lady - the type who at 30-years old is meeting her friends for happy hour on a Monday night, dating whenever (and whomever) she wants, and renting her 400 square-foot studio apartment. There's a reason Sex & The City lives on in re-runs - New York City women are fabulous, and many of us are single. But being city-fabulous doesn't mean we don't envy our suburban-fabulous counterparts who are racking up life stages like we rack up Jimmy Choo's from sample sales. I mean, shoot. We want to get married and have babies and washer/dryer's too!

But, for the time being we'll be patient, take our laundry to the laundromat, and travel far and wide to throw rice, blow bubbles, and drink champagne toasts. After all, weddings are FUN.

This weekend I got to celebrate a dear friend who had a lovely midwestern wedding in her hometown in Ohio. Oh, and she looked absolutely STUNNING! We had so much fun dancing the night away and I'm so happy for her. Congrats, congrats Alyssa and Mark!

The recipe I'm sharing is a knock-off from another wedding - my cousin's nuptials last month in South Georgia. She had a wedding cake and a groom's cake, and I ate my share of the chocolately latter (and then some). It was so amazing that I tried to re-create it at home a few days later. My version wasn't perfect but it was close! My Mom called it chocolate pound cake like her great aunt used to make, but this was better than any pound cake from Starbucks.

You can make it in a tube or bundt pan or in two loaves - it was delicious and you can't beat the ease of directions! Give it a shot the next time you need to bring a hostess gift - it would wrap up nicely with a pretty bow!

Chocolate Pound Cake

Recipe found in my grandmother's old cookbook and submitted by the following teachers:

Nola Allen, Russelville, AL

Betty Coe, Montevallo, AL

Annie Childress, Mangham, LA

Mary Markham, Lumberton, NC

1 cup butter

1/2 cup shortening

3 cups sugar

5 eggs

3 cups flour

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

4 tbsp. cocoa

1 cup milk

1 tsp. vanilla

Cream together butter and shortening. Add sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each. Add vanilla. Sift all dry ingredients together. Add dry ingredients and milk alternately to creamed mixture. Bake in 10" tube pan at 325 F for 80 minutes.