“Pride comes before a fall!”(as taken from Proverbs 16:18)  This was something I heard many times from my great-grandmother, Elizabeth Nickerson Ogletree.  Whether it was President Nixon getting caught up in Watergate, some church scandal, or even us kids getting “‘omnish”(womanish or sassy), this would be her tried and true quote.

Not only can this quote be applied to someone heading toward a “comeuppance”, it can definitely be applied to baking.  Namely, my beautitul cream cheese pound cake that fell!  Please understand, this cake was made with so much puffed up pride and vanity, it was destined for a fall.

You see, there’s a lady at my church who has become like family to us since we moved here eight years ago.  She’s kind, motherly, stylish, and wow can she cook!  Johnnie reminds me of my own mother.  I knew that she’d be celebrating a birthday and I wanted to do something extra special for her and of course, get praise for my cake (see, that’s Pride at work).  I settled on a Cream Cheese Pound Cake and a jar of homemade caramel sauce.

So, I pulled together my best butter and pure extracts and it was cake time.  The batter was absolutely divine!  I’m really showing these folks how to make a cake(oops, even more pride!).  Into the oven, heavily monitoring baking time and doneness, the final product…O~M~G it’s freaking gorgeous!  Five minutes later, I’ve lost about 1/2 inch on it’s height.  That’s okay, it settled a little but it’s still big and beautiful!  Thirty minutes later, it had fallen and sank down into itself like I’d thrown water on the Wicked Witch of the West!  (The FALL of the prideful cake baker!)

Anyway, I couldn’t give this as a gift.  On the the next best thing…I already had fresh cherries on hand so I decided to make a sauce to serve over what I could salvage in the way of cake. Cherries and whipped cream make most failures all better!

Cherry Dessert Sauce
Makes about 2 cups

2 cups fresh sweet cherries(preferably firm), pitted and halved
1/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 teaspoon corn starch
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon orange liqueur, I used Grand Marnier

In a bowl, stir together cherries and corn starch, set aside until ready to use.  In a saucepan, heat sugars, butter, and water on medium heat stirring until sugars have melted and mixture begins to bubble.  Add corn starch coated cherries and stir until mixture begins to thicken slightly, about 2 minutes.  Stir in orange liqueur and reduce heat to low simmering for 1 minute.  Remove from heat and serve warm or at room temperature as a dessert sauce.