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1/3 cup butter, softened

1/3 cup sugar

3 large eggs, beaten until frothy

1 cup warm milk (105° to 115° F.)

4 cups sifted all-purpose flour combined with 1 teaspoon salt

1. Butter a 10-inch tube pan well and set aside.

2. Mix the yeast into the warm water in a small bowl and set aside to soften for about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, beat the butter and sugar in a large electric mixer bowl at high speed until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and beat just enough to combine.

3. Combine the softened yeast with the warm milk, then, with the mixer at low speed, add the flour alternately with the yeast mixture, beginning and ending with the flour.

4. Remove the bowl from the mixer, cover with a clean, dry cloth, then set in a warm, draft-free spot for about 1 hour or until the dough has doubled in bulk.

5. Stir the dough down, then pour into the tube pan, spreading as evenly as possible. Again cover with a cloth and set in a warm spot to rise until doubled in bulk; this second rising will take 30 to 40 minutes. Toward the end of rising, preheat the oven to 350° F.

6. When the dough is fully risen, bake the Sally Lunn in the lower third of the oven for 45 to 50 minutes or until nicely browned and hollow sounding when thumped.

7. Remove the Sally Lunn from the oven and cool in the upright pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Using a thin-blade spatula, loosen the bread around the edge and around the central tube, then invert on a large round platter.

8. Cut the Sally Lunn into wedges and serve warm with fresh sweet butter.

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TIME LINE: the people and events that shaped Southern Cuisine

1947

McCormick of Baltimore acquires A. Schilling & Co., a San Francisco coffee, extract, and spice house, gaining West Coast distribution for its East Coast products.

Vernon Rudolph offers Krispy Kreme franchises at $3,500 a pop and throws in ten bags of doughnut mix, vital equipment, packaging supplies, and a Chevrolet panel truck.

Reynolds Metals of Louisville, Kentucky, rolls out aluminum foil.

Italian immigrant Anthony Rossi founds a citrus shipping business in southwest Florida; over time it becomes Tropicana.

The Pender-Rogers chain of Atlanta begins renaming its self-service stores. They are now Colonial Stores. In fewer than ten years, Colonial extends its reach by absorbing the midwestern Albers and Stop and Shop chains. By 1970, there are 430 Colonial groceries in nine states.

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MORAVIAN SUGAR CAKE

MAKES 12 SERVINGS

“Cake” is a misnomer, for this is a delicate yeast bread dimpled with melted butter and brown sugar. I buy it whenever I go to Old Salem, a faithfully restored Moravian town on the south side of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Sugar cake is still baked at the 200-year-old Winkler Bakery there, and I’ve watched the staff, in period dress, knead and shape the dough. Sugar cake is also served for breakfast at the nearby Brookstown Inn, an old cotton mill given new life as a luxury bed-and-breakfast.

One ¼-ounce package active dry yeast

¼ cup granulated sugar

½ cup very warm water (105° to 115° F.)

¼ cup firmly packed mashed potatoes, at room temperature

1 tablespoon nonfat dry milk powder

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup (1 stick) butter, melted

1 large egg, at room temperature

2¼ to 2½ cups unsifted all-purpose flour

1/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar mixed with ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

1. Generously spritz a 15 × 10 × 1-inch jelly-roll pan with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.

2. By hand, combine the yeast, ½ teaspoon of the sugar, and ¼ cup of the warm water in a large electric mixer bowl and let stand for 5 minutes or until the yeast activates and the mixture froths.

3. Add the remaining sugar and the remaining water, the potatoes, dry milk, salt, ¼ cup of the melted butter, the egg, and ½ cup of the flour. Beat at low speed just long enough to combine, raise the mixer speed to high, and beat for about 2 minutes or until satiny. With the mixer at low speed, add 1½ cups of the remaining flour, ½ cup at a time,