Buttermilk-Brown Sugar Pound Cake

I decided to make a pound cake for dessert and came across this recipe in The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook, which is an outstanding book, by the way. The original recipe calls for mace (I'm not sure what it tastes like), which I omitted. For flavoring, I used a combination of vanilla and almond extract. I can't find my regular loaf pan, so I made four mini pound cakes and have frozen some for later. The cake itself is very moist and did fall a bit after it came out of the oven. I served the pound cake slices with ice cream and Blueberry Syrup recipe that I made up. (A friend said it tasted a lot better than the blueberry syrup at IHOP; I hope so!) Enjoy!

Buttermilk-Brown Sugar Pound Cake
1 1/4 cups butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp. granulated sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. almond extract
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup buttermilk

1. Beat butter and sugars with an electric mixer until creamy. Add in eggs, 1 at a time, beating until blended after each addition. Stir in vanilla and almond extract.
2. Combine flour and next 2 ingredients in a bowl. Gradually add to butter mixture alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Pour into lightly greased mini loaf pans.
3. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes or until a pick inserted in center of cake comes out clean.

Blueberry Syrup
1 pint fresh blueberries
Zest and juice from 1 lemon
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water

1. Combine ingredients in a small saucepan, and cook, stirring occasionally, until sugar dissolves and liquid begins to thicken. Taste and add more sugar, if desired. Serve warm.