Grand Marnie

'New Yorkers," says Marnie Carmichael, "are amazed at the plain and simple, wonderful taste of real pound cake." Armed with this conviction, and the secret recipe of her greataunt Nonnie, the 37-yearold actress has become cake baker to the stars. Marnie moved to New York from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 10 years ago, and 10 years' worth of culinary compliments inspired her to go into the pound-cake business last year. She runs her operation between auditions, having appeared Off Broadway in Up Against It and Side by Side by Sondheim, and, as she puts it, "in a million commercials, from Baker's chocolate to Drano." She's tight-lipped about her recipe ("I was told it had been around since shortly after the earth cooled"), though it includes a pound each of butter, eggs, sugar, and flour —hence the name. When asked if she has tempered it for our fat-conscious times, Marnie sniffs, 'There will never be a Nonnie's Lite."

It isn't just the warm, sunshiny taste of Mamie's pound cake that gets you, but the presentation as well. Each is personalized and delivered in an old-fashioned cardboard hatbox. "By personalized," she cautions, "I don't mean decorated with plastic basketballs and 'Happy Birthday to the World's Greatest Sky Diver' written on it." The editor of a men's magazine recently received a cake-bearing hatbox dressed in a black leather vest. And a famous ballerina who got one on Christmas Eve found hers romantically attired in an antique silk-satin bow with a bouquet of white roses and white lilacs. Mamie's calling card reads, "Nonnie's Traditional Southern. The best damn pound cake on earth." Prices start at $40 for a small cake, and go as far as your imagination and your pocketbook will allow. Call her at 212-691 -0673. And don't wait till the last minute.

DAVID DANIEL