Texas Home Cooking
Page 50
CAKE
4 ounces Baker's German's Sweet Chocolate
½ cup water
1¾ cups cake flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
4 eggs, separated
1½ teaspoons vanilla
1 cup buttermilk
COCONUT-PECAN FROSTING
1½ cups evaporated milk
1 ⅓ cups sugar
¾ cup unsalted butter
4 egg yolks, lightly beaten
2 teaspoons vanilla
Pinch of salt
2 cups shredded coconut
1¾ cups chopped pecans, toasted
Makes a three-layer cake, serving 10 to 12
Preheat the oven to 350° F. Grease and flour three 9-inch round cake pans. Add waxed paper or parchment cut in circles to fit the pans, and grease and flour the paper.
Melt together the chocolate and water over low heat in a small saucepan. Keep the mixture warm.
Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl, and set the bowl aside.
With a mixer, cream together the sugar and butter. Add the egg yolks, then the chocolate and the vanilla, beating well after each addition. Mix in the sifted dry ingredients in batches, alternating with the buttermilk, and combine well.
Beat the egg whites in another bowl, preferably copper, until stiff peaks form. Fold the whites gently into the batter by hand. Divide the batter equally among the three prepared pans. Bake for 30 to 32 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Allow the layers to stand in their pans for about 5 minutes. Run a knife around their edges, invert them onto cake racks, and remove them from the pans. Let them cool.
While the layers cool, prepare the frosting. Combine the milk, sugar, butter, egg yolks, vanilla, and salt in a large, heavy saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture is slightly thickened, about 12 to 14 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat, and stir in the coconut and pecans. Continue stirring the frosting until it stiffens enough to spread thickly.
To assemble the cake, place one layer on a decorative serving plate. Spread one-third of the frosting over the top of the cake layer. Repeat with the remaining layers and frosting. The cake is best the day it's made, but because it's quite moist, it keeps another day or two tightly covered.
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Chocolate hasn't played a large role in Texas history, but it did have a bit part once in the war for independence. Along with opium and champagne, chocolate was one of Santa Anna's many indulgences, which together may have undermined his preparedness at the Battle of San Jacinto.
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Cake recipes far outnumber all others in early Texas cookbooks. Some were simple, such as the pound cake recipes that called for a pound of each ingredient, and the 1-2-3-4 cakes that required one cup of this, two cups of that, and so forth. Other recipes were less orthodox. Some used pinto beans, Dr Pepper, sausage, and even sauerkraut.
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The Texas A&M University food service invented cake mixes before they became a commercial product, as a way of expediting the baking process for all the cakes served to the student body.
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The Driskill's 1886 Room Chocolate Sheet Cake
Over the years, Texas legislators have probably done more business in the bar and dining room of Austin's Driskill Hotel than in the domed capitol down the street. Many solons sealed deals over this dark fudgy cake in the 1886 Room, the former restaurant named after the hotel's founding date. The recipe for the one-layer sheet or "sheath" cake is the cherished favorite of the Heritage Society of Austin, which first published it in the Austin Heritage Cook Book.
CAKE
1 cup unsalted butter
⅔ cup water
½ heaping cup cocoa
2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, beaten lightly
1 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 heaping teaspoon baking soda
ICING
½ cup unsalted butter
3 heaping tablespoons cocoa
3
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4 tablespoons half-and-half
2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup chopped pecans, toasted
1 teaspoon vanilla
Makes a 9-by-13-inch sheet cake
Preheat the oven to 350° F. Grease and flour a 9-by-13-inch cake pan.
Melt the butter in a large, heavy saucepan over medium heat. Remove the pan from the heat. Add the water and cocoa, stirring well. Sift together the flour, sugar, and salt, and stir them into the chocolate mixture. In a large bowl, combine the eggs, buttermilk, vanilla, and baking soda, add the chocolate mixture, and mix well.
Spoon the cake batter into the prepared pan, and bake 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
While the cake is baking, make the icing: Melt the butter with the cocoa in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Add the half-and-half, and heat it through. Mix in the remaining ingredients, blend well, and remove the pan from the heat. Pour the icing over the cake in its pan while both are still warm.
Serve the cake warm or at room temperature. The cake is moist enough to keep for up to 2 days, if it is covered and refrigerated.
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Traditional Texas weddings often featured two cakes. The bride's cake was always white and often as light as an angel food, and the groom's was usually a dark and dense chocolate.
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Fig Spice Cake with Buttermilk Glaze
When mockingbirds didn't get the wild figs in Texas, the succulent fruit often ended up in a rich cake. This version erupts with sugar and spice, fruit, and nuts, all topped with a buttermilk glaze.
CAKE
6 ounces dried figs
3¾ cups cake flour, sifted
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground allspice
½ teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup dark brown sugar
2 eggs
1½ tablespoons vanilla
¼ cup cane syrup or unsulphured dark molasses
¾ cup buttermilk
1 cup pecan pieces, toasted
BUTTERMILK GLAZE
¼ cup buttermilk
¼ cup unsalted butter
3 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon cane syrup or unsulphured dark molasses
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon vanilla
Makes a 10-inch tube cake
Preheat the oven to 350° F. Grease and lightly flour a 10-inch Bundt or other tube pan. Poach the figs about 15 minutes in water that covers them by ½ inch.
Pour off the figs' cooking liquid, and measure it. Add water or discard liquid as needed to end up with ⅓ cup. Reserve the liquid.
Chop the figs fine, and set them aside as well.
Sift the flour with the cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves.
Place the butter in a large mixing bowl, and beat it with an electric mixer until it is creamy. Add the sugar, and beat until the mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, and then the vanilla.
Pour the fig liquid and cane syrup into the buttermilk. Add the liquids to the butter mixture in thirds, alternating with the dry ingredients. Continue beating the batter until all the ingredients are well incorporated. Fold in the pecans and figs.
Spoon the batter into the prepared pan. Bake 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool the cake in the pan for 10 to 15 minutes
, and then invert it onto a baking rack. When the cake is cool, transfer it to a serving platter.
Make the glaze: Mix all the ingredients except the vanilla in a heavy saucepan (choose a large one—the mixture will increase in volume). Bring the glaze to a boil over medium-high heat, reduce the heat, and allow the glaze to simmer for about 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat, and stir in the vanilla.
Pour the warm glaze over the cake slowly, or spoon it over individual slices at serving time. The glazed cake is best the day it's made, but it can be frozen for up to a month.
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Helen Corbitt created a big hit in the 1950s by frosting cubes of white butter cake, rolling them in coconut, and calling them "snowballs." For many years, you couldn't have a debutante party or afternoon tea in Texas without them.
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The World's Best Fruitcake
The first cookbook known to have been published in Texas offered seven different recipes for fruitcake. The options have only proliferated since then, but making the right choice among them is simpler than ever. The finest fruitcake in the world, we're convinced, is made from an old German recipe developed originally by August Weidmann and his partner, Tom McElwee, bakers in Corsicana, Texas.
1 telephone
1 credit card
Makes a 1⅞-, 2⅞-, or whopping 4⅞- pound cake
Pick up the telephone, and call the Collin Street Bakery in Corsicana, Texas, at 800-248-3366 or 903-872-8111. Order an Original DeLuxe Fruitcake. The friendly folks on the other end will have it at your door almost as fast as you can make an inferior version.
Variation: When your cake arrives, open the tin, douse the cake with ½ cup or more of brandy, rum, or bourbon, replace the cover, and let the cake mellow several days. Outstanding.
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The Ringling Brothers Circus inspired the mail-order business at the Collin Street Bakery, by asking for a supply of fruitcakes for its troupe during a European tour. Now the bakery gets so many foreign orders—one came addressed simply to Fruitcake, USA—the cakes account for 4 percent of all surface packages shipped overseas from the United States during the busy holiday period. Ross Perot, never inclined to do anything on a small scale, once ordered 7,600 Original DeLuxes. A dozen or so end up at the White House each Christmas, even though Mr. Perot didn't.
The Collin Street Bakery consumes 2 percent of the world's annual pecan crop. Most of the nuts go into the bakery's fruitcakes, in which they constitute almost a third of the weight. The bakery chooses small native pecans with a high oil content and superior taste for the batter, and larger, more glamorous hybrids for decorating the top.
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Pineapple-Ginger Upside-Down Cake
A cakewalk favorite, a good pineapple upside-down cake could be a major money-maker at a church social. The idea of adding ginger to the ingredients comes from a cookbook published by the Church of the Annunciation in the town of West to commemorate its hundredth anniversary in 1974.
TOPPING
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
¾ cup dark brown sugar
1½ teaspoons powdered ginger
1 small fresh pineapple, peeled, cored, cut in rounds, and drained
¼ cup pecan halves
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10 cherries, optional
CAKE
1½ cups cake flour, sifted
¾ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
⅔ cup sugar
½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ cup sour cream
Makes a 10-inch cake
Preheat the oven to 350° F.
Make the topping: In a 10-inch cast-iron skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Stir in the brown sugar and ginger, and remove the pan from the heat. Arrange as many pineapple slices in the skillet as can be attractively positioned. Tuck the pecans and optional cherries in between. Set the skillet aside.
Make the batter: Sift together the flour, baking powder and soda, and salt. Set the mixture aside.
With a mixer, cream together the sugar and butter. Add the egg yolks, one by one, and then the vanilla, beating well after each addition. Mix in the sifted dry ingredients in thirds, alternating with the sour cream, and combine the ingredients well. The batter will be somewhat stiff.
Spoon the batter over the topping in the skillet, smoothing the top. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until the cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Run a knife around the cake's sides, and invert it onto a serving plate. Allow it to cool at least 15 minutes before serving.
Serve the cake warm or at room temperature.
Angel Food Cake Borracha
Texans use angel food as a base for numerous dessert preparations. This is a sassy "drunken" variation of the angelic classic.
CAKE
14 egg whites (from large eggs)
1¼ teaspoons cream of tartar
½ teaspoon salt
1¾ cups sugar
1¼ cups cake flour, sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon lemon juice
SAUCE
Juice of 6 oranges (about 2 cups)
Zest of 1 orange
1 cup sugar
¼ cup bourbon
¼ cup dark rum
2 tablespoons triple sec or other orange-flavored liqueur
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
1 canela (Mexican cinnamon) stick or cinnamon stick
Makes a 10-inch tube cake
Preheat the oven to 325° F. In a glass or metal bowl (plastic holds grease, the enemy of angel food) beat the egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt with a mixer until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in 1 cup of the sugar. Continue beating until the egg whites form stiff peaks.
Sift together the flour and remaining sugar three times. Quickly fold the dry ingredients into the egg whites, about ¼ cup at a time. Gently fold in the vanilla, almond extract, and lemon juice.
Pour the batter into an ungreased 10-inch tube pan with a removable bottom. Run a knife through the batter to eliminate air bubbles. Smooth the top of the batter. Bake the cake until it is pale brown and springy to the touch, about 50 to 55 minutes. There are likely to be some cracks in the surface, but you shouldn't have any gaping canyons.
If your tube pan doesn't have metal feet, invert it over a wine or soft drink bottle, or maybe a longneck (beer bottle). Cool the cake upside down for at least 1 hour. This allows its structure to set without collapsing. Turn the cake back right side up, and loosen it by running a knife around its edges. Remove the pan's sides first, and then dislodge the cake from the pan's center section. Transfer the cake to a serving plate, and poke a good number of holes in it with an ice pick or skewer.
While the cake cools, make the sauce: Combine all the sauce ingredients in a medium saucepan. Simmer over medium heat 10 minutes, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar. Remove the pan from the heat.
Remove the canela or cinnamon stick from the sauce, and discard it. Spoon the sauce slowly over the cake. The fruit zest should be distributed evenly over the top. Let the cake sit at least 1 hour before serving.
Serve the cake at room temperature. Tightly covered, it will keep for a couple of days.
Variations: If you prefer your angel food sober, try one of these preparations. For a peppermint angel food cake, crush 10 to 12 hard peppermint candies, and fold the pieces in with the flour and sugar. Reduce the vanilla extract by 1 teaspoon, and replace the almond extract with an equal quantity of peppermint extract.
Other possibilities include topping a plain cake with fresh strawberries, spoonfuls of boiled custard, or whipped cream mixed with chopped Heath bars.
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African-Americans started cakewalks as a party contest. The fanciest walker or dancer won a cake. Churches adopted the id
ea as a fundraiser, usually restraining some of the exuberance by making their cakewalks more like musical chairs.
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Technique Tip
These suggestions apply to any angel food cake recipe:
Even a speck of egg yolk in your whites can make it impossible to beat the eggs to the necessary volume. Break each egg into a smaller bowl first, so that if some yolk does slip in with your white, only that egg is lost, rather than the whole bowl.
Egg whites increase most in volume if beaten in a copper bowl at room temperature on a low-humidity day.
Superfine (not powdered) sugar dissolves best into the fluff of egg whites. Make your own by grinding granulated sugar in a food processor using the metal chopping blade.