Eat Cake: A Novel (30 page)
Makes 1 (13-by-9-inch) cake
ACTIVE TIME:
30
MIN START TO FINISH:
1
HR
If you are using salted pistachios, omit the ¼ teaspoon salt in the ingredient list.
¾ cup shelled natural pistachios (4 oz)
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup whole milk
¼ teaspoon vanilla
1½ sticks (¾ cup) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
Preheat oven to 350°. Butter a 13-by-9-inch metal cake pan, then line bottom with wax paper. Butter paper and dust with some flour, knocking out excess.
Pulse pistachios in a food processor until finely ground (be careful not to over process into a paste). Add 1 cup flour, baking powder, cardamom, and salt and pulse once or twice to mix.
Combine milk and vanilla in a measuring cup.
Beat together butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Alternately add pistachio flour and milk in batches, beginning and ending with flour, and mix at low speed until just combined.
Spread batter evenly in cake pan and bake in middle of oven until a tester comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Cool in pan on a rack 10 minutes, then run a thin knife around sides of cake and invert onto rack. Remove paper and invert cake onto a platter. Cut into squares and serve warm or at room temperature.
COOKS’ NOTE:
Cake can be made 1 day ahead. Cool completely and keep, covered, at room temperature.
Gourmet Magazine
, May 2001
1 cup corn or canola oil
1¼ cup honey
4 large eggs (room temperature)
1 cup cake flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon (be generous)
3 cups grated carrots (use large, sweet, peeled carrots)
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
Heat oven to 325°. Mix oil and honey well. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Sift flour and other dry ingredients. Add to oil and honey mixture and mix until just blended. Fold in grated carrots and nuts. Bake in two greased and floured 8-by-8-inch Pyrex baking pans for 30 to 35 minutes or until pick inserted in center comes out clean and cake is beginning to pull away from edges of pan.
You might cut the cake into wedges and serve it warm as a vegetable, as Ruth does, or let it cool, remove from the pans, and frost with your favorite cream cheese icing for dessert. How about one of each?
Cake
¾ cup golden raisins
½ cup dark rum
2 large or 3 medium-sized sweet potatoes
4 large eggs
2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup mild-flavored vegetable oil
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt, plus extra for salting the water
1½ teaspoons cinnamon
½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
¾ cup buttermilk
Additional unsalted butter, at room temperature, for greasing the pans
Additional all-purpose flour, for dusting the tins
Glaze
½ cup tightly packed dark brown sugar
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 tablespoons whipping cream (35%)
Remaining rum macerating liquid from raisins
1. Preheat oven to 350°. Grease and flour a 10-inch bundt cake pan. In a small non-reactive bowl, soak the raisins in the rum for at least 30 minutes or several hours. Meanwhile peel the sweet potatoes, cut them in half and then cut each half into 4-inch slices. Place the slices into a pot of cool salted water, cover, and then bring the water to a boil. Reduce to a gentle simmer and then cook until the sweet potatoes are very tender when pierced with a sharp knife. Drain off the water and allow the potatoes to air-dry for a few minutes, then use a potato masher or large fork to roughly mash them. Measure out 2 cups of the mash and set aside to cool.
2. In a large bowl with a whisk or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the eggs a little just to break them up. Add the sugar and beat until the mixture
is thick and pale, about 2 minutes with a mixer, 3 if whisking by hand. Add the vegetable oil and vanilla, then beat to blend. Drain the raisins and set aside, but add ¼ cup of the rum macerating liquid to the batter. Add the mashed sweet potatoes and mix until thoroughly combined, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl.
3. Into a separate bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Add the flour mixture to the batter in three additions, alternating with the buttermilk in two additions, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Fold in the raisins.
4. Pour the entire batter into bundt pan. Bake in the center of the oven 1 hour to 1 hour and 20 minutes, or until a wooden skewer inserted into the center comes out clean, and the cake is just beginning to pull away from the sides of the pan. Cool the cake in the pan set on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then invert onto the rack. Set the rack over a baking sheet or large plate to catch the excess glaze. This cake must be glazed while still warm, so it absorbs the maximum syrup—so don’t take it out of the oven and go to the movies!
5. For the glaze, combine the brown sugar, butter, and cream in a small, heavy bottomed sauce pan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Continue to boil until the mixture thickens somewhat, about 3 minutes, stirring often. Remove the glaze from the heat and stir in the rum. With a long wooden or metal skewer poke holes all over the cake, concentrating on the top. Spoon about half the warm glaze over the cake and let the cake and remaining
glaze cool for 10 to 15 minutes, until it has thickened slightly. Pour the rest of the glaze over the cake, letting it dribble down the sides, then allow the cake to cool completely before cutting and serving or wrapping and storing.
In the Sweet Kitchen
by Regan Daley. Artisan/Workman Publishers, 2001
Serves 6
For topping
2½ firm pears (preferably Bosc)
½ stick (¼ cup) unsalted butter
¾ cup packed light brown sugar
For cake
2½ cups all-purpose flour
1½ teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup molasses (preferably mild)
1 cup boiling water
1 stick (½ cup) unsalted butter, softened
½ cup packed light brown sugar
1 large egg, lightly beaten
Special equipment
A well-seasoned 10-inch cast-iron skillet
Or
A 12-inch deep nonstick skillet (handle wrapped with a double layer of foil if not oven proof)
MAKE TOPPING:
Peel and core the pears and cut each into 8 wedges.
Melt butter in skillet over moderate heat until foam subsides.
Reduce heat to low, then sprinkle brown sugar over bottom of skillet and cook, undisturbed, 3 minutes (not all sugar will be melted). Arrange pears decoratively over sugar and cook, undisturbed, 2 minutes. Remove from heat.
MAKE CAKE:
Preheat oven to 350°.
Whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and salt in a bowl. Whisk together molasses and boiling water in a small bowl. Beat together butter, brown sugar, and egg in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until creamy, about 2 minutes, then alternately mix in flour mixture and molasses in 3 batches until smooth.
Pour batter over topping in skillet, spreading evenly and being careful not to disturb pears, and bake in middle of oven until a tester comes out clean, 40 to 50 minutes. Cool cake in skillet on a rack 5 minutes. Run a thin knife around edge of skillet, then invert a large plate with a lip over skillet and, using pot holders to hold skillet and plate tightly together, invert cake onto plate. Replace any pears that stick to skillet. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Gourmet Magazine
, February 2002
JEANNE RAY
works as a registered nurse at the First Clinic in Nashville, Tennessee. She is married and has two daughters. Together, she and her husband have ten grandchildren. She is the bestselling author of
Julie and Romeo
and
Step~Ball~Change
.
GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT
is made to the following for permission to reprint previously published material.
Artisan:
“Sweet Potato Bundt Cake with Rum-Plumped Raisins and a Spiked Sugar Glaze,” “Oatmeal Stout Cake with a Chewy Oat Topping,” “Almond Apricot Pound Cake with Amaretto,” and “Black Chocolate Espresso Cake with Bittersweet Glaze” from
In the Sweet Kitchen
by Regan Daley. Copyright © 2001 by Regan Daley. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of Artisan, a division of Workman Publishing Co., Inc., New York.
Condé Nast Publications:
“Upside-Down Pear Gingerbread Cake” (
Gourmet
, February 2002). Copyright © 2002 by Condé Nast Publications. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of Condé Nast Publications.
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.:
“Golden Grand Marnier Cake” from
The Cake Bible
by Rose Levy Beranbaum. Copyright © 1988 by Rose Levy Beranbaum. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
The New York Times:
Recipe “Lady Baltimore Cake” from “Rich and Famous” by Julia Reed (The
New York Times Magazine
, April 21, 2002). Distributed by
The New York Times Special Features
. Copyright © 2002 by Julia Reed. Reprinted by permission of
The New York Times
.
