Black Cake

This has been tested and verified as the real deal by folks who know. Greer and her family are from Jamaica- see her happy face below. For those of us unfamiliar with the Jamaican Black Cake, it's like fruitcake.

Hold on; don't go running from the room. It's good fruitcake.

Yes, there is such a thing.




My Dad found this recipe last December, 2007 that is, in the New York Times. I don't know what possessed him to be interested in it, or to forward it to me. Maybe it struck him as similar to mincemeat with all the booze and fruit? He's a Big Project cook (which reminds me of the latest revamp of Fine Cooking mag. There is a new section in each issue dedicated to weekend projects- the first is croissants, we're definitely making those!) The major project of mincemeat is a recipe for another time involving a whole cow's tongue, suet, and pounds of dried fruit, fresh fruit and bottles of booze... and canning. Talk about a project.

We made the black cake together last year and liked it. We are fruitcake fans, but really this isn't that gross green maraschino cherry thing, promise! In fact, we liked it so well that this year we both separately planned to make it. Dad arrived here for Christmas with a sample of his and I had the fruit soaking for mine. We had plenty of cake, that's for sure!!

Below is the Christmas Eve dessert scene at Greer and Stefan's house following the amazing feast of cioppino and the rest. As I think about it, I'd like to get them to make some more cioppino and invite me over- I hope my telepathic desires will be received...
You can see the whole Black Cake in the foreground- AND the plum cookies with the shaved pecorino cheese. Delicious!



Don't be afraid that the ingredients are going to cost a fortune and that you'll have 4 cakes- dive in and make this!

BLACK CAKE from NY Times December 2007

1 lb. prunes
1 lb. raisins
1/2 lb. golden raisins
1 lb. currents
1 1/2 lbs. dried cherries (or 1 lb. dry cherries, 1/2 lb. glace cherries) (I used all dry cherry)
1/4 lb. mixed candied citrus (I used citron)
2 c dark rum, plus more for brushing cake
1 1/2 cherry brandy
1/4 lb. blanched almonds
1 c white or light brown sugar for burning (or 1/4 c molasses which is what I used)
1 lb. butter
1 lb. brown sugar (Dad used dark and I used light-dark is probably better)
10 eggs
zest of 2 limes
2 t vanilla extract
1/2 t angostura bitters
4 c A.P. flour
4 t baking powder
2 t cinnamon

1. Combine prunes, raisins, currants, cherries, candied peel, rum and brandy. Sit for at least 2 days.

2. Grind fruit and almonds to a rough paste, leaving some chunks of fruit intact. Add more brandy or some wine if needed. Can work in batches in the f.p. or blender.

3. If burning sugar, melt 1 c sugar until it is almost black. It will smoke. Add 1/4 c boiling water, turn off heat. It will splatter.

4. Cream butter and brown sugar to smooth and fluffy. Mix in eggs 1 x 1. Add zest, vanilla and bitters.

5. Combine flour, baking powder and cinnamon and fold into butter mixture. Stir in fruit paste and black sugar or molasses. If the batter is light, add more molasses or sugar- should be medium-dark brown.

6. Divide between 4 8" (or 3 9") buttered and papered pans. (Recipe calls for 2 layers of paper, but I'm skeptical). Bake at 250 degrees- yes TWO hundred fifty degrees- for 1 hour. Reduce oven temp to 225 and bake for 2-3 more hours. Will test clean.

7. While cakes are hot, brush with rum. Brush with more rum when cakes are cool. Turn out and serve. Wrap, and store in a cool, dry place for up to one month.

Happy Baking!
-Janet

Travel back to 1942

My New Year's resolution for 2008 was to read The Art of Eating, by M.F.K. Fisher.  A compendium of her writings on food from 5 previous books.  I've failed at finishing it in one year -- I have a tendency to read one essay then put it down then read another.  I've, sadly, spent more time last year with it being put down than reading.  But I'm determined to finish it this year, along with The Odyssey by Homer. 

One of the books that this includes is How to Cook a Wolf, teaching people to cook well using the ration books that they received in war time. It somehow seems appropriate in our current financial crisis mode.  So, I've been turning down corners and saying, "I've gotta make this." So today I did.

War Cake

M.F.K. Fisher

2 cups flour, white or whole wheat
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup shortening (bacon grease can be used, because of the spices which hide its taste)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon other spices (cloves, mace, ginger..)
1 cup chopped raisins or other dried fruit (prunes, figs, etc.)
1 cup sugar, white or brown
1 cup water

Sift flour, soda and powder together.

Put remaining ingredients in a pan and bring to a boil. Cook five minutes. Cool thoroughly. Add the sifted dry ingredients and mix well. Bake 45 minutes or until done in a greased loaf pan in a 325 to 350 (F) oven.

Whenever I would ask my grandmother how to know if something was done, she'd say, "It feels done".  Not helpful to a little kid.  But as I was trying to talk to J about this cake, I was trying to explain why I was letting the cake cook a bit longer, after I touched it.  And I said, "It just doesn't feel done."  Grandma was right. 

This warm-spiced fruit-type cake is just that: warmly spiced with cinnamon, ginger and cloves that would have covered up any bacon taste, but I used butter instead.  What drew me to it was the fact that you boil the fat with the spices and sugar instead of creaming them together.  After you boil it for 5 minutes and let it cool completely it gets a bit syrupy. The dried fruits are softened and not the hard overly chewy bits in some fruitcakes.  This must also add to the overall moisture of this cake.  The texture is moist and dense.  Just lovely. It was a bit difficult to get out of the pans, but I think if you cool it completely, it will come out better.   Ms. Fisher says that the cake would keep well.  I can see my grandmother making something like this and wrapping it in wax paper. 

Full disclosure:  The photo included here is from my second try at making this cake. I bet my grandmother never left her cake in the oven to begin working on her blog like I did.  This time, I doubled the recipe and as you can tell, we liked it so much we didn't wait to take a picture, we just dove right it.  Luckily we have one in the freezer.  (Please notice the cake plate: a gift from my Mother and Father-in-laws.  A wedding gift to them, and the best "re-gifted" Christmas gift I've ever received.)

Until I started to read How to Cook a Wolf, I always wondered why my Grandma had a jar of bacon grease on the stove -- Now, I realize now that she was born in 1899 and was 29 when the Depression hit and old habits are hard to break.

 

Robb

The gift that keeps giving

I'm not one to make New Year's Resolutions lists.  I've found that I've done well with my resolutions being singular and often easily completed in a week or so of the nerve wracking January 1 date.  One year my goal was to read Anna Karenina. I had purchased it a few months before and it was staring at me.  Since then, I've only had the resolve to read one specific book per year.  There was a year when I decided that I'd quit smoking.  Luckily, that one held -- I'm now 2 years smoke free.

But, if you were to look at our blog, you'd think that both J and I were meeting some resolution inflicted quota.

Way back in August I got a great gift from my baking companion -- an Easy Bake Oven.  It actually meant a lot to me -- in my younger days, my neighbor had one (circa 1972) and we would bake in it and I used to play with her Barbie dolls too, but that's not really relevant to this blog.

Today, with a bit of time and a swift kick to my pants, I made a cake in my Easy Bake Oven.  Here's what I learned: The cake sticks a bit.  The batter is a bit runny.  The frosting way thick.  The smell is compelling.  Frosting the cake was easier than I remember it -- I assume it was from all the practice I've gotten with this blog. 

The cake that came out of my lightbulb heated plastic oven was quite nice.  A bit spongy, but all in all an "adequate cake" to paraphrase J's father.

The chocolate frosting was a bit thick, but a couple drops of water fixed that right up.  It was tasty -- but remember folks, I'm the one who's written about frosting with a tub o' frosting, so my opinion on frosting is a bit suspect.

Notice the lovely cake plate -- just the right size to showcase this lovely treat -- J and Kev got it for me for Christmas.  

Robb

Plum Pecorino Cookies

I picked up Nancy Silverton's Pastries from Le Brea Bakery a while back. I was flipping through it looking for something impressive to make for Christmas Eve dinner we were invited to. The dinner had an Italian theme- cioppino, pasta, leg of lamb- and was delicious.

These cookies fit the bill- anise seed dough, almond, fruit and cheese. They're really more of a pastry than a cookie, or you could think of them as a large cookie to share.

Dough:
2 T toasted ground anise seeds
2.5 c A.P. flour
1/2 c sugar
1 t b. powder
Pulse in f.p.
Cut in 8 oz. chilled butter and pulse in 1/2 c heavy cream mixed with 2 XL egg yolks and 2 T vanilla. Smear the dough to form a ball (a la pate brisee), and chill 2 hours.

Almond Cream:
Process 5 oz. almonds and 1/4 c sugar
Cream 1/4 c sugar and 2.5 oz. butter and add to almonds.
Mix in 2 oz. almond paste.
Drizzle in 1 XL egg, 1 T rum, 1/2 t almond extract.
Chill.

Roll out the dough to 1/8" and cut 4 3/4" rounds and set on lined baking sheets 1 " apart. Chill. Spread 2 t almond cream onto dough and top with thinly sliced plums (start with 2.5 lb.s plums). You're making a big layered flower shape. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and dot with butter. Bake at 350 for 25 min. Cool and shave 4oz. pecorino cheese over the top. You should have 14 large and incredible cookies. My Dad helped arrange the plums, and we discovered that it was hard to slice the plums paper thin as suggetsted, and that the thicker slices worked out pretty well on the bottom of the layers.



In our haste to get over to the Christams Eve dinner, I forgot to take a picture of the finished cookie! Picture what's above looking cooked but still in that shape, with shaved cheese on top. The cheese really adds a terrific dimension of flavor- don't skip it!!

Happy baking
-Janet

Daring Bakers December Challenge

This month's challenge is brought to us by the adventurous Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry and Marion from Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux.
They have chosen a French Yule Log by Flore from Florilege Gourmand

What is a French Yule Log you say? Good question!

It's a frozen dessert made of mousse and other stuff suspended in the mousse. This version is chocolate mouse, with a layer of crispy nutty stuff, a dense rich chocolate ganache layer, a dacquoise layer and a layer of creme brulee. (Although Robb pointed out, there's no brulee, it's just custard.)



Please email for the recipes- I have them in a (19 page!!!) word document ready to send.

I impressed myself with this one. I put it together without any fuss, aside from a little trouble with the broken custard layer, as you can see. Having the cool pan (see photo below) with moving sides also helped.

Speaking of the custard, if it sounds weird and a little gross to have a custard layer suspended in mousse, you are not alone. The flavors are quite compatible, a lovely eggy vanilla custard and a nice chocolate mousse. But I don't get why you'd want the texture contrast. Then, you freeze it?? Ugh, crystals of frozen custard in mousse- no thanks.

On the other hand, the dense ganache layer (dark stripe at the bottom) is terrific. The slightly chewy when frozen, nutty and sweet dacquoise next door to the ganache is pretty fine, too. The middle layer of lighter chocolate is a milk chocolate and hazelnut crispy layer. I took advantage of a short cut offered and instead of making the crispy lace crepes to mix in to the milk chocolate and praline paste, I used Special K. Yes, the cereal. I will be serving this tonight and I'm sure no one will say OMG, there's cereal in this! It totally works.

Thanks Daring Bakers for a terrific challenge. I enjoyed this one.
-Janet

Christmas Time is Here

Michael and I had our annual holiday party.  This year I served a pumpkin cake that got rave reviews.  It's a recipe that was given to me by my Aunt Bobbie -- my mom's sister.

Originally she served it as a three layer cake.  I served it as a bundt cake -- it cooks a bit longer, but it looks really pretty and for a buffet it works quite nicely. I usually leave the icing off and serve it sprinkled with powdered sugar.

Here is the recipe:

Aunt Bobbie’s Pumpkin Cake

Cake:
2 C sifted flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
2 C sugar
1 C cooking oil
2 tsp soda (dissolve in water)
4 large eggs
2 C pumpkin

Icing:
1 stick butter (salted), room temperature
1 pkg 8oz philly cream cheese, room temperature
2 tsp vanilla
1 box (1 lb) confectioner’s sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease (with Crisco) and flour pans or use Pam with Flour.

In a bowl, put flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and sugar. Mix well.

In another bowl, put cooking oil, soda (dissolved in water) and eggs. Beat well.

Add dry ingredients to the wet and beat in pumpkin. Mix until combined. Pour into greased and floured pans and bake at 350 degrees.

For three layer cake 30 minutes (check it at 25 min.)
For bundt cake 40 – 50 minutes (check at 35 min.)

For icing: Mix butter, cream cheese and vanilla until fully combined, then add sifted confectioner’s sugar in thirds.

Frost completely cooled cake.

After a long time....

Here is a sampling of what we've been up to since we last wrote:

We are still making our way through the Cake Bible -- we have made a lovely genoise and have it freezing to be completed (with pictures) sometime in 2009.  Somehow the holiday season took over and while we've been eating -- obviously, we're still here -- we've not been good at taking photos of said comestibles.

One thing I did try, and photograph, was a puff pastry filled with smoked, shaved ham and gruyere cheese.  This was quick to put together and a great mix of flaky crust, melty, gooey cheese and a smoky bit of ham. It was really impressive out of the oven.  We had it cut into 4 pieces.  Served with a salad it would be a nice light lunch or dinner.

I got it from Barefoot Contessa, here is the recipe from the foodtv.com website:

Ham and Cheese in Puff Pastry
by Ina Garten

Prep Time: 25 min Cook Time: 25 min
Level: Easy
Serves: 6 servings

1 package (2 sheets) frozen puff pastry, defrosted (recommended: Pepperidge Farm)
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1/4 pound black forest ham, sliced
1/2 pound Swiss Gruyere cheese, sliced
1 egg, beaten with 1 tablespoon water, for egg wash

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Place a piece of parchment paper on a sheet pan.

Lay 1 sheet of puff pastry on a floured board and carefully roll it out to 10 by 12 inches. Place it on a sheet pan and brush the center with the mustard, leaving a 1-inch border around the edge. Place a layer first of ham and then cheese, also leaving a 1-inch border. Brush the border with the egg wash.

Place the second sheet of puff pastry on the floured board and roll it out to 10 by 12inches. Place the second sheet on top of the filled pastry, lining up the edges. Cut the edges straight with a small, sharp knife and press together lightly. Brush the top with egg wash and cut a few slits in the top to allow steam to escape.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until puffed and golden brown. Allow to cool for a few minutes and serve hot or warm.