Throw away the box for cake you can really sink your teeth into

Tag : chiffon printing

CHICAGO -- When Chicagoan Susan Sanvidge and her three sistersdecided to assemble a cookbook for their mom that contained all ofthe recipes they remembered growing up in 1960s Oshkosh, Wis., oneof the first they recalled was a humble but delicious 13-by-9-inchcake filled with dates and chocolate chips.

"The thing that's memorable, taste-wise, is the moistness and allthese gorgeous little things in it to bite into," Sanvidge said.

The recipe came from a neighbor and is now part of their cookbook,"Apple Betty & Sloppy Joe," which went from homemade collection toofficial cookbook when it was published by the Wisconsin HistoricalSociety Press last fall.

"It definitely is an old-fashioned flavor," she added. "There iscinnamon in the cake, and in the topping, and it combines with thedates and the chocolate in an interesting way." What the cake hasis texture, toothsome and substantial, and flavor that trumpsbeauty. It's a trip to baking's past, when cooks were looking fordessert, not the assembly-line perfection, or light-as-a-feathertexture, that comes from a boxed mix.

These are the cakes of your mother's and grandmother's generation.

"Mixes took off in the '50s and they changed the way we looked atwhat a cake should be," said Nancie McDermott, author of "SouthernCakes: Sweet and Irresistible Recipes for Everyday Celebrations."Cake mixes, she added, have that "tall, rising-up, 'cottony'quality. And the foolproof-ness of them got people hooked.

"When you make a cake from scratch, you're not going to have thatfluffiness -- but it doesn't really belong in there," she said."Our cakes (used to be) solid."

McDermott's book, published by Chronicle last summer, is now in itsfourth printing. The recipes blend old-fashioned texture with theauthor's can-do approach to scratch cakes. In a class last fall atChicago's World Kitchen, McDermott emphasized that scratch bakingis within anybody's reach. The results are sometimes beautiful,sometimes rustic and always highly flavored cakes.

This is not to say that desserts spawned from a box are bad -- theycan be quite good. What is bad is that we think their texture isthe standard by which all cakes are judged.

"That's the expectation now," said Sarah Phillips, founder and CEOof baking911.com . "I get people on my Web site (who bake a scratch cake and) say itdoesn't taste like a cake should ... it's not light and fluffy. AndI have to educate people that not all cakes have to be light andfluffy."

True, light-as-a-feather scratch cakes have a long and reveredhistory; chiffon and angel food are marvelous examples. (Though ascratch angel food cake will still be moister, heavier anddevilishly better than the boxed version.)

Chemical emulsifiers are added to many cake mixes to keep the fatand liquid from separating; leavening agents help the cake rise,Ann Byrn explains in "The Cake Mix Doctor." The signature "cakemix" taste often comes from vanillin, a chemically createdflavoring. Phillips also credits bleached cake flour for both thelight texture and the aftertaste.

The scratch cake's leading players, butter and eggs, together withthe measuring vagaries that change ever so slightly from cook tocook, and day to day, create a cake that isn't wearing a uniform,and can be counted on for good taste -- especially if you use (andyou should) pure vanilla extract.



YELLOW CAKE WITH CHOCOLATE FROSTING

Preparation time: 55 minutes

Cooking time: 35 minutes

Yield: 12 servings

This cake uses two recipes adapted from Nancie McDermott'scookbook, "Southern Cakes." The yellow cake is the foundation forher coconut cake; the easy frosting is from her banana cake.

Cake

3 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 sticks (1 cup) butter, softened

2 cups granulated sugar

4 eggs

Frosting

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter

1/3 cup each: cocoa powder, evaporated milk or half-and-half

4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Mix the flour, baking powder and saltin a medium bowl; set aside. Combine the milk and vanilla in asmall bowl; set aside.

2. Beat the butter in a large bowl with a mixer on medium speeduntil creamy. Add the sugar; beat until light and evenly combined.Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until the mixture is smooth,about 3 minutes. Add one-third of the flour mixture; beat on lowspeed until well combined. Beat in half of the milk mixture. Beatin one-third of the flour mixture and the remaining milk. Beat inthe remaining flour mixture just until combined.

3. Scrape the batter into two greased and floured 9-inch round cakepans; bake until golden brown and cakes spring back when touchedlightly in the center, 25-30 minutes. Cool pans on wire racks 10minutes; turn out the cakes onto the racks. Turn the layers topside up. Cool completely.

4. For the frosting, combine the butter, cocoa and evaporated milkin a medium saucepan over medium heat; heat to a gentle boil. Cook,stirring, until mixture is dark and shiny, about 3 minutes. Removepan from heat; stir in the confectioners' sugar and vanilla; beatwith an electric mixer on low speed until smooth and thick.

5. Place one cake layer, top side down, on a cake plate; spreadabout 1 cup of the frosting over the top. Cover with second cakelayer, top side up; spread the remaining frosting evenly over thesides and top.

Nutrition information per serving: 641 calories, 35 percent ofcalories from fat, 26 g fat, 16 g saturated fat, 134 mgcholesterol, 99 g carbohydrates, 7 g protein, 200 mg sodium, 2 gfiber



DATE CHOCOLATE-CHIP CAKE

Preparation time: 30 minutes

Cooking time: 30 minutes

Yield: 12 servings

This dense and moist old-fashioned cake came from a family neighborin the early 1960s, writes Susan Sanvidge in "Apple Betty & SloppyJoe." It's filled with plumped dates and partially melted chocolatechips that add flavor and texture. The book also notes that, yes,the vanilla is stirred in at the very end.

Cake

1 cup chopped dates, see note

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 cups boiling water

1 cup sugar

3/4 cup shortening

2 eggs, beaten

1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons sifted flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon each: baking soda, salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

Topping

2/3 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup chopped nuts

1/3 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Whipped cream, optional

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Place the dates in a small bowl;sprinkle with the baking soda. Pour the boiling water over dates;let cool.

2. Cream the sugar and shortening in a large bowl; beat in theeggs, one at a time. Sift together the flour, cinnamon, baking sodaand salt in a medium bowl. Alternately add the flour mixture andcooled date mixture to the sugar-shortening mixture. Stir in thevanilla. Pour the batter into a greased and floured 13-by-9-inchpan.

3. For the topping, combine the chocolate chips, nuts, sugar andcinnamon in a bowl; sprinkle mixture over the top of the batter.Bake until cake springs back when lightly pressed, about 30minutes. Serve with whipped cream, if desired.

Note: To chop the sticky dates, use kitchen shears lightly coatedwith non-stick spray

Nutrition information per serving: 383 calories, 43 percent ofcalories from fat, 19 g fat, 7 g saturated fat, 35 mg cholesterol,52 g carbohydrates, 5 g protein, 242 mg sodium, 3 g fiber.



Cakes: Myths and tips

Here are two myths to break you out of your fear of scratch cakes:

• Myth: A perfect cake emerges from the oven with a flat top. "They'renever even!" author Nancie McDermott exclaimed. Cakes usuallyemerge "domed," especially the 8-and 9-inch rounds. "Bakeries havepeople leveling (the) cakes," she added.

If you want to level a cake, it's best done -- gently -- to acooled cake and using a long serrated knife. But frankly, don'tfeel you have to level the layers: Just add more frosting to evenit out.

• Myth: A stand mixer is essential to success. McDermott does not even owna stand mixer. While acknowledging that the appliance is wonderfulwhen you're whipping cream or a dozen egg whites, she thinks thathand mixers, which give you more contact with the bowl and itscontents, do a better job with most cake batters. You can buy agood hand mixer starting at $20.

Two things that ARE very helpful for the home baker:

• An oven thermometer. Most ovens are off, temperature-wise. This little gadget, whichfits on the rack of your oven, starts at about $6 and guaranteesthat the oven hits the temperature you need. Even supermarkets sellthem. However, if you don't have one, don't sweat it. You'll justhave to rely on the toothpick-coming-out-clean test.

• Use pure vanilla extract. Authors McDermott and Susanna Short, who are not slaves toperfection, emphasize using the real stuff. Pure vanilla doesn'thave to be more expensive: Aldi sells a fine vanilla for about $2per bottle.



Have your cake and eat it too

How often have you heard this one? "Oh, no cake for me. I'mwatching my diet."

We empathize. Cake is not health food, and the gargantuan wedgesthat can wind up on a dessert plate can be sort of scary. However,we also feel that cake is essential to any celebration.

So when Nancie McDermott, author of "Southern Cakes," visitedChicago last year to teach a cake class at World Kitchen, one ofthe tips she shared was how to cut a layer cake into thin,diet-friendly slices. (Another bonus to dense cakes: They're easierto slice.)

Note: Serrated knives and a gentle sawing motion make cuttingeasier.

1. Cut the cake into quarters.

2. Instead of cutting wedges, slice parallel to one of the fourcuts you've just created. Keep slicing; each quarter should yield 5or 6 slices. The last slices of each quarter will be a small oneconsisting mostly of frosting -- and they'll have their own fanclub.

If some guests want a traditional wedge, just use this technique ona quarter or half of the cake.