SG Archives:Spiced Apple Cake

Don't Panic



A friend of mine celebrated his 6th Annual 42nd birthday this past fall. For those of you unfamiliar with Douglas Adams and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, 42 is the answer to life, the universe, and everything. Bill, having achieved answerhood, decided to continue to be 42 forever — or at least until the Earth is destroyed to make way for a pan-galactic bypass.

Each year, beginning with his 1st Annual 42nd birthday, Bill has thrown a party and invited his programming buddies, his musician buddies, and any and all 4th dimensional beings who happen to be in he neighborhood. Although Bill has been kind enough to invite me every year, I've always managed to outsmart his blandishments by living somewhere else. Last fall I ran out of other places to be living and so I had to attend.

Each year, beginning with his 1st Annual 42nd birthday, Bill has thrown a party.

I left my towel in the trunk of my car (I like to be prepared for sudden exits) but a number of folks wore theirs and, as you would expect, a few people arrived in bathrobes.

I'm not sure what possessed me, but I decided to bake a birthday cake for the event.

Spiced-Apple Cake (From Williams-Sonoma "Thanksgiving")
Serves 12.

3/4 lb butter — softened
3 tbsp butter
2 3/4 c sugar
3 Braeburn apples — peeled, cored, and cut into 1/2" dice
3 2/3 c all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp grated nutmeg
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3/4 c milk
1 tbsp vanilla extract
3/4 c unsweetened natural applesauce
6 eggs
Frosting:
6 1/2 c confectioners' sugar, sifted
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 lb cream cheese — softened
2 tbsp butter — softened
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp brandy

Have all ingredients at room temperature.

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Melt 1 1/2 tablespoons of butter and stir in 2 tablespoons of sugar. Add half of apples and cook, stirring occasionally, until golden — about 8 minutes. Reserve cooked apples. Add additional 1 1/2 tablespoons of butter and 2 tablespoons of sugar to skillet and cook remaining apples. Reserve.

Heat oven to 325F. Position rack in center, and grease and flour 2 9" cake pans.

Sift together flour, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, baking powder, and salt. In a small bowl mix together milk, applesauce, and vanilla.

In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat remaining 3/4 lb butter until creamy and smooth. Add the remaining 2 1/2 cups of sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes — stopping the mixer occasionally to scrape down sides.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Reduce the speed to low and add the flour in three additions, alternating with the milk/applesauce mixture and beginning and ending with the flour. Beat each addition until just incorporated, occasionally scraping down the sides of the bowl. Remove from mixer and gently fold in apples.

Divide the batter between the two pans, spreading it evenly. Bake until the center of the cake springs back when touched and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean — 35 to 40 minutes. Transfer pans to a wire rack and allow to cool for about 15 minutes. Turn the cakes out onto the racks and cool completely, about 2 hours.

Frosting:
Whisk together the confectioners' sugar, ginger, and cinnamon. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the cream cheese and butter on medium speed until smooth, 1 to 2 minutes, occasionally scraping down the sides. Add the vanilla and brandy and beat until combined. Reduce speed to low and gradually add confectioners' sugar. Increase speed to medium-high ad beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Refrigerate for 30 minutes before using.

Using a bread knife, make a cut halfway up on one side of a cake. Then, using a length of dental floss, carefully draw it through the cake cutting it in half. Repeat for second cake.

Place a large spoon-full of frosting in the center of a cake plate to keep layer from moving. Place a bottom layer, cut-side down, on the plate. Frost top of layer with 1/4 of frosting. Place top layer on top and frost. Repeat for remaining layers.

This is a killer cake with perfectly balanced flavors. And as you can see, it looks really nice too.

Try this cake with...
Boeuf Bourguignon
Lamb Chops a la Grecque
Milk-braised Pork Roast

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | desserts | apples | cake

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SG Archive: Bourbon Cake

Christmas TK



In the copy-editing business there are lots of funky spellings and abbreviations. These are all intended to set off the editors' internal alarms so they won't be mistaken for anything except attention grabbers to other editors. For instance "header" is spelled "HEDR," "side bar" SIDBAR," and "to come" "TK." I've even seen "title" labeled as "TIT." The use of all-caps helps when shouting out in print and also reinforces the idea these are terms are not meant for inclusion in the finished piece. And hopefully someone who's name is "Hedr" won't get replaced with "Obscure Nazi Found," unless Hedr really is an obscure Nazi. And hopefully no one hoping for press coverage is using TK as an initialism.

Christmas 2009 is TK and as all Christmases are, it's worth preparing for. So I'm preparing for this coming Christmas this coming Thanksgiving weekend by making my grandmother's Bourbon Cake as I have almost every year since my mother quit making it.

I haven't been reposting this recipe quite that long, but each year a few new folks discover it and add it to their Christmas repertoire. Featuring raisins, pecans, and spices, in a pound cake style batter it has all the benefits of fruit cake with none of the drawbacks. Oh, and it's loaded with bourbon.

Recipe here...

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | christmas | dessert | cake

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Peach Cake

Eighty-five and Still Counting



Last Sunday was my father's 85th birthday and I went out to their house for a birthday dinner. Dad smoked a pork loin and some short ribs and my brother Kerry (who was down for a visit) made a corn salad that had too much cilantro in it (but, given that I detest cilantro any cilantro is too much). I fixed Potatoes Parmigiano and a blueberry gastrique for the pork, and I made a peach birthday cake.

A month or so ago I wrote an article for NPR's Kitchen Window on cooking with peaches and, as usual, had way too many recipes to include and the cake was one of those that didn't make the cut. But I love peaches and I hadn't made a cake this year (something I typically do about once a year) so I made it for the birthday party.

Both peach seeds and almonds have a distinct flavor of prussic acid (hydrogen cyanide — yes, cyanide, the poison.

Peaches arrived early this year, and their flavor isn't particularly intense. We had a lot of rain in the spring and I suspect that the peaches' flavor is literally watered down. So I made peach conserves to top the cake and add a boost in peachy goodness. I also made whipped some cream with Amaretto.

Almonds and peaches are related and it you look at a peach seed it looks a lot like an almond. In fact, although we think of almonds as nuts they aren't a true nut but instead the seed of a fruit Also both peach seeds and almonds have a distinct flavor of prussic acid (hydrogen cyanide — yes, cyanide, the poison), as a result almonds and by extension Amaretto are a good flavor match for peaches.

So I baked a cake, which, as my 11-year-old nephew noted, was "actually quite good."

Peach Cake
Serves 12.

Cake:
1 c unsalted butter — softened
2 1/2 c granulated sugar
6 lg eggs
2 2/3 c all-purpose flour
1/3 c lightly-packed almond flour*
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 c peaches (about 4 medium) — peeled and chopped
1/2 c sour cream
1 ts. vanilla extract
Conserves:
3 md peaches — peeled and chopped
1/4 c Amaretto
2 tbsp water
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp corn starch mixed with 1 tbsp cold water

Cake:
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a standard bundt pan. Using a stand- or hand-mixer, cream butter and sugar until light, fluffy and a pale lemon color. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each.

In another bowl, whisk together flour, almond flour*, baking soda and salt. And in a third medium-sized bowl combine sour cream, peaches, and vanilla.

Add 1/3 of flour mixture to egg mixture. Beat well. Add half of peach mixture and beat well. Repeat, ending with last third of flour. Pour batter into bundt pan.

Bake for 75 to 80 minutes or until cake tests done. Cool for 10 minutes and invert on a wire rack. Turn top up and cool thoroughly before slicing.

Conserves:
While cake is cooking, place all ingredients in a small sauce pan and bring to a simmer over medium-low heat. Simmer for 15 minutes then stir in corn starch slurry until thickened. Allow to cool.

Serve cake topped with peach conserves and, if you wish, cream whipped with a couple of tablespoons of Amaretto.

*Note: I typically make my own almond flour by chopping blanched almonds in a mini food processor or blender. Be careful not to process too long or you'll end up with almond butter.

Try Peach Cake with...
Pulled Pork
Lamb Steak with Gremolata
Pork Chops Florentine

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | dessert | cake | peaches

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Bourbon Cake

Marvelous Stuff



Thanksgiving is America's best holiday. It's unencumbered with gifts and cards and similar commercial holiday paraphernalia. There is no long, drawn-out prelude to the holiday beginning after Labor Day. And although the point is giving thanks to whichever deity one believes in, it doesn't harp on the issue -- a shared prayer at the dinner table is generally regarded as sufficient. Following that prayer is the high point and main point of the holiday -- an over-the-top feast shared with family and friends. What more could one ask for?

Growing up, everyone in my house contributed something to the feast whether it was making cranberry relish or baking a pie. Lots of focused, shared activity and good smells. Around four in the afternoon, if it wasn't raining, my father would organize a walk. We'd tramp through the sere fields and bare woods of our farm. Often it was cold, but if it wasn't cloudy as well Dad would take pictures of us. (Something I particularly hated.) Then we'd return to a waiting fire and the last minute organization of the meal.

Growing up, everyone in my house contributed something to the feast whether it was making cranberry relish or baking a pie.

Like many families, the day after Thanksgiving marked the beginning of the Christmas season. Unlike most families this didn't mean shopping. Instead Mom and Dad would begin preparing the Christmas feast. Dad made his eggnog base (which then aged for a month) and a fruit cake. Mom made her mother's Bourbon Cake.

With an electric mixer, she'd beat the butter and sugar together in a large stainless steel bowl and then mix in the eggs, flour, and bourbon producing an unremarkable cake batter. Then Dad would haul down "the big bowl" for the final step.

The big bowl, cut from a single block of mahogany, was about 20" in diameter and about 7" deep. It needed to be big to accommodate the exertions required to incorporate a pound of nuts and a pound-and-a-half or raisins in a single bowl of batter. Once mixed, the cake went into a tube pan and then baked for 3 1/2 hours, filling the house with the most wonderful odors.

When the cake had cooled it was wrapped in aluminum foil, doused with more bourbon, and sealed in a cake tin. Then, once a week until Christmas, the cake would be uncovered and doused with more bourbon. Although potent, even as kids we were permitted a very thin slice of it when it was finally served. We loved it. In fact, everyone who tried it loved it.

I've posted the recipe before, but I wanted to post it again — and do so in time, for those of you interested in a holiday cake recipe dating back to the early 1900s (or earlier), to make it. Note: a good stand mixer obviates the need for "the big bowl."

Bourbon Cake
1 c butter -- softened
2 c sugar
4 c flour -- sifted
4 ea eggs
1 lb pecan pieces
1 1/2 lb white or golden raisins
1 c bourbon
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp ground nutmeg
1 tbsp soda
1/2 tsp salt

Heat oven to 275F. Sift 1 cup flour and mix with nuts and raisins. Sift remaining flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and soda together. Grease a tube pan and line bottom with parchment paper.

Cream sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, making sure each is incorporated before adding the next one. Alternately add bourbon and flour. Add nuts and raisins.

Pour into tube pan and bake 3 1/2 hours. Remove from oven and cool thoroughly.

Sprinkle generously with additional bourbon and wrap in aluminum foil with a couple of apple wedges to keep it moist. Each weekend leading up to Christmas, unwrap cake and sprinkle again with additional bourbon.

My mother no longer makes the cake, but I have her tube pan and her recipe and I'm trying to make it every year and share it with my parents and siblings. Fortunately, it's pretty much immune to spoiling so mailing it to Vermont or Virginia isn't a problem.

This article was originally published on Seriously Good, November 6, 2005.

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | cake | christmas | dessert | holiday

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Bourbon Cake

Marvelous Stuff!



This article was originally posted in 2006.

Thanksgiving is America's best holiday. It's unencumbered with gifts and cards and similar commercial holiday paraphernalia. There is no long, drawn-out prelude to the holiday beginning after Labor Day. And although the point is giving thanks to whichever deity one believes in, it doesn't harp on the issue — a shared prayer at the dinner table is generally regarded as sufficient. Following that prayer is the high point and main point of the holiday — an over-the-top feast shared with family and friends. What more could one ask for? And why, if this is the way I feel, am I bringing it up a month early?

Bear with me.

Growing up, everyone in my house contributed something to the feast whether it was making cranberry relish or baking a pie. Lots of focused, shared activity and good smells. Around four in the afternoon, if it wasn't raining, my father would organize a walk. We'd tramp through the sere fields and bare woods of our farm. Often it was cold, but if it wasn't cloudy as well Dad would take pictures of us. (Something I particularly hated.) Then we'd return to a waiting fire and the last minute organization of the meal.

Like many families, the day after Thanksgiving marked the beginning of the Christmas season. Unlike most families this didn't mean shopping. Instead Mom and Dad would begin preparing the Christmas feast. Dad made his eggnog base (which then aged for a month) and a fruit cake. Mom made her mother's (Mummo's) Bourbon Cake.

With an electric mixer, she'd beat the butter and sugar together in a large stainless steel bowl and then mix in the eggs, flour, and bourbon producing an unremarkable cake batter. Then Dad would haul down "the big bowl" for the final step.

The big bowl, cut from a single block of mahogany, was about 20" in diameter and about 7" deep. It needed to be big to accommodate the exertions required to incorporate a pound of nuts and a pound-and-a-half or raisins in a single bowl of batter. I can see Mom, in faded shirt, dark curley hair disarrayed, sweating slightly, wielding a wooden spoon to incorporate the nuts and raisins into the batter. Once mixed, the cake went into a tube pan and then baked for 3-1/2 hours, filling the house with the most wonderful odors. This cake is a serious investment in time and effort. But, oh, how the investment paid off.

When the cake had cooled it was doused with more bourbon, wrapped in aluminum foil, and sealed in a cake tin. Then, once a week until Christmas, the cake would be uncovered and doused with more bourbon. Although potent, even as kids we were permitted a thin slice of it when it was finally served. We loved it. In fact, everyone who tried it loved it. The cake was rich, moist, spicy, chewey, and pungent with bourbon. Marvelous stuff!

I've posted the recipe before, but I wanted to post it again — and do so in time, for those of you interested in a holiday cake recipe dating back to the early 1900s (or earlier), to make it. Note: a good stand mixer obviates the need for "the big bowl."

Mummo's Bourbon Cake

1 c butter — softened
2 c sugar
4 c flour — sifted
4 ea eggs
1 lb pecan pieces
1 1/2 lb white or golden raisins
1 c bourbon
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp ground nutmeg
1 tbsp soda
1/2 tsp salt

Heat oven to 275F. Sift 1 cup flour and mix with nuts and raisins. Sift remaining flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and soda together. Grease a tube pan and line bottom with parchment paper.

Cream sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, making sure each is incorporated before adding the next one. Alternately add bourbon and flour. Add nuts and raisins.

Pour into tube pan and bake 3 1/2 hours. Remove from oven and cool thoroughly.

Sprinkle generously with additional bourbon, wrap it in aluminum foil with a couple of apple wedges to keep it moist, and place in an air-tight container. Each weekend leading up to Christmas, unwrap cake and sprinkle again with additional bourbon.

My mother no longer makes the cake, but I have her tube pan and her recipe and I'm trying to make it every year and share it with my parents and siblings. Fortunately, it's pretty much immune to spoiling so mailing it to Vermont or Virginia isn't a problem. And given that I made it almost a month early this year, it should be particularly well-seasoned.

Technorati: Food | dessert | cake | bourbon cake | holiday

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Ricotta/Apple Cake

Advance Planning



Two dinner parties, two weekends in a row. I’m cooking for both, not paying for the first, and getting paid for the second. This is what I call fun.

The first party is in Houston, Texas where the group I refer to as my “cooking buddies” is getting together for our 7th semi-annual bash. We’ve been meeting somewhere (Charleston, Santa Fe, Napa…) for a weekend of eating and partying for 12 years now. Usually we out, but this time I’ve been asked to plan and supervise a dinner on Saturday night at the home of one of the group so I’ve been having a great old time planning the menu, working up a schedule, and so on. Two of the other cooks will be working with me — which I consider a huge luxury and should also be great fun.

Then the following weekend I'm doing a dinner party for a small family reunion in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. I've pretty much tied down the menu for that event, but I needed another dessert.

Desserts are always a bit of a quandary for me. I don’t fix them often and never have, so I don’t always have a good feel for how a recipe will turn out after reading it, and I don’t have a good sense for what I can — or should —

One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well. ~ Virginia Woolf

do to tweak it. Ordinarily this isn’t a big deal because I seldom fix desserts professionally. But I need something seasonal for the Gatlinburg event.

Apples come immediately to mind, and, although I have an excellent Spiced Apple Cake recipe, it's a lot of trouble to make. So I went looking for an alternative and found a recipe for an Ricotta and Apple Cake. Yesterday I gave it a try. I was disappointed.

Part of the reason was the apples. Currently Braeburns are my favorite cooking apple, but I couldn't find any and went with Staymans. Staymans are a fine cooking apple so this shouldn't have been a problem, but these particular apples were singularly bland. The recipe also called for three grated apples. But that was obviously too much apple, and even the two I did use were too much. I think one and a half would have been perfect. Also, the grating was a bad idea, a small dice would have been superior.

So what I wound up with was lots of bland fruit, no textural distinction, and not enough cake. The part that worked was I made the frosting from the Spiced Apple Cake recipe but used mascarpone instead of cream cheese and reduced the sugar by 25 percent. That worked well. So now I'm thinking I'll make a two-layer version (half the size) of the older recipe.

And this is exactly why I don't experiment with desserts when I'm being paid to fix them. I just don't understand this kind of baking well enough to judge a recipe simply by reading it.

Technorati: Food | recipe | dessert | cake | apple cake | italian

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