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A Piece of Cake
April 2006: Third Slice
Newsletter written by Anne Byrn April 13, 2006
A Word from Anne
A Word from Workman
Bits & Bytes
Recipe Swap
Do Share
Next Issue
A Word from Anne
Chatting with Taneka Martin of Baltimore recently, she shared news of a developing relationship with her confidantes on the community board, and she needed a pecan pie to woo a certain gentleman. I suggested she get as serious about this pie as she was about that man, and that called for dark corn syrup and plenty of pecans. Taneka, or T. Martin as she is affectionately known on the board, baked the guy a pie and served it warm with vanilla gelato. "He inhaled his first slice," and since that slice they've spent every weekend together. Food, love -- love, food -- they just go together. My father married my mother knowing she could not boil water. And yet there was something magical about my mom -- her laughter, ability to make the whole room smile, gentle heart, and flaming red hair. Through their years together she taught herself to cook, the kind of cooking that doesn't use thermometers or timers or any gadgets. She cooked with her senses, and she exposed our senses to creamy chocolate pie, homemade yeast bread, crisp fried chicken,and slowly baked apples. My mother was a foodie in a time when no one used that term. Reader Tom Gallo of Connecticut emailed recently to say my pound cake recipe from The Dinner Doctor had been well received after a funeral in his family. He said it turned a sad time into something a bit easier to deal with. And I knew what he meant. Home-cooked food consoles and unites. It feeds our bodies and our souls. I think about that every night I cook dinner for my family and every time I share a new recipe with friends.
Happy Baking!
Anne
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A Word from Workman
With spring comes new growth, and we're happy to announce a new feature coming soon to CakeMixDoctor.com! In just a few weeks, you'll notice that the site looks just a bit different as Anne launches her new blog feature on the home page! Sometimes she'll highlight pieces from the newsletter, or share a photograph, or just a quick thought. Tune in to see, and then talk about it on the ever-growing Community Board.
Happy Spring!
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Bits & Bytes
Easter is on its way, this Sunday in fact! If you haven't yet planned your Easter cake, may I suggest:
- Easter Basket Cupcakes, page 191, Cupcakes from the Cake Mix Doctor.
- Grandma's Coconut Icebox Cake, page 118, Cake Mix Doctor. Begin this one on Friday and let it sit in the refrigerator until Sunday. Use sweetened coconut if you cannot find the frozen coconut, and don't fret that the icing drips down the side of the cake at first. After a few hours in the refrigerator it will set and you can pull it back up the sides of the cake with a long metal spatula. Pack on extra coconut for a showy cake.
- Almond Cream Cheese Pound Cake, page 129, Cake Mix Doctor. This cake goes with anything, and is divine with fresh strawberries.
- The Best Pound Cake, page 473, The Dinner Doctor. Tote this to brunch with friends. It's also delicious with berries.
- Carrot Cake Muffins with a Cream Cheese Surprise, page 254, Cupcakes from the Cake Mix Doctor.
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Recipe Swap
Taneka Martin of Baltimore, known as T. Martin on the board, shares this hearty and good apple crisp recipe that uses a small package of muffin mix for thickening. It also contains peaches and raisins and a lot of brandy, thus the name. It is wonderful warm with vanilla ice cream. Says Taneka, "Vanilla ice cream may be gilding the lily, but lilies need to be gilded every now and then." Hear, hear!
T. Martin's Brandied Apply Peach Crisp
Serves: A crowd (20)
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Soaking time for raisins: 1 hour
Baking time: 50 minutes
1 cup raisins
1 1/2 cups brandy
2 cans (21 ounces each) apple pie filling
2 cans (21.25 ounces each) sliced peaches in juice, drained
1 cup brown sugar, or to taste
1 package (7 ounces) Jiffy apple cinnamon muffin mix
1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter, melted
1 package (15 to 18 ounces) granola
1. Place the raisins in a small bowl and pour the brandy over them. Let the raisins soak for 1 hour.
2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly mist a 13-by 9-inch baking pan with vegetable oil spray.
3. Place the raisins and brandy, pie filling, peaches and juice, and brown sugar in a large mixing bowl and combine with a wooden spoon. Stir in the muffin mix until well blended, although there will still be small lumps. Pour the apple mixture into the prepared pan, and set the pan aside.
4. In a medium mixing bowl, stir together the butter and granola. Sprinkle this evenly over the apple mixture. Place the pan in the oven.
5. Bake the crisp for 25 to 30 minutes, then place a sheet of aluminum foil over the top to shield the granola from getting too brown. After the crisp has baked for a total of 50 minutes, remove the pan from the oven to a cooling rack. Let it cool for 30 minutes, then serve warm with vanilla ice cream.
Note: I think 1 cup raisins are plenty, although Taneka (T. Martin) uses 2 cups. I also think you could cut back on the sugar a bit, say 3/4 cup, and it would still be plenty sweet. The Jiffy mix was just the right size. She uses the Raga apple cinnamon mix found in her Baltimore stores. If you wish to omit the brandy, use the juice from the peaches instead.
Queen Anne's Cake
Several months ago I received a request for a Queen's cake, a chocolate cake with shaved chocolate bars in the icing. Well, Phyllis Brown of Bartlett, TN, was kind enough to send me such a recipe. It is a refrigerator cake with chocolate layers and a creamy frosting of those Hershey bars and pecans. Her cousin always requests this cake be baked, for it is good and rich. I made a few changes in the recipe Phyllis sent me, reducing the amount of sugar in the frosting, toasting the pecans for extra crunch and flavor, and reducing the whipped topping to 8 ounces. Phyllis uses the 12-ounce container, and you can as well if you want a lot of frosting.
Makes 12 servings
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Baking time: 22 to 25 minutes
CAKE:
1 package (18.25 ounces) plain devil's food cake mix
1 package (3.4 ounces) vanilla instant pudding mix
1 1/4 cups milk
1 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
FROSTING:
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup confectioners' sugar
5 plain Hershey bars (1.55 ounces each), shaved (see note)
1 cup toasted chopped pecans (see note)
1 container (8 ounces) frozen whipped topping, thawed
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease three 9-inch round cake pans with solid vegetable shortening or mist with vegetable oil spray. Dust with flour, shake out the excess flour, and set the pans aside.
2. Place the cake mix, pudding mix, milk, oil, and eggs in a large mixing bowl. Blend on low speed of an electric mixer until the ingredients just come together, 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Increase the mixer speed to medium and blend until well combined and smooth, 1 and a half minutes more. Pour the batter evenly into the three pans, and place the pans in the oven.
3. Meanwhile, prepare the frosting. Place the cream cheese and sugar in a large mixing bowl and blend on medium until smooth, 3 to 4 minutes. Shave the chocolate bars using a cheese grater or sharp knife. Fold in the chocolate, along with nuts. Fold in the whipped topping, and place the frosting in the refrigerator to chill.
4. Bake the cakes until they spring back in the center when lightly pressed, 22 to 25 minutes. Remove the pans from the oven and let cool on racks for 5 minutes. Run a knife around the edges of the pans, invert the cakes onto the racks, and let them cool for 20 to 30 minutes.
5. To assemble, frost between the layers, and then on top and around the sides of the cake. Store the cake in a covered container in the refrigerator until time to serve.
Note: Shaving chocolate is a bit tedious. You can use one of those handy Microplane graters and run the chocolate bars over it. Or, you can stack the bars on top of each other and with a sharp Chef's knife, cut down at the end of the bars to create very thin slices or shavings. Toast the pecans for 5 to 7 minutes at 350 degrees.
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Do Share
Peg Carlson is looking for a recipe called Cinnabon Cake. Obviously this is named after the cinnamon rolls of the same name, and it sounds very similar to a recipe in my first book called Honey Bun Cake, also named after cinnamon rolls. "I got the recipe out of a magazine. My family loved it! I would like to make this cake for Easter which also happens to be my husband's birthday. The cake is made with a cake mix. In a separate bowl, I remember mixing cinnamon, brown sugar, butter..."She has forgotten what else. But she recalls the sugar mixture was spread onto the bottom of two 9-inch rounds pans, and the cake batter was poured on top." Let's help Peg find this recipe before this weekend. Send your recipe ideas to anne@cakemixdoctor.com.
Cynthia Lawman of Boca Raton, FL, recalls a wonderful yellow cake topped with an almond-flavored meringue layer before it was baked. Does anyone have such a recipe? Cynthia would love to bake it again, and she has forgotten how. Please send the almond meringue cake recipe to anne@cakemixdoctor.com.
And, one last request just in... Alina Arencibia of Tampa, FL, is frantically trying to recreate a cake made by a deli called Wrights, located in Tampa. The cake is the Hawaiian Princess. "I've been semi-successful in recreating their icing with cream cheese, powdered sugar, and pineapple juice; the cake that I make however is not even close! Theirs is light and fluffy," Alina says. According to the menu description, this coconut cake has a filling of coconut and pineapple, and it has a coconut frosting. I don't know about you, but I'm considering canceling Easter brunch and booking a flight to Tampa. Yum! Please help us solve the Hawaiian Princess cake mystery. Send recipe ideas to anne@cakemixdoctor.com
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Next Issue: June 2006
I'll be sharing a wonderful orange cake recipe, along with another moderator recipe, plus ideas for summer cakes.
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