Mocha Almond Petit Fours

Almond Cake:

8 oz almond paste

¾ cup sugar

1 ½ sticks butter, soft

4 eggs

½ cup cake flour

½ cup bread flour

--Preheat oven to 325F. Prepare 12x18 sheet pan by greasing and lining with parchment paper.

--Soften almond paste by beating it for several minutes with the paddle. Add a little egg to soften, then add the sugar and butter and cream till very light, about 7 minutes.

--Pour the eggs in very slowly, taking about 5 minutes over all.

--Stir in the flour and spread into the pan. Spread out and bake till firm, about 20 minutes.

--Remove from oven, let sit in pan 5 minutes and remove from tray. When cool, cut in thirds.

Prepare simple syrup:

½ cup hot espresso

¼ cup sugar

3 T cream de cocoa

--Mix all ingredients till the sugar is dissolved.

Prepare the ganache filling:

8 oz bittersweet chocoate

2 oz milk chocolate

1 cup heavy cream

--Boil the cream and then pour over the chocolate. Stir till combined and let cool to room temperature.

Assemble the petit fours:

--Brush one cake layer with simple syrup and then spread some ganache on it. Top with next layer and repeat twice.

--Freeze cakes overnight.

--Cut cakes into desired sizes.

Prepare ganache fondant:

2 cups cream

2 cups bittersweet chocolate

2 tsp vanilla

--Boil cream, pour over chocolate and combine. Add vanilla.

Pour ganache over cakes, which have been placed on a wire cooling rack. Decorate as desired. Suggestion: chocolate covered coffee bean.

Black Forest Petit Fours

cake:

½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 ½ cups sugar

1 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 cup unsalted butter

2 tsp vanilla extract

5 large eggs

¼ cup strong coffee (or 3 T espresso powder and ¼ cp warm water)

¾ cup yogurt

• Preheat oven to 325F. Prepare 2 9 X 5 loaf pans by greasing and lining with wax paper.
• Combine all the dry ingredients together. Add softened butter and beat for 2 minutes on low.
• Combine all the wet ingredients together. Add these to the flour-butter mixture one-third at a time, beating for 2 minutes on medium speed between each addition.
• Pour into prepared pans and bake for 50minutes, or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove the cakes from the oven and cool on a rack for 10 minutes. Turn out onto a rack and cool completely.

simple syrup:

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup kirschwasser

• Heat and stir till sugar is dissolved.
• Set aside to cool. When cooled add kirschwasser.

filling:

1 jar tart cherry preserves

• Mince in food processor.

• When the cakes are cool, cut them into ⅜” slices and brush the tops with syrup.
• Spread a thin layer of cherry preserves over half of the slices and top with the other slices.
• Place slices on cookie sheets and put in freezer.

ganache fondant:

2 cups cream

2 cups bittersweet chocolate

2 tsp vanilla

• Boil cream, pour over chocolate and combine. Add vanilla.
• Reheat on low as needed.

buttercream:

1 cup water

2 tsp almond extract

2 tsp clear vanilla extract

2 tsp butter flavor

3 cp Crisco

¼ tsp popcorn salt

2 T meringue powder

4 T cornstarch

4 lb powdered sugar

• Pour flavorings in a cup. Add water to equal 1 cup. Stir in salt.
• Cream Crisco till smooth.
• With mixer on low, slowly add flavorings and water.
• Add meringue powder and cornstarch. Cream together well.
• Add sugar in two batches, stirring to incorporate.
• Beat till smooth.

assembly:

• Drain juice from maraschino cherries and place on paper towels.
• Remove cake slices from freezer. Using a 1 ¾” round cutter, cut each (sandwiched) slice into four rounds.
• Place rounds on cooling rack over a rimmed cookie sheet.
• Pour ganache over cakes, making sure all sides are covered. When pan is empty, move the cooling rack over to the other cookie sheet and scrape the fondant back into the pan. If there are any crumbs, pick them out with a knife or toothpick.
• As soon as the cakes are dried, slide a thin metal spatula underneath them and transfer them to a parchment-lined cookie sheet for decorating.
• Pipe a swirl of buttercream on each cake and top with a maraschino cherry.
• Makes 24 1 ¾” petit fours.

Alison Holst's Gingerbread

I once posted a recipe for Fresh Gingerbread which I received from a friend in NZ and which she said was from Alison Holst (her mother said it was probably from a newspaper article). That recipe got so many hits that when I got the opportunity to visit this friend in NZ, I felt duty-bound to do some research into the real AH Gingerbread Recipe! I have uncovered two other recipes, one made with boiling water and one with milk, neither of them with fresh ginger. The first recipe posted below (calling for boiling water) is from Alison Holst's Kitchen Diary, Volume 7 from 1984. The second recipe (calling for milk) is from The Best of Alison Holst.


I have tried the gingerbread made with boiling water (the first one below), and I have to say that, while it tasted fine, I probably would not make it again. I much prefer the fresh gingerbread recipe.

Gingerbread Made with Boiling Water
This gingerbread recipe is light in colour. I think it is best cooked in a fairly large, square tin.  I use a 23 cm square aluminum tin, with fairly low sides--the sort I use for a shortcake. In a tin this size the gingerbread will finish up about 2 cm deep.

100g butter
1/2 cp (packed) brown sugar
1/2 cp boiling water
1/2 cp golden syrup
2 eggs
2 cp flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp cinnamon

Cut the butter into small squares and put it into a large bowl with the brown sugar. Pour the boiling water over it (to melt the butter) then measure the syrup with the same hot wet measure. Add the eggs and beat the mixture with a rotary egg beater until the last of the pieces of butter have dispersed and the egg is mixed thoroughly.
Sieve or sift the dry ingredients into this, and give a very brief "burst" with the beater again to combine the liquid and dry ingredients. (The flour should be measured lightly into the measuring cup, not compressed.)
Pour the fairly thin mixture into a 23 cm square tin lined along the bottom and two sides with a folded strip of grease-proof paper.
Bake in an oven preheated to 200C, turned down to 180C when the gingerbread is put in.
Cook until centre springs back when pressed, and until a toothpick comes out clean, 20-25 minutes.
Invert on to a cake cooking rack after five minutes.


Gingerbread Made with Milk
Serve this gingerbread warm for dessert, cold as a cake on the day it is cooked, and after that, butter the slices. This recipe makes two loaves or 20-cm-square cakes. Freeze one of these if you like.
100 g butter
3/4 cp sugar
2 eggs
1 cp golden syrup
1 cp milk
3 cp flour
2 tsp ginger
2 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp baking soda

Soften but do not melt the butter. In a large bowl, cream it with the sugar until light-coloured. Add the eggs and beat again. Warm the golden syrup just enough to make it runny. Remove from heat and stir in the milk. Sift or sieve the dry ingredients together several times.

Fold the syrup mixture and dry ingredients alternately into the butter mixture. Take care not to overmix. Fold together only until no more dry flour remains. Turn into two loaf pans or two 20-cm-square cake pans, or one of each size, each lined with a strip of baking paper. Bake at 150C, until a skewer comes out clean from the centre of the gingerbread, about 30-40 minutes for the square pan, 40-45 minutes for the loaf pan.

Jam Cake

This must be iced with caramel icing! A must-have at Christmas!

1 cp Unsalted butter
2 cp Sugar
5 lg Eggs
3 cp Flour plus 1 tbsp
1 1/2 tsp Allspice
1 1/2 tsp Cloves, ground
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Salt
1 cp Buttermilk
1 tsp Baking soda
1 cp Raisins, chopped
1 cp Black Walnuts, chopped
1 cp Blackberry Jam (Mom insists it must be homemade! We leave the seeds in.)

1. In a large bowl with an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy. (5 minutes)
2. Add the eggs one at a time and combine well after each addition, scraping the bowl occasionally.
3. Into a bowl, sift together 3 cups of flour, allspice, cloves, cinnamon, and salt.
4. In another bowl, combine the buttermilk and baking soda.
5. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture in batches alternating with the buttermilk mixture, ending with the flour.
6. In a bowl, toss together the raisins, walnuts, and 1 T flour. Stir the mixture into the batter with the jam, stirring until well combined.
7. Line the bottoms of 2 buttered 9-inch cake pans with wax paper and butter the paper.
8. Pour the batter into the pans and bake in the middle of a preheated 325F oven for 40 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.
9. Let layers cool in the pans on a rack for 15 minutes, invert them onto the rack and let cool completely.

Banana Crunch Cake

This recipe is from King Arthur Whole Grain Baking. I love it with the topping, but I also make it w/o and put a caramel icing on it, which works because the cake itself is not overly sweet. I've never been a fan of banana cake or banana bread, but this recipe converted me! I especially love the fact that it has no white flour in it. This recipe makes delicious muffins, too. Just be aware that this only makes 4 cups of batter, which is enough for one 8" x 2" square pan. If you want a round cake, you should use a 9" pan. Also, I've only ever made this recipe with walnuts, not pecans, and never used any chocolate or toffee chips.

Cake batter
1 cp (120g) oat flour (or ground oats)
1 cp (120g) whole wheat flour, traditional or white whole wheat
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cp (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temp
2/3 cp (132g) packed light or dark brown sugar
2 large eggs, room temp
1 cp (225g) mashed banana (2 large or 3 medium), the riper the better
1/2 cp (109g) plain yogurt, non-fat to full-fat
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cp (60g) chopped pecans or walnuts
1 cp (168g) chocolate or toffee chips (optional)

Crunch topping
3/4 cp (60g) old-fashioned rolled oats
1/3 cp (66g) packed light or dark brown sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
2 T (28g) unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cp (30g) chopped pecans or walnuts

1. Grease and flour an 8-inch-square pan. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. Whisk the flours, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.
3. Cream together the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy, ca. 5 minutes.
4. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, stopping to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl between additions.
5. Mix in half the dry ingredients until moistened, then mix int he bananas, yogurt and vanilla. Scrape down the sides and bottowm f the bowl, then add the remaining dry ingredients and the nuts and hcips, if using, mixing until evenly moistened.
6. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan.
7. Make the topping, if using. Combine the oats, brown sugar, cinnamon and alt in a small mixing bowl until well blended. Stir int he melted butter until the moisture forms large crumbs; stir in the chopped nuts. Sprinkle the topping over the batter in the pan.
8. Bake unit the edges pull away from the pan and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes. Remove the cake from the oven and place on a rack to cool for 20 minutes before serving warm, with ice cream, or cool completely before eating.

White Cake with Caramel Icing (Blue Ribbon-Winning)

White cake with caramel icing is my mom's favorite cake. This cake recipe is from King Arthur, but I'm too cheap to use their wonderful cake flour, so I just use White Lily all-purpose flour. (You can substitute this for cake flour in any recipe, btw.) This cake is rather dense and not exceedingly moist, so I use a butterscotch schnapps simple syrup on the layers. I use the quick caramel icing recipe from the Cake Doctor cookbook, below. (As a word of warning, sometimes is doesn't want to stick to the cake. I have no idea why. If you do, then let me know! I've grown to view making this cake as simply an exercise in practicing patience.)

White Cake

2 3/4 cup White Lily All-Purpose flour

1 T baking powder

1 3/4 cup superfine sugar (granulated can be ground fine in food processor)

3/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 tsp almond extract

4 large egg whites

1 large whole egg

1 cup Stonyfield organic full-fat plain yogurt

1.      Preheat oven to 350F.

2.      Grease and flour two 8-inch round cake pans.

3.      Combine the dry ingredients, add the softened butter and mix on low speed for 2 minutes.

4.      Meanwhile, combine the wet ingredients.

5.      Add the liquid ingredients one-third at a time, beating on medium speed for 2 minutes after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl in-between each addition and at the end.

6.      Divide batter between pans, tap each pan on the counter a few times to release any air bubbles, and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, till a cake tester comes out clean. If the cakes are pulling away from the edges, they’re already over-baked!

7.      Let sit on cooling rack for 10 minutes. Turn cakes out onto a rack and then place another rack on top and flip them over. Let cool at least 1 hour before frosting.

Simple Syrup

Heat and stir till sugar is dissolved:

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup water

Set aside to cool. When cooled add:

1/2 cup butterscotch schnapps

When the cakes are cool, level them and brush the tops with simple syrup.

Quick Caramel Frosting

12 T butter

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar

3/8 cup whole milk

3 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Put butter and brown sugars in a medium-sized heavy saucepan over medium heat. Stir and cook until the mixture comes to a boil, about 2 minutes. Add the milk, stir, and bring the mixture back to a boil, then remove from the heat. Add the confectioners’ sugar and vanilla. Beat with a wooden spoon till smooth, returning to a low heat if necessary.

Use immediately to frost cake. If frosting hardens while you’re still frosting the cake, place the pan back over low heat and stir till frosting softens up.

Petit Fours (Blue Ribbon-Winning)

These little babies are delicious, but rather tedious to make. I've read about people making the cake in 9 x 5 loaf pans and slicing it, but I have not tried that. I did recently try making round cakes and using that, but it was wasteful--I had to end up make a couple of trifles, darn it! Anyway, I would highly recommend putting the cookie sheet on a turntable when you're pouring the fondant on them. That way, you can easily turn them round to see if they're covered on all sides. You can also use Nick Malgieri's Pound Cake to make delicious petit fours.


White Cake (from King Arthur Flour)

3/4 cup butter, softened

1 T baking powder

1 3/4 cup superfine sugar (granulated can be ground fine in food processor)

3/4 tsp salt

2 3/4 cup White Lily All-Purpose flour (or cake flour)

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 tsp almond extract

4 large egg whites

1 large whole egg

1 cup full-fat plain yogurt (I prefer Stonyfield organic because it has a superior taste.)

1.      Preheat oven to 375F.

2.      Grease and flour a 12x18x1” jelly roll pan.

3.      Combine the dry ingredients, add the softened butter and mix on low speed for 2 minutes.

4.      Meanwhile, combine the wet ingredients.

5.      Add the liquid ingredients one-third at a time, beating on medium speed for 2 minutes after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl in-between each addition and at the end.

6.      Pour the batter in the pan and use an offset spatula to spread around evenly. Tap the pan on the counter a few times to release any air bubbles, and bake for 10-15 minutes, till the cake springs back when touched.

7.      Let sit on cooling rack for 5 minutes. Place a piece of parchment paper over cake and turn it out onto a rack and then place another piece of parchment paper on the cake and another rack on top and flip them over. Let cool at least 1 hour.

Filling:

Buttercream

22 T (2 3/4 sticks) salted butter, slightly softened

2/3 cup Crisco

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp almond extract

5-7 T heavy cream

2 lb confectioners’ sugar

2 T corn syrup

1.      Cream butter and Crisco till smooth.

2.      With mixer on low, slowly add flavorings and 5 T cream.

3.      Stop mixer and scrape down the sides.

4.      With mixer on low, slowly stream in the confectioners’ sugar

5.      Add1 T corn syrup and 1-2 T cream if desired (depending on consistency, which is dependent on your environment). Mix on low.

6.      Add 1 more T corn syrup if desired. Mix on low till smooth and fluffy.

3/4 cup cream sherry

1.      Level cake.

2.      Divide cake into two by cutting down the middle, so that you have two ca. 12x9x1” pieces.

3.      Brush one piece of cake with sherry—just enough to taste, not to dampen cake.

4.      Spread a thin layer (ca. 1/4”) of buttercream on top of the sherry layer. Press lightly on the cake to make sure it seals with the bottom layer.

5.      Place the other cake layer on top of the one with the buttercream.

6.      Spread a thin layer (ca. 1/4”) of butter cream on top of the top cake layer.

7.      Let cake sit for 5-10 minutes so that a crust forms on the buttercream.

8.      Place a Viva paper towel on top of the cake and lightly rub your hand across it to smooth out the buttercream.

9.      Transfer the cake to a plate/cookie sheet and refrigerate overnight. (This is necessary to make the edges smooth when cut.)

10.  Remove the cake from the fridge and cut it into small pieces (ca. 1 1/2” x 1 1/2” or 1 1/4” x 2”), wiping off the knife after each cut.

11.  Place the cakes on a cooling rack that has been set on top of a rimmed cookie sheet. Leave about 1 1/2" around each piece. Place another rimmed cookie sheet next to this one.

12.  Make the fondant icing.

Quick Fondant Icing (from Wilton)

6 cups (ca. 1 1/2 lbs.) confectioners’ sugar

1/2 cup water

2 T light corn syrup

1 tsp almond extract

1.      Combine water and corn syrup. Add to sugar in a saucepan and stir over low heat till well-mixed and heated to 92F. (If fondant is heated too high, it will lose its shine when it dries.) (I'm a nervous nelly, so I used a chocolate thermometer--it's quick and measures low temps.)

2.      Stir in extract and icing color, if desired.

3.      Pour fondant over cake, making sure all sides are covered. When pan is empty, move the cooling rack over to the other cookie sheet and scrape the fondant back into the pan. If there are any crumbs, pick them out with a knife or toothpick.

4.      Reheat icing—only to 92F. Continue as above.

5.      As soon as the cakes are dried, slide a thin metal spatula underneath them and transfer them to a parchment-lined cookie sheet for decorating.

6.      Decorate with buttercream icing, above.

High-Ratio Pound Cake

This is my favorite pound cake and it's so easy to make! It's from Nick Malgieri's Perfect Cakes. This is one of the cakes I use for petits fours. *See note below for explanation of "high ratio."

2 1/2 cp (10 oz/300g) bleached all-purpose flour (spoon flour into dry-measure cup and level off)
1 3/4 cp (14 oz/350g) sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cp milk
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 large egg yolk
2 tsp vanilla extract

Set a rack in the lower third of th eoven and preheat to 350F.

Place the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in the bowl of a heavy-duty mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the butter and beat on the lowest speed for about 2 minutes, or until the ingredients are well combined.

Meanwhile, whisk all the remaining ingredients together in a mixing bowl until well combined.

Increase the mixer speed to medium, add one-third of the liquid ingredients, and mix for 2 minutes. Stop the mixer and scrape down the bowl and beater. Add another third of the liquid, beat for 2 minutes, and scrape again. Finally, add the remaining liquid and beat and scrape as before.

Use a large rubber spatula to give the batter a final vigorous stir, then scrape it into the prepared pan and smooth the top.

Bake for about 1 hour and 15 minutes in a 12-cup Bundt pan, buttered and floured, or until a toothpick inserted int the cake halfway between the side of th epan and the central tube emerges clean.

Cool the cake in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes, then invert onto the rack t finish cooling.

Yield: 7 cups of batter (perfect for petits fours made in 12 x8 x 1 pan)

*High-Ratio Cakes (from Perfect Cakes, pg 44)
A high-ratio cake is one in which the weight of the sugar equals or exceeds the weight of the flour. (This applies to many pound and butter cakes, but not all). The high proportion of sugar can make the batter separate, resultin in a coarse texture in the baked caked. The "high ratio" mixing method, developed in the 1940s by Procter and Gamble, prevents the batter from separating and yilds a particularly fine textured cake.

Basically, you first mix all the dry ingredients with the softened butter. Then the liquids, including the eggs, are combined and added in three parts. The resulting baked cake has a great texture and moist crumb. To convert a recipe to the high-ratio method of mixing, first check to see if the sugar equals or exceeds the flour: calculate 8 ounces for a cup of sugar and 4 ounces for a cup of all-purpose flour. If and only if the recipe passes the test, you can combine all the dry ingredients in the mixer bowl, add the softened butter, and beat for 2 minutes on low speed. The add the liquids, mixed together , one-third at a time, beating for 2 minutes on medium speed between each addition.

Lemon Cake

I originally got this recipe from the Wilton's website. Everyone who tastes it falls in love with it!

2 cp granulated sugar
2 cp (4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
6 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 T + 1 tsp lemon extract
2 3/4 cp (330g) all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp lemon zest

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour pans. Cream sugar and butter in mixer bowl until light and fluffy. Add eggs, vanilla and lemon flavor, mix until smooth. Add flour and baking powder and mix 30 seconds. Add lemon zest and mix 1 minute more. Place batter in prepared pan(s). Bake 50-55 minutes or unitl toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes on cooling rack. Loosen sides; remove from pan and cool completely before serving.

Yield: approximately 6 1/2 to 7 cups of batter.

Susan's Mum's Sour Cream Coffee Cake

1 T instant coffee
1 T hot water
1 cp brown sugar
150 g sour cream
1/2 cp soft margarine
2 eggs
1 1/2 cp flour
3 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 160C (325F).

Grease and line 2 20cm (8") sponge sandwich tins (round cake pans).

Dissolve coffee in hot water in mixing bowl. Cool. Add sugar, sour cream, margarine and eggs then sifted flour and baking powder. Beat till smooth. Spread mixture into tins.

Bake for 25 - 30 min. 

Sandwich with filling and ice.

Filling

4 oz unsalted butter
8 oz icing sugar (powdered sugar)
1 T hot water
1 tsp instant coffee

Sift icing sugar into mixing bowl. Add butter and beat till smooth. Mix coffee in water, add to sugar mixture and beat till well mixed. You can increase coffee if flavour is not strong enough.

Susan's Mum's Chocolate Cake (i.e,, My 30th Birthday Cake)

Susan gave me the best birthday present by slaving for hours to make this cake in our little kitchen nook in Germany. She'd called her mom specially to get the recipe--a phone call being a rare occurrence since it was so expensive (usually reserved for pressing culinary questions). We served the cake on the bottom side of a cookie tin lid. Our table was part of something we found out on the side of the road on a junk pick-up morning that we'd covered with a table cloth from my first landlady. We invited so many people, we didn't have near enough chairs for them to sit in! It was a birthday to remember!


Cake
200 g butter
1/4 cp cocoa
6 T hot water
1 cp castor sugar (finely ground granulated sugar)
3/4 cp self-raising flour
2 eggs, separated

Grease sides of 20 cm (8") square tin and line bottom of tin.

Preheat oven to 180C (350F).

Heat butter, cocoa and water in medium pot to melt butter. Stir to combine then add castor sugar and mix well. Add sifted flour and stir gently. Then mix in egg yolks. Beat egg whites to a stiff foam (peaks will fold over when beater is removed) then fold into chocolate mixture. This is a very moist mixture. Pour into prepared tin.Bake for 30-40 minutes or till cooked. Invert tin on rack and leave to cool.

Filling (Chocolate Cream)

300 ml (1 1/4 cp) cream
300 g dark chocolate
2 T brandy

Bring cream to boil. Remove from heat. Add chocolate (broken into pieces) and brandy. Stir till chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. Pour into bowl and refrigerate till spreadable, stirring now and again. Split cake and fill with filling.

Icing

300 g dark chocolate
125 g unsalted butter
1 T milk

Melt chocolate (broken into pieces) with butter in a bowl over a pot of simmering water. Stir to blend then add milk. Stir till smooth. Cool till thick enough to spread on topa dn sides of cake.

Aunt Mary's Spice Cake

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour 2 8" round pans or one 9x11".

1 3/4 cp flour
3/4 cp sugar
3/4 tsp soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cloves
3/4 tsp salt

Sift these ingredients together.
Add:

3/4 cp brown sugar
1/2 cp shortening
3/4 cp buttermilk

Beat 2 minutes.
Add:

2 eggs

Mix till incorporated. Pour into pans and bake 30-35 minutes for round pans and 40-45 minutes for the oblong.

Delicious with brown sugar icing.

Fresh Gingerbread (Susan, Alison Holst)

(You might also want to check out these recipes: Alison Holst's Gingerbread Recipe.) This recipe is from one of my dearest friends, who lives in NZ. It is so yummy and well worth grating all that ginger--I use quite a bit more than 1 tablespoon! In fact, I'd say I use a good 1/4 to 1/3 of a cup! This cake is so moist and beautiful to look at, but the taste is what you'll remember most--totally more-ish! I have looked in a couple of Alison Holst cookbooks but couldn't find this exact recipe. Susan is pretty sure her mom cut it out of the newspaper. Susan recommends that you eat this gingerbread with "tasty cheese," by which I think she means (sharp) cheddar.

1 egg
125g/4.5 oz butter, cubed
1/2 cup/125ml/4 fl oz boiling water
1/2 cup/100g/3.5 oz firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup/125ml/4 fl oz golden syrup
1 T fresh finely grated root ginger (or as much as you want)
1 3/4 cups/220g/8 oz flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp grated lemon rind
plus mixed spice, allspice

Cut butter into about 16 cubes, and pour water over them in a pot. Heat till butter melts, then remove from heat. Do not let mixture boil. Add brown sugar, golden syrup, unbeaten egg and root ginger. Mix thoroughly.

Sift all dry ingredients together into mixture, which should be lukewarm, add lemon rind and beat till relatively free of lumps.

Pour into ring tin (7 cups/1 3/4l/56 fl oz size); bottom lined with baking paper and sides lightly greased. Bake in preheated oven (180C/350F) for 25 minutes, leave to cool in tin for 5 minutes.

If baked in a loaf tin, takes about 50-60 minutes to bake.

Ice with ginger icing if desired.

Marble Cake Supreme (Grandma Beisler’s recipe)

2 3/4 cp (330g) sifted cake flour
1 3/4 cp (350g) sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 cp vegetable shortening
3/4 cp (180g) milk
2 tsp vanilla
3 unbeaten eggs
1 unbeaten egg yolk
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/16 tsp cloves
3/8 tsp allspice
3/8 tsp nutmeg
3/4 T cocoa

Preheat oven to 370 F. Grease and flour a 10-in tube pan.

In a large mixing bowl sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add shortening, milk, vanilla, and 1 egg. Beat 2 min on low. Scrape bowl. Add remaining 2 unbeaten eggs and the egg yolk. Beat 2 more min.

Put 1/3 batter in a smaller mixing bowl. Add cinnamon, cloves, allspice, nutmeg, and cocoa.

Spoon both batters alternately by tablespoonfuls into prepared tube pan. Run spatula through batter several times to marble.

Bake for 60 – 70 min or until cake tests done. Cool in pan and then remove. When completely cool, spread with Lemon Cream Icing.

Lemon Cream Icing:
2 T shortening
1 T butter or margarine
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 tsp grated lemon rind
1 T lemon juice
3 cp (340g) confectioner’s sugar
5 T scalded light cream
Yellow food coloring, optional

Blend together shortening, butter, salt, juice, and rind. Beat in 1/2 cp confectioner’s sugar, and then add alternately remaining sugar and cream, beating well after each addition.

Grandma's Devil's Food Cake

My grandmother was famous for this light chocolate cake, its cocoa-rich layers spread with sinfully rich, fudgy frosting. My friends maintain that it gets better as it keeps in the refrigerator, but I'll never know for sure because mine always disappears too quickly to find out. --Jim Fobel's Old-Fashioned Baking Book.

Makes one 8-inch 2 layer cake (cut recipe in half for one 6-inch 2 layer cake)

1/2 cp unsweetened cocoa
1 cp boiling water
1 1/2 cp sifted cake flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
8 T unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cp granulated sugar
2 lg eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract


Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour two 8-inch round cake pans.

Place the cocoa in a bowl and pour in the boiling water; stir to dissolve the cocoa and cool slightly.

In a medium-sized bowl stir together the cake flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

In a large bowl with an electric mixer beat the butter until fluffy, about 1 minute, then gradually beat in the sugar. Beat in the eggs, one at a time; add the vanilla and beat until light and fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes. Beat in the dry ingredients alternately with the cocoa mixture, beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Divide batter between the prepared pans, smoothing the tops. Bake 25 to 30 minutes, until the tops spring back when lightly touched and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with just a few crumbs clinging to it; do not overbake or the cakes will become too dry. Cool in the pans on a rack for 5 minutes. Run a knife around the edges to loosen from the pans and turn layers out on the rack, placing one upside down and the other right side up.

Brush any loose crumbs from the layers and place one upside down on a serving plate. Spread with about 1 1/4 cp of the frosting. Center the remaining layer, right side up, over the top. Frost the top and sides with the remaining frosting, making decorative swirls around the sides and over the top. Chill to set the frosting but return to room temperature before serving.

Grandma's Fudge Frosting

This thick, fudgy, not too sweet frosting begins with a granulated sugar and heavy cream mixture that is simmered for ten minutes before the chocolate is added, and then cooled to an ideal spreading consistency.

Makes 3 cups.

1 1/2 cp granulated sugar
1 cp heavy cream
6 oz unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
8 T unsalted butter, sliced
2 tsp vanilla extract

In a heavy medium-sized saucepan combine the sugar and heavy cream. Place over moderate heat and, stirring constantly, bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes without stirring. Remove from the heat and stir in the chocolate, butter, and vanilla, continuing to stir until chocolate and butter melt. Turn into a bowl and cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally. Refrigerate, stirring frequently, until thickened and of a good spreading consistency. Use to frost a cake before the frosting sets completely.

**I beat the frosting when it gets thick so that it is light and fluffy.