Grandma Eva's Sponge Cake

Recently received this email from my mom (I edited the title & text just slightly to eliminate ‘email-speak’ and protect identities) …

Suzie,
Was going through my recipe's looking for bar recipe's … and I found a recipe from Grandma for Sponge Cake with 12 egg yolks.  Don't know if you remember it - but I made it a few times - sponge cake is rich.  I like it plain, but I remember Dad liked it with a thin orange or lemon glaze.  So here it is:

Grandma Eva's Sponge Cake
3 cups Cake Flour
4 tsp. Baking Powder
1 tsp. Salt
12 Egg Yolks
2 Cups Sugar
1 Tbsp Grated Orange Rind
2 Tbsp. Lemon Juice
1 Cup Boiling water
Mix and sift flour, baking powder and salt - Beat egg yolks until thick and light colored.  Gradually add sugar, beating until very thick and light colored.  Beat in orange rind, lemon juice and boiling water.  Fold in flour and put in tube pan.  Bake 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes. Invert 1 hr.

Chocolate Angel Food Cake ...

... with the substitute cake flour. 

Aside from my being a little rusty in removing all the large air bubbles, the cake looks and 'feels' right.  There are a couple of large depressions around the edge and one on the top of the cake where I didn't get all the air pockets deflated before baking.  I don't remember having to run knife through the batter and being so diligent about it, but I probably wasn't the one doing it!  Besides, who will really be able to tell once we slice it up and put a dollop of whipped cream and raspberries over top???  Well, if they notice, hopefully they'll not say anything.  SHhhhhh!

Here's the recipe I used, should you suddenly find yourself with an abundance of egg whites.

Chocolate Angel Food Cake

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup cake flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
12 egg whites (about 1 1/2 cups ... my amount was more & it turned out fine)
1 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. salt

Directions:

Move oven rack to the lowest position.  Heat oven to 375 degrees.  Mix powdered sugar, cocoa, and flour in a separate bowl and set aside.  Beat egg whites and cream of tartar in medium bowl on medium speed until foamy.  Beat in granulated sugar on high speed, 2 tablespoons at a time, adding vanilla and salt with the last addition of sugar.  Continue beating until stiff and glossy.  Do not underbeat.

Sprinkle sugar-flour mixture, 1/4 cup at a time, over meringue, folding in just until the sugar-flour disappears.  Spoon into an ungreased tube pan.  Cut gently through batter - apparently this step is pretty important!

Bake 30-35 minutes or until cracks in cake feel dry & spring back when touched lightly.  Immediately turn pan upside down onto glass bottle or metal funnel.  Let hang two hours or until cake is completely cool.  Remove from pan.

Cake Flour Substitute

 

I remember my mom always having a box of Softasilk cake flour in the cupboard.  Those were the days when we didn’t have many boxed cake options and our Angel Food cake was always made from scratch.  For years, now, I’ve just bought the boxed mix for Angel Food cake, but that is about to change!  With our new-found supply of eggs, I am making an Angel Food cake from scratch (then I can test out the 12 egg-yolk cookie recipe, which I did eventually remember to search for and print out).

But, Angel Food Cake recipes always call for cake flour, which has a lower gluten content than other flours.  I do not keep cake flour on hand, so am going to try a substitution of 3/4 cup all-purpose flour, sifted, plus 2 tablespoons cornstarch for every cup of cake flour called for in the recipe.

I have seen at least one review that said it didn’t work well for Angel Food Cake, but I am going to try it regardless.  I wonder if the flour was properly sifted before being added to the Angel Food Cake batter … I’ll wonder until I try it. 

Dash’s birthday is later this week, and for his celebration with family, I’m planning to make a Chocolate Angel Food cake.  I remember them as being very tasty served with whipped cream and berries!  I’ll post my Chocolate Angel Food cake recipe and a picture later, then you and I will both know if the cake flour substitute ‘works.’

Pound Cake

Angelina needed Pound Cake as an ingredient in a layered pudding dessert this past week.  So, she and I set out to make our first ever Pound Cake.  Having tried store-bought pound cake before, I wasn't thrilled about making a Pound Cake.  They've usually been a little dry.  However, home-made (as always) is MUCH better.  Pound Cake is heavy, moist and quite rich in flavor.  I've been eating plain slices all weekend.


Did you know that the first pound cakes were made with a pound each of butter, sugar, flour and eggs??  Guess that's where the name comes from...




POUND CAKE
Yield:  24 servings

2 3/4 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla or almond extract (almond is the way to go!)
5 eggs
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup evaporated milk*

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a 12-cup bundt cake pan or tube pan.

2. Beat sugar, butter, almond and eggs in a large bowl, scraping the bowl constantly until mixed thoroughly.

3. Add milk and beat until mixed thoroghly. 

4. Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl.  Then add to the large bowl, mixing on low speed  and scraping the sides constantly. 

5. Spread in the pan.  Bake 70-80 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

6. Cool 20 minutes; remove from pan and cool completely on a wire rack.

*I used the whole can without problem.  A pet peeve is when you have a 12oz can and the recipe only calls for a cup!  What do you do with the extra 4oz??  I can't stand the thought of wasting it or throwing it away.

Birthday cake...

... it's a little silly, but I'm making myself a birthday cake.  I saw a tantalizing picture of this cake

 in the catalog for this company and couldn't resist trying to make the blend of chocolate cake and mint ice cream.  I was going to make homemade fudge, but I purchased a jar ... just in case I got LAZY!  I'm going to use the jar of fudge. 

Ingredients:
Chocolate cake mix (plus eggs, oil & water)
Fudge - one jar
Peppermint Stick ice cream (from Schwans) or substitue Chocolate Chip Mint or your favorite minty flavor

Putting 'it' together:
The cake was baked last night, I let it cool on the counter overnight (you wouldn't need to wait that long!).

This morning, I leveled the cake by cutting off the rounded top with a serrated knife... I didn't want a leaning torte! .  I also cut the cake into thirds (lenthwise), so each section is a little over 4 inches wide and 9 inches long.  While preparing the cake and fudge, set the ice cream on the counter to thaw a bit.

Warm the fudge in the microwave until it is spreadable.  Spread 1/3 on the top of each cake section.  ** I didn't refrigerate at this point, but it would be a good step to add.  Then, your ice cream will not melt slightly like mine!

Spread ice cream over two sections - about 1/2 inch thick.  Stack the layers; the cake with only fudge goes on top.  Wrap the torte in plastic wrap and freeze for at least one hour.  If you want to make it 'pretty', sprinkle crushed peppermint cany over the top.  Slice as thick as needed and ENJOY!!

This is before freezing ... but doesn't it look yummy anyway??  I may or may not add crushed peppemints.  Maybe I'll just add another scoop of ice cream to the top of each slice.

** UPDATE:  Make sure to cool the layers of fudge topped cake in the frig before topping with ice cream.  My ice cream melted - pretty much all of it - even though I thought my fudge was cooled and the completed cake was taken to the freezer immediately.  It still tasted wonderful because the peppermint ice cream soaked into the cake layers, but it didn't look as pretty.

Gotta Try This ... Cookie Cake

I've been reading the King Arthur Flour cooking blog and this entry was too interesting to resist trying!  The tester used King Arthur mixes, but I've used a 'from scratch' chocolate chip cookie dough and local brand name cake mix (Butter Pecan flavor - although I think almost any flavor would work).  This would make a great birthday cake.

Family Rating: ***** ... and that's without ice cream!

Cookie Cake
Yield:  20 svgs.

Ingredients:
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough (ingredients below)
Butter Pecan flavored Cake mix batter (3 eggs, 1/3 cup vegetable oil, 1 1/3 cups water)

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough* Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1/2 tsp. soda
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/3 cup water
1 egg
1 cup mini chocolate chips (semi-sweet)**

Directions: 
1.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2.  Mix flour, salt & soda together.  Set aside.  Cream butter, sugar, water, egg and vanilla in another bowl for 3 minutes.  Add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture.  Mix on medium speed for 2 minutes.  Mix chocolate chips into the dough.
3. Lightly spray a 13x9 inch pan (it's important that the pan be as least 2 inches deep) with cooking spray.  Spread the Chocolate Chip Cookie dough in the pan. 

4.  Bake for about 12 minutes or until the edges start to brown lightly.  The middle should NOT be completely baked.  Remove from oven and set aside (if there's time!).
5.  While the cookie bottom is baking, mix the cake batter according to directions on the box.
6.  Pour the cake batter over the partially baked cookie dough.  Spread evenly.

7.  Bake for an additional 30-38 minutes.  Keep an eye on the browning ... if it browns too quickly, place a foil tent over the pan.
8. The cake is done when a tester comes out clean or with a few crumbs.
9. Eat and thoroughly enjoy!  It won't last long ...

Note:  The KA blog recommends serving with a scoop of ice cream and chocolate syrup.  I was out of ice cream and didn't need the chocolate syrup.  STILL tasted yummy and the kids didn't talk a bit while eating their treat.

*I actually had to search through my cookbooks for an appropriate recipe.  I usually don't make 'plain' chocolate chip cookies; I prefer an Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Recipe or a Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Recipe.  Additionally, the two recipes I mentioned are huge!  I didn't feel like baking cookies on top of making the cookie cake, so I looked for a smaller recipe, too.

**You could substitute regular sized semi-sweet chocolate chips, but the minis are really nice and distribute the chocolate throughout the batter in a more pleasing way.

Sour Cream Sourdough Coffee Cake

Coffee Cake Ingredients:
1/2 cup King Arthur sourdough starter (I'm sure any sourdough starter will work)
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2/3 cup sour cream
2 eggs
1 cup butter
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. salt

Cinnamon Filling:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 cup melted butter

Directions:
1. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and sourdough starter. Beat until smooth, then stir in sour cream.
2. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and vanilla. Mix until blended.
3. Grease and flour a tube pan or bundt pan (I used cooking spray with flour).
4. Spread half the batter in the pan. Spread the filling over the top, then top with remaining batter.
5. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

This is one of the lightest coffee cakes I have ever made. I'm going to try it out in a 13"x9" pan with the filling sprinkled over the top. If it works, I'll make it for our upcoming homeschool book sale's breakfast menu.

I've always wondered, do coffee cakes count for breakfast or dessert ... maybe it just depends upon when you eat it!

E-Z Moist Cake

Last weekend, a friend of the family came over to visit with her kids. They brought just the right number of pieces of her mother's 'famous' cake. I didn't know about this cake ... guess I haven't been in the country long enough!! Anyway, we all enjoyed it.

I could have called for the recipe, but our friend mentioned that it was made with a mix. I figured I could find it in one of my many church cookbooks ... and I found a recipe that I believe will produce identical results.

E-Z Moist Cake
Yield: 12 servings

Ingredients:
1 cake mix*
2 eggs
1/2 cup cultured sour cream
1 can pie filling, any flavor (cherry and chocolate are a great combo)

Directions:
Use the cake mix dry. Add all ingredients. Mix by hand or at low speed until moistened. Beat 2 minutes at high speed. (I mixed by hand because I didn't want the cherries mashed.) Spray the bottom of a 13x9 inch pan with cooking spray and pour the batter into the pan. You will need to spread the batter out evenly. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 25-35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

I plan to frost with chocolate frosting. Chocolate frosting is great on chocolate cake with cherry pie filling (this is what our friend brought over). However, I think caramel frosting would be excellent on white cake with apple pie filling. One other note ... if you use apple pie filling, toss in about 1 tsp. cinnamon.

*Recipe recommends white, friend's mom uses chocolate ... mmm not a hard decision ... CHOCOLATE!)

Birthday Cakes

This past weekend, Dash celebrated his birthday (which is actually later this month on the 24th) with four friends. They had a bowling party and had a great time. Party-goers were asked to bring a donation for either Adopt-a-pet or the Cathedral of St. Mary Altar Servers.

I decorated a cake for the boys. It's not professional, but do boys care??? I usually 'do' a cake like this, or one that requires more decorating, at least every couple years. It reminds me why I'm not a professional cake decorator and reminds me that I should appreciate dexterity in my fingers. Even that amount of piping made my hands cramp!