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04/20/2017 12:01 AMI was going through my mother’s little recipe box recently, looking for some of her favorites.
Most of the recipes were clipped from newspapers or magazines. She subscribed to Good Housekeeping, Ladies’ Home Journal, and McCall’s. Do you remember the McCall paper doll and the little paper outfits in every issue? I never liked dolls and I never learned to sew, but I loved that cardboard doll and those outfits.
Most of the recipes my mom never tried. As I have mentioned in past columns, from the time I was four years old—and my brother was 12—she worked at our store while Mrs. Davis, our housekeeper, took care of us and cooked and cleaned our house Monday through Saturday
Still, before and after Davey’s reign, my mother made our birthday cakes. It was always a marble cake that she baked in a tube pan. This was long before I’d ever heard of a Bundt cake. It always was pretty. But once I understood what marbles were, I had to draw a comparison. I realized that my mom’s marble cake was hard and dense, like marbles. The frosting was dark chocolate and shiny, but she only frosted the top of the cake. Sugary stuff didn’t make its way into my parents’ house very often. During the years of Mrs. Davis, she herself made us fluffy dark chocolate cakes topped with a boiled icing and drizzled with melted unsweetened chocolate. I still dream of that cake, although I have never made boiled icing. I really must try it.
I sometimes make that Coca-Cola chocolate cake, but usually for big gatherings where most like their dessert to be chocolate. You can find that recipe here: www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/recipes-cola-cake. One of my current favorite cake recipes was given to me by Linnea Rufo, when she was a co-proprietor of the Bee and Thistle in Old Lyme.
Spice Cake
Adapted from Linnea Rufo
Bee & Thistle Inn, Old Lyme
Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
½ cup (1 stick) butter
½ cup currants or raisins or dried cherries (optional)
½ cup candied ginger, chopped
2 eggs
2 tablespoons molasses
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon cloves
½ teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350º F. Grease a 10-inch tube pan.
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, blending well after each addition.
Whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and salt. Stir dry ingredients into egg mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with dry ingredients.
Pour batter into prepared tube pan. Set on the middle rack of the oven and bake for 1 hour and 5 minutes, or until cake pulls away from sides of pan and a tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
Cool cake in the pan, set on a rack, for 10 minutes. Remove cake from pan and spread on icing at once, while cake is still warm.
Yield: serves 10 to 12 people
Espresso Icing
Ingredients:
1 ½ cups of confectioners’ sugar
1 tablespoon of espresso
1 tablespoon milk
Directions:
Whisk icing ingredients together.