American Cake - Cake #24: Malinda Russell's Washington Cake

Time Period: 1800 - 1869

This recipe was published as part of a 39-page booklet named A Domestic Cookbook in 1866. It was created by Malinda Russell, a free woman of color, and is thought to be the first cookbook by an African-American woman in our country's history. Mrs. Russell is thought to have run her own boardinghouse and pastry shop, and her recipes had a more European flair than her contemporaries. This cake, for example, is similar to an English-style pound cake. After the Revolutionary War, a lot of cakes began to be named after President Washington, but eventually, Washington cakes began to be categorized by being pound cakes infused with currants or lemon.

This is one of the lemon Washington cakes, as it contains both lemon juice and lemon zest. The citrus gave it a nice zing, and unlike another pound cake I've made, it was not dry. That said, I do not know what is wrong with my tube pan, as it often turns out cakes with raggedy patches torn out, like this one. Malinda Russell was no doubt better at presentation than I. Oh, well. At least it tasted good.

Read more »

American Cake - Cake #23: Moosewood Cardamom Coffee Cake

Time Period: 1963 - 1979

American Cake is not a political book. By that, I mean that although certain types of cakes are intensely regional, and thus associated with certain types of people, the focus of each of the entries is simply the cake's origin, without much comment as to the personality of the person who invented/perfected it. And that's how it should be in a cookbook. That said, the introduction to this 1973 cake pins it to "a group of Cornell students" that "opened a mostly vegetarian restaurant called The Moosewood Collective", and served "seasonal meals with ingredients from local farms". OK, so, hippies. Got it. One of the cooks went on to publish some of those recipes in The Moosewood Cookbook, which included this coffee cake, inspired by the flavors of Scandinavian baking. That cookbook went on to be entered by the James Beard Foundation into the Cookbook Hall of Fame, which is something I now desperately need to research.

As you can tell from the picture, this cake is not fooling around when it comes to butter. The cardamom goes directly into the cake batter, which is then divided into thirds and separated by two layers of filling that contains cinnamon, brown sugar, and chopped walnuts. I baked this as this year's birthday cake, and it turned out very well. The butter saves it from being too dry, though it still benefited from a big mug of coffee on the side, or at times, some whipped cream as a topping.

Read more »

American Cake - Cake #22: Hershey Bar Cake

Time Period: 1946 - 1962

Though a lot of the cakes in this project have main ingredients that are not native to America, there's no denying the origin of Hershey's chocolate. Milton Hershey apprenticed with a Philadelphia confectioner when he was a teenager, and there was no looking back. He built his company on the ideal of making chocolate affordable, and between that, stamping the name of his product right into the chocolate itself, and providing it as rations to wartime soldiers, it's little wonder that Hershey's became a national phenomenon.

This cake, which derives all of its chocolate from Hershey's products (no cocoa powder) first appeared in the 1950s. At the time, it contained more sugar, which was later reduced in place of Hershey's syrup to infuse even more chocolate into it. Some recipes even ask for more drizzled on top, but that seems like overkill.

Today, it's become very fashionable to bag on Hershey's for being mass-produced, processed, "fake" chocolate. To some extent, I get it. There are certain ingredients I want to be as pure and natural as possible, and I enjoy more thoughtfully-sourced chocolate of varying levels of darkness as much as the next guy. That said, I don't have any beef with Hershey's. Though I don't have much of a sweet tooth, when I do get the craving for candy, there's nothing wrong with a good ol' fashioned Hershey bar, and hey, if it's Mr. Goodbar, even better.

While Hershey's has now mostly been relegated to bite-sized candy to give out at Halloween, this cake wasn't bad. Would it replace traditional chocolate cake in any serious baker's cookbook? No, of course not. But much like the chocolate bars themselves, it was a perfectly serviceable dessert.

Read more »

American Plate - Bite #83: Coca-Cola

Though it's been interesting to read about the history of the foods and drinks in this book, this entry is a good reminder that no matter how fascinating they may be, and no matter how tasty they are, or how embraced they are by a local culture, marketing is where the battle for widespread popularity is won. Staples like venison and bananas generate their own word of mouth, but when it comes to actual products, we wouldn't be talking about McDonald's or Jell-o today if they didn't have the teams of people who originally dreamed up the most effective ways to sell them.

Coca-Cola is perhaps the platonic idea of such a product; it wasn't the first soft drink invented, and certainly hasn't been the last. It doesn't taste markedly different than other colas, doesn't look different, and its ingredients don't cause a unique effect. And yet, it's the most famous and widely-available soda in the world.

Like many soft drinks, it began its life as a type of cure-all snake oil. The flavored syrup was invented in 1886 by Dr. John S. Pemberton, who was researching its use as a treatment for opiate addiction. At other points in its past, Coca-Cola was also claimed to cure headaches and impotence, in addition to the usual boasts about providing energy to the exhausted. 

People liked the taste of the syrup when it was mixed with carbonated water, and the product was named after its main flavorings: coca leaves and cola nuts. Coca leaves being the source of cocaine is often laughed about, because who wouldn't become enamored with a drink that gets you literally high? That component was removed by 1903, though. What really sent Coke on its meteoric rise were the people that knew what to do with it.

Ownership passed from a local who expanded the use of Coca-Cola into soda fountains to businessmen who innovated a bottling process that would also expand worldwide. It was sent to soldiers on the front of both World Wars as rations. It was talked up as cheap luxury during the Depression. It was touted as a welcome alternative to booze during Prohibition. 

No matter what was going on in the world, Coca-Cola was offered as a solution. It's little wonder that it has become the behemoth that it is today. Thanks to relatively recent developments in sugar substitutes, when I drink Coke, I generally opt for Diet Coke or Coke Zero, finding the original a bit too sweet for my tastes. I often like to add a splash of lime juice for some added zing. I certainly wouldn't call myself brand loyal, but the marketers across American history have certainly done their job well; it'll always be the first product to spring to mind when the topic of soda is brought up. 

Read more »

American Plate - Bite #5: American Bison

Most American kids learn about the noble bison/buffalo in their first history classes. Inevitably, they learn about how invaluable a resource they were to Native Americans. The massive beasts generally topped out at 700-2000 pounds, and every part of them was utilized by early native tribes. A species that once dominated the landscape was killed to near extinction, but what those kids in history class might not be learning is that this population crash was not entirely due to over-hunting.

Bison caught diseases from cattle, they were dispatched to make way for incoming railroads, and worst of all, a government policy directing the slaughter of bison in order to force desperate Native Americans onto reservations all contributed to their near disappearance.

Fortunately, we still have bison, not only for a diversity of species, but because they're still a damn fine food source. It's more nutritious than domestic animals such as pigs, cows, and chickens; it's got higher vitamin content, is lower in calories and cholesterol, and their fat does not marble their meat. 

Dried buffalo meat can be incorporated with nuts and berries into pemmican, a sort of early version of a Clif bar. Without access to the warm buffalo fat needed to make that, I had to rely on ground bison meat. At home, I made it into meatballs to serve on pasta, while out at restaurants, bison burgers are a popular choice.

They were both very good, which did not come as a surprise. Bison is easy to overcook, but if you can avoid that, and season it properly, it can be a highly satisfying star of any meat dish.

Read more »

American Plate - Bite #29: Tea and Coffee

By modern standards, tea is the hot drink of choice for England, China, and many other countries, while America favors coffee. Such was not always the way. As colonists, Americans enjoyed tea just as much as their mother country. Drinking it was not only done to satisfy thirst; the ritual of preparing and serving tea was just as important as the consumption of it.

Then a little thing called The Boston Tea Party happened. Perhaps you've heard of it? At the time (1773), coffee was not an unheard of drink in the colonies. As of the early 1700s, it was already the preferred breakfast drink. The American Revolution came as a heavy blow to tea's reputation. Drinking it was akin to supporting the redcoats, and coffee's popularity surged. Just as now, its use as an energy booster gave it a leg up.

Tea regained some of its clout after the war, but it was another war that would make coffee the dominant hot drink in American mugs. When Union soldiers came home from the Civil War, they were used to having coffee as part of their standard battlefield rations, and saw no reason to stop. Coffee's popularity proliferated from there, and today, it accounts for 83% of all hot beverages consumed in the United States.

I am certainly contributing to that large percentage. Every workday is kicked off with a mug of coffee, with one or two more throughout the day. I can get pretty irritable without it. I also tend to order it when having breakfast out at a diner or restaurant. That doesn't mean there isn't a place for tea in my heart, too. Hot tea hits the spot when the mood strikes, or if I'm not feeling particularly well. I'm not a huge iced tea drinker, but once in a while, I'll indulge. And then, of course, there's dinner or dim sum at Chinese restaurants, which would feel incomplete without a pot of hot tea on the table.

Read more »

American Cake - Cake #21: Mary's Cherry Upside-Down Cake

Time Period: 1946 - 1962

The entry for this cake is a little strange. It details a short history of Mary Drabik, a woman who had to make every penny count, so she grabbed every free sour cherry she could from her sister's trees, and made all sorts of things out of them, including this cake, which won first prize at the Minnesota State Fair in 2014. Why is some random lady's recipe included in a book meant to be a holistic representation of the country's cake history? Unclear. I suppose I could see an argument for it, since cherries are so popular nationally, and heirloom recipes are important when describing the evolution of American cake over time.

Here's another fun fact: I hate cherries and anything cherry-flavored. Still, a deal is a deal, and I agreed to bake every cake in this book. I used the opportunity of a Memorial Day BBQ to bake it for a potluck, and foisted it off on friends instead of eating any myself. I'm told it turned out very tasty, and will take their word for it!

Read more »

American Cake - Cake #20: George Washington Carver's Peanut Cake

Time Period: 1917-1945

George Washington Carver is synonymous with peanuts, and I need only the barest of excuses to put peanuts or peanut butter into a dessert. Carver is justifiably hailed for elevating the peanut to hero status, demonstrating how they could revive soil, and be used to make oil, soap, medicine, insecticide, coffee, cookies, candy, and cake. He not only improved the Southern economy, but the health and diet of struggling black families. 

 

I decided to make this one for Tiddy's birthday, and it's got quite the ingredient list. 2 sticks of butter! A full 2 cups of molasses! Half a jar of peanuts! It made so much batter, I was concerned that the mixer would overflow. It turned out pretty well; the molasses and spices make it reminiscent of gingerbread, but being packed with peanuts gives it a much earthier flavor that improved over time. It won't top the list of favorites from this project, but I could easily see myself making it again, and there are certainly worse ways to honor an American hero.

Read more »

American Cake - Cake #19: New Orleans King Cake

 Time Period: 1650-1799

During the earliest days of the United States becoming a country, plenty was going on outside those thirteen original colonies. Over in Louisiana, French, Spanish, Basque, and Haitian influences were blending into a melting pot of their own, and introduced countless culinary wonders we still enjoy. The King Cake is heavily associated with Mardis Gras, and since we can't do anything in public thanks to an ongoing pandemic, I decided to try and save some portion of the holiday by taking on the book's most complicated recipe so far.

King Cakes can take different forms, but the first one was brought to North America by Basque settlers in 1718, and was a cinnamon-swirled brioche-style cake, rather than more modern ones made with puff pastry dough. Since we're trying to honor the cake's roots here, this recipe honors that earlier preparation, using bread flour and yeast. 

I could have just sprinkled powered sugar on top, but wanted to fully embrace the holiday by preparing an almond-tinged glaze with the traditional Mardis Gras colors. So how did it turn out? Considering it was my first try, and preparing the dough took some complex measuring and temperamental proving, not bad! It was time-consuming enough that I don't know how often I'll be rushing to make another one, but for being stuck at home during a bitterly cold winter weekend, it certainly earned some beads.

Read more »