American Cake - Cake #30: Julia Child's Queen of Sheba Cake

Time Period: 1963-1979

Like millions of other food-loving Americans in my, ahem, age bracket, I was a huge fan of Julia Child's work. I watched The French Chef, I own Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and I've watched and read any number of biographical movies, TV shows, and books about the culinary legend. Child brought elevated cooking to American kitchens, and her influence cannot be overestimated. This cake recipe was included in her seminal cookbook, which was published in 1961.

This cake is a relatively flat one, containing no baking powder, and depending on egg whites as its raising agent. I have an open question about how American this recipe really is, if it's so dependent on French techniques, but I can see how it's gotten a cultural twist, with its inclusion of semi-sweet chocolate and rum.

Although the photo in American Cake shows the cake completely covered with icing, there was absolutely no way the quantities given in the recipe was going to make enough to do that, so I just iced the top. I also used toasted whole almonds on top (instead of the slivers pictured in the cookbook), and hoped that these differences wouldn't hurt the flavor. It turned out to be a lot more moist than I was expecting, and tasted very good; the gentle hit of rum in both the cake and the icing was noticeable without being overpowering.

Read more »

American Plate - Bite #47: Beer and Pretzels

Though my family is not German, this Bite speaks to me in a more personal way than a lot of the others, because I live in a city that German immigrants had a heavy influence on. German lager was one of the cornerstones of St. Louis, as this is where Eberhard Anheuser set up shop, and later passed the business to his son-in-law, Adolphus Busch. Germans brought a method of brewing that took out a lot of the unpredictability of beer, and thus it became much preferred over the earlier, murkier American brews. German pretzel recipes also took over, and it's little wonder why.

The food and drink themselves weren't the only things that helped these two establish dominance. Particularly in the case of beer, technology gave it helping hand. The invention of refrigerated railroad cars in the 1870s meant that beer could be shipped nationally, and the crimped cap on the bottle prevented it from exploding. Budweiser became the first national beer, and for generations, it and other big brands ruled the roost in bars, saloons, and beer halls.

Nowadays, as you can tell from the photo, people like to drink local again. Soft pretzels are the perfect accompaniment to beer, and I even tried my hand at making them from scratch, with tasty if not wonderfully photogenic results.

Read more »

American Cake - Cake #29: Brown Derby Grapefruit Cake

Time Period: 1917-1945

The legacy of the Brown Derby restaurant in Los Angeles is based on three things: Being the in place to spot celebrities eating back in the heyday of Hollywood, the Cobb salad, and this cake. Though the recipe used to make this particular cake didn't derive from that restaurant's kitchen, they did serve grapefruit chiffon, allegedly because the clientele requested a healthier alternative to other desserts. Insisting that a restaurant create a brand new menu item so that you can pretend you're not still eating cake is the most American thing I've ever heard, so this fits right into this project.

This cake has another significance as well. Grapefruit is one of Tiddy's favorite things to eat, so given that this incorporates grapefruit sections, grapefruit juice, and grapefruit zest, I could think of no better birthday cake to make him. I wish I could have made the final product look a bit prettier and photogenic, but this cake was a rousing success where it counted. It was a little bitter for me, but the birthday boy loved it.

Read more »

American Cake - Cake #28: 17th-Century Cheesecake

Time Period: 1650-1799

Cheesecake may seem like a relatively modern recipe, but it's actually got a long history, dating back to the Greeks and Romans. It enjoyed popularity with the first colonists since before the War of Independence, first appearing on a menu on an American menu in 1758. Unsurprisingly, Philadelphia was a hub for cheesecake in early America, where they used cheese curds similar to the ricotta we use today. 

One of the nice things about the more historic cakes in this book is that their flavors aren't derived from pure sweetness. The ricotta lends a tang that it slightly leavened by the currants, but this isn't a cake that blasts you with sugar. It turned out very well, and though it's very dissimilar to the more modern cheesecakes you'd get in a restaurant or bakery, it offers more than just a peek into history; I'd happily eat this one again.

Read more »

American Cake - Cake #27: Louisiana Syrup Cake

Time Period: 1900-1916

Cultural lines are drawn all over America, but in matters both political and culinary, the South has always been a realm unto itself. Citizens of French descent in particular had their own argot, their own religious practices, and of course, their own recipes. In the cake world, one of those specialized desserts was the syrup cake (or gâteau de sirop). Small communities in Louisiana had easy access to sugarcane, and the cane syrup derived from those crops was used to make this spice cake. That's not to say everyone made them the same way; even within the community itself, there are vast differences. I looked up this cake on the internet, and every recipe was wildly variant.

I couldn't find cane syrup at the store, and didn't really care to, as I read about the Cajun variant that uses fig preserves, instead, and that sounded far more appealing. There is no butter in this cake; the fat comes from vegetable oil, and the added fig preserves made for an incredibly moist result. It turned out to be very good. The spices and fig gave it a homey, traditional flavor that could really shine, since the relatively low amount of sugar means than it wasn't too sweet. This one is a keeper.

Read more »

American Plate - Bite #12: Atlantic Cod

When British colonists were first establishing their foothold in New England, it's unsurprising that fishing was a cornerstone of their emergent businesses and ability to keep themselves fed. Nowadays, we tend to think of cod as more of a United Kingdom fish than a United States one, but it was vitally important to American interests at one time. The ability to salt and cure it meant that it could be preserved for long periods of time, as long as it could be kept dry. All that had to be done was to hack off a portion, rehydrate it (and rinse off the salt), then roll it in other ingredients before frying.

Mixing the flesh into cod cakes was a popular meal at any time of day, a method whose popularity carried forward into recipes like the crab cakes of today. Cod being so inexpensive and versatile led to overfishing, and though cod is still readily available in fish-'n-chip platters, modern Americans have generally turned to more flavorful species for their piscine entrees. 

For my dip back into the Atlantic waters for this Bite, I had cod prepared a few ways. The fried type is always good with a dash of vinegar or two, but I also wanted some straight-up grilled cod, so I marinated it, then threw it on the stove with some seasonings. It was fairly tasty just on its own, but I also made sure to make it the star of an actual dish, for which it was served with vegetables and rested on a vast bed of lentils.

Cod will never be my favorite type of fish, but it's certainly earned its place in the pantheon of American foods, and as a light springtime dinner, it can really hit the spot.

Read more »

American Cake - Cake #26: Bangor Brownies

Time Period: 1870-1899

Hopefully, nobody asks you too much at a trivia contest about the origin of brownies. Are they named after the pixie-like characters in Palmer Cox's cartoons and poems? Are they named after the color, derived originally from the toasted nuts and molasses used to make them? Did they first come about because someone forgot to throw baking powder into the mixing bowl? Did someone at a chocolate company simply decide to toss in extra egg and chocolate to the cake recipe? All of these are described as possibly having a hand in the brownie's inception. This recipe honors the deep roots that brownie have in Maine, though at the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition, chocolate cake was already being cut into squares for portability.

As far as the project goes, I am quickly running out of easy recipes. Almost gone are the days of simply mixing six ingredients, then baking. Before we transition to the more complicated cakes, though, turning out this pan of brownies took hardly any effort. They were fairly tasty, though I wouldn't say this recipe blew me away. The brownies also didn't solidify quite enough, which meant that cutting and serving turned into a very messy process. Still, they were a satisfying dessert to serve at an afternoon of playing cards with friends; brownies are the laid-back member of the cake family, and that makes them welcome at almost any event.

Read more »