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.
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