American Cake - Cake #39: Orange Chiffon Cake

Time Period: 1946-1962

Though several of the cakes in this project were developed elsewhere and updated and/or perfected in America, chiffon is truly a homegrown bake. The style was invented by Harry Baker (no pun intended), who moved to LA in the '20s and began selling his cakes to local restaurants. He kept his technique (using vegetable oil instead of butter) a secret, finally selling it in 1948. This substitution made giant waves in the baking community, and now, using oil as the fat has become commonplace in all types of cakes.

So, how to put this? Do I not have the proper equipment? Am I not following the instructions correctly? Is Anne Byrn bad at conveying information when it comes to this family of cakes? Is it a combination of these factors? Because I have had terrible luck with every cake so far that depends on whipped eggs as the leavening agent. If I'm not supposed to grease the pan so that the batter can climb, how the hell is it supposed to get out of the tube pan?

I'll keep experimenting, and while it tasted fine and I was able to rescue it by turning into bread pudding, this one will join its angelic brethren at the bottom of the ranking.

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American Plate - Bite #55: Cracker Jack

Sometimes, it seems as if some of these American Bites caught on in the popular consciousness because of sheer, dumb luck. A spark hit at just the right time and place, and suddenly, it's an American institution. Sometimes, though, it takes hard work and a string of innovations to build something from an idea to an icon. Cracker Jack definitely belongs to that latter category. People have always found things to snack on, but until Cracker Jack came along, it was usually fruit, cheese, or nuts.

In 1872, Frederick Rueckheim opened a popcorn/candy business with his brother in Chicago. Innovation #1: Experimenting with just the right combination of popcorn, peanuts, and molasses to find one that was tasty, and that wouldn't fuse into an unchewable mass. The snack was a hit at the Chicago World's Fair, so the brothers trademarked the name ("crackerjack" meaning something super-cool) and expanded the business in 1896. Transporting the mixture in warm weather was an issue, though. Innovation #2: A friend of theirs named Harvey Eckstein introduced the brothers to packaging the snack in double-layered wax paper inside individual serving-sized sealed boxes. It worked so well that Eckstein's name joined the company.

Innovation #3: A hit song. Though cracker jack had been a standard offering at baseball parks for a time, once the now-familiar tune name checking it was penned around 1908, there was no stopping its cultural imprint. There's always way to improve on advertising, though, and the Rueckheims copied the Quaker Oats idea of including a coupon in each box. Innovation #4: Then they hit upon the idea of including a little toy or surprise, instead. The rest is history, and Cracker Jack stands as America's first mass-produced snack food. 

That said, Cracker Jack seems to have left its cultural import back in the '80s. You don't see or hear much about people eating it anymore, and I haven't seen it for sale at a ballpark in years. In fact, I couldn't even buy it from the store; I had to order some online. So how was it once I got it? Kinda not as good as I remember. There are other caramel corn mixes at supermarkets that are as good or better, and sadly, the prize was worthless as well - just a sticker that promised additional prizes for collecting more. So maybe Cracker Jack's days in the sun are over, but it's sure still a testament to American innovation.

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American Cake - Cake #38: French King Cake

Time Period: 1963-1979

Why is there a recipe for "French King Cake" in a book called American Cake? I don't know, ask Anne Byrn. Though this cake did originate in France, it's apparently become the King Cake of choice for home bakers in New Orleans, rather than the brightly-colored brioche cakes you see in most bakeries, though both are traditionally served on Epiphany.

Also known as Galette des Rois or Frangipane King Cake, this version is made with sheets of puff pastry, which are sealed around a square of almond-heavy cake batter. While making puff pastry from scratch would have been a nightmare not that long ago, the fact that you can buy it out of the freezer case at the grocery store now goes a long way to understanding how this one took over in home kitchen popularity.

I found it to also be very tasty, and honestly more flavorful than the other version of King Cake, which wasn't bad, but on the dry side, which this cake managed to avoid by incorporating the soft batter into the center. If there was one textural problem to this cake, it was the puff pastry itself. Know what puff pastry is? Flaky! That's a good thing, but when 80% of your cake is a double layer of it, it explodes into crumbs the second you press a knife to it.

That aside, I did enjoy this chapter of the project, and as long as you've got a broom handy to clean up after you slice it, it would be worth having again.

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American Cake - Cake #37: Chocolate Earthquake Cake

Time Period: 1980-1999

One of the more stressful aspects of cake baking is presentation. Sure, the most important thing for a cake to achieve is good flavor, but I won't deny that it hurts my heart a bit when one of my them comes out looking sad and ugly, no matter how delicious it may be.

Obviously, I'm not the only one that feels this way, because in the modern era, there's a shift towards recipes that embrace the mess, so to speak. So, instead of worrying about how to fix a flourless cake leavened with egg whites that cracks as it cools, what if the cracking was just an intentional part of the design?

Ironically, even with the permissive parameters, this one didn't turn out quite as expected, visually. No complaints, flavor-wise, as it came out as dense and fudgy as promised. But instead of the photogenic implosion on a soaring cake pictured in the cookbook, I just got a squat circle with some minor cracking on top, as well as that pinched seam around the center of the cake I've come to dread. 

As with a lot of the cakes in this project, I probably won't go rushing to make it again, but it was fairly tasty, and a nice straightforward recipe that could give me some much needed folding-egg-white practice, so maybe its fault lines will pop up again at some point.

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American Plate - Bite #54: Cold Cereal

There have probably been ingredients and dishes throughout human history that were remarkably delicious or healthy, but without a confluence of events to bring them widespread attention, they just faded into obscurity. When the fates align, however, something can burst onto the scene and stay there. Cold cereal might have just sat in the realm of religious zealots, but with advances in marketing and technology, it had no problems catching on nationwide. You'll recognize the last names of a lot of innovators of cold cereal, from Sylvester Graham (Graham crackers and granola) to the Kellogg brothers (Corn Flakes) to Charles William Post (Grape Nuts). Far from concentrating solely on business, these men were wholly convinced that their cereals, in concert with a regimen of high-grain diets and Christian morality would solve a host of ills, from dyspepsia to masturbation.

The cereal was prescribed almost like medicine, and it's not surprising that people who ate more grain and less fatty meat for breakfast probably had improved health outcomes. Plus, cereal was a lot more affordable than the heavier breakfast offerings at the time. Combine that with the rise of train travel to spread the message, the reduced cost of print advertisements, and the inception of the first grocery chain, and cold cereal's placement in the pantheon of American food was solidified.

It's hard to imagine an American household that doesn't eat cold cereal. I'm sure I've tried dozens of different ones over the course of my life, and there's usually at least two boxes in the pantry. We weren't allowed the super-sugary ones as a kid, and I think that was ultimately the right choice. Sure, when I went off to college, I went crazy for a while for the ultra-chocolately ones or the marshmallow ones. Now that I'm a cereal-buying adult, though, I'm back to the granola and fruit/nut flakes. The Kellogg brothers would be so proud of me for that. Probably not for other parts of my life, though.

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The American Cake Project

The American Plate Project continues, but even as I explore the wide range of the foods the contributed to modern American cuisine, certain subsets draw me into their gravitational pull. Cake is mentioned twice on the American Plate Project list, and that's no accident. Americans love their sweets, and have been baking cakes since we first set foot on these shores.

It's common knowledge among my friends and loved ones that baking is a particular hobby of mine, so when I received American Cake (by Anne Byrn) for Hanukkah, it was "gently" suggested that I expand my food project by examining the history within. Of course, there's no better way to examine cake history than by baking the recipes in the cake history book.

Much like The American Plate, this book is split into different eras of time:

1) 1650-1799: Baking Cakes in Early America
2) 1800-1869: New Cakes & New Directions
3) 1870-1899: A Scientific Approach: Baking Powder & Fannie Farmer
4) 1900-1916: Birth of the American Layer Cake
5) 1917-1945: Baking in the Good Times & the Bad Times
6) 1946-1962: Tupperware, Bake-Offs, & a New Domesticity
7) 1963-1979: American Cake Times Are a-Changin'
8) 1980-1999: Cakes Born in the USA
9) 2000 to the Present: The Cakes of the New Millennium

Some of these chapters may have overly cutesy names, but this looks like a pretty natural breakdown of history, both food-related and otherwise. The rules for the American Cake project are similar to its cousin:

#1: No need to work from beginning to end. I can tackle these in whatever order is most convenient.

#2: I have to do my best to make these cakes in the spirit in which they were intended. If the people of that time period just couldn't enjoy a cake without walnuts in it, then the cake gets walnuts, even if they're not my favorite addition.

#3: There are some cakes that I can tell from the outset I won't enjoy. Simple solution: Find someone who will. Cakes make great gifts, after all.

#4: I'll do my best to use any specialized ingredients or equipment, but in some cases, it may be impossible. In those instances, I'll either get as close as I can, or will substitute something that isn't in the book, but that I personally feel is an important American cake.

Time to get cracking! I sense a lot of flour purchases in my immediate future.

Cakes Accomplished

Cake #1: American Gingerbread
Cake #2: Chocolate Stout
Cake #3: Martha Washington Great Cake
Cake #4: Classic Pound Cake
Cake #5: Shoofly Pie
Cake #6: Strawberry Shortcake
Cake #7: Lemon and Molasses Spice Marble Cake
Cake #8: Granny Kellet's Jam Cake
Cake #9: Scripture Cake
Cake #10: Chez Panisse Almond Torte
Cake #11: 1-2-3-4 Cake

Cake #12: Wacky Cake

Cake #13: Angel Food Cake

Cake #14: Fraunces Tavern Carrot Tea Cake

Cake #15: Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

Cake #16: 1917 Applesauce Cake

Cake #17: Cowboy Cake
Cake #18: Ocracoke Fig Cake

Cake #19: New Orleans King Cake

Cake #20: George Washington Carver's Peanut Cake

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

Cake #22: Hershey Bar Cake

Cake #23: Moosewood Cardamom Coffee Cake

Cake #24: Malinda Russell's Washington Cake
Cake #25: Cinnamon Flop
Cake #26: Bangor Brownies
Cake #27: Louisiana Syrup Cake
Cake #28: 17th-Century Cheesecake

Cake #29: Brown Derby Grapefruit Cake

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

Cake #31: Beet Red Velvet Cake

Cake #32: Lois's Original Plum Torte
Cake #33: Alaska Rhubarb Cake
Cake #34: Cold Oven Pound Cake

Cake #35: Mary Lincoln's White Almond Cake
Cake #36: Lazy Daisy
Cake #37: Chocolate Earthquake Cake

Cake #38: French King Cake

Cake #39: Orange Chiffon Cake

Cake Ranking

#1: American Gingerbread

#2: Martha Washington Great Cake

#3: Alaska Rhubarb Cake

#4: Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

#5: Chez Panisse Almond Torte

#6: Louisiana Syrup Cake

#7: Lois's Original Plum Torte

#8: Ocracoke Fig Cake

#9: Mary's Cherry Upside-Down Cake

#10: Strawberry Shortcake

#11: 17th-Century Cheesecake

#12: Shoofly Pie

#13: Moosewood Cardamom Coffee Cake

#14: 1917 Applesauce Cake

#15: Fraunces Tavern Carrot Tea Cake

#16: George Washington Carver's Peanut Cake

#17: Beet Red Velvet Cake

#18: Lazy Daisy

#19: Julia Child's Queen of Sheba Cake

#20: Chocolate Stout

#21: Mary Lincoln's White Almond Cake

#22: Chocolate Earthquake Cake

#23: French King Cake

#24: Bangor Brownies

#25: Hershey Bar Cake

#26: Lemon and Molasses Spice Marble Cake
#27: Cold Oven Pound Cake

#28: New Orleans King Cake

#29: Wacky Cake

#30: Granny Kellet's Jam Cake

#31: Cinnamon Flop

#32: Cowboy Cake

#33: Brown Derby Grapefruit Cake

#34: Malinda Russell's Washington Cake

#35: Classic Pound Cake

#36: 1-2-3-4 Cake

#37: Orange Chiffon Cake

#38: Scripture Cake

#39: Angel Food Cake

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American Cake - Cake #36: Lazy Daisy

Time Period: 1900-1916

There isn't much to the history of Lazy Daisy cake. A woman submitted a recipe to a local newspaper in 1914, they printed it, other publications picked it up, and a shortening company employed it in their ads. Popularity ensued. There's not much to the name, either. People have always like rhyming names, and "lazy daisy" is even part of the lyrics to the flowerbed song in the original Alice in Wonderland.

It's an apt description of the cake's preparation as well. No need to separate eggs or sift the dry ingredients. You just make a sponge cake, mix and heat the topping ingredients in a saucepan, pour over the top, and bake. There is the last step of gently broiling it so the coconut toasts, but that's pretty simple as well.

I guess what's most notable about this cake is that I ate it. I've spent the better part of my life avoiding shaved coconut, due mostly to texture issues. I liked this, though. It's fairly sweet, so you don't need much, but the brown sugar mixed with the coconut helps blend the flavors, and softens the coconut so that it's not so grating on the teeth. Does the Lazy Daisy signal a seismic shift in the already-short list of foods I don't eat? Time will tell!

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The American Plate Project

Over at the Slice of Lime, I have something called the Pop Culture Homework Project. Its purpose is to fill in cultural gaps, and to finally experience the movies, books, television, and other works of entertainment that everyone else has already embraced. That's an ongoing goal for me, but the world of entertainment is not the only sphere that benefits from a good project.

Recently, I read (and very much enjoyed) a book called The American Plate: A Culinary History in 100 Bites, by Libby H. O'Connell. It charts the foods important to American history, from the days before the New World explorers arrived to the time I'm writing this sentence. As I read the fascinating stories of how certain foods and drinks wove themselves into the American experience, it occurred to me that I had an exciting opportunity on my hands.

Why not eat my way through this remarkable book? Why not try and enjoy all of what America has to offer, not only today, but from its very beginnings? It's tough to see a downside. I can learn more about these remarkable foods, and pass along nuggets of information from the book and from my encounters. I can explore foods and techniques I've never had before. And since eating and cooking can be such a social experience, I can use this project to invite others to participate in the journey as well.

Every project needs rules and guidelines, and although some will have to be defined and refined along the way, there are a few I can set up front:

#1: No need to work from beginning to end. I can tackle these in whatever order is most convenient, and even wipe out multiple entries in a single meal.

#2: I have to do my best to eat these foods in the spirit in which they were intended. For instance, it would be beyond simple to grab a pack of Oscar Mayer lunchmeat at Shop 'n Save and be all "Done with turkey! BAM!", but that's not what turkey has come to mean to the American experience. It's cheating. Some of these foods are simple on purpose, and in those cases, it's fine. But otherwise, no cutting corners.

#3: Some of these bites are easier to eat by myself, and some are even specifically designed to be a solitary experience. That's acceptable, but for a lot of these entries, I should make an effort to share the experience with other people.

#4: I'll do my best to track down the rarer bites, but in some cases, it may be impossible to find a source. For example, I don't hold out much hope that the corner store is well-stocked with beaver tail. In those instances, I have a few options open to me. I can pull from the extra bites listed below in the "America Today" section. I can attempt to do something that mimics the original bite as closely as possible. I can substitute a bite that I personally feel is intrinsic to American eating but that isn't covered in the book. I can substitute something that is important to local eaters, but that may not apply to the country as a whole. This is one of those things that might just need to be decided along the way.

That's all I can think of for now! As each bite is eaten, I'll write a post about it, and link it back to the list below. Wish me luck! And if you live in St. Louis and would like to join me for any of these foods so essential to our national identity, leave a comment or drop me an email. I'd be happy to have you.

America Before Columbus

1) Maize
2) Beans
3) Squash
4) Venison
5) American Bison
6) Blueberries
7) Maple Syrup
8) Wild Rice
9) Red Peppers
10) Salmon

The Old World Meets the New

11) Jamaican Pepper or Allspice
12) Atlantic Cod
13) Pork
14) Beaver Tail
15) Sassafras
16) English Garden Herbs and Vegetables
17) Cow's Butter
18) Eel
19) Perry
20) Turkey

From Colonies to Independence

21) Corn (Again)
22) Doughnuts, Waffles, and Cookies
23) Wheat Flour
24) Oxtail Stew
25) Sugar
26) Syllabub
27) Pie
28) Rum and Whiskey
29) Tea and Coffee
30) Green Peas

The Rise of America

31) Oysters
32) Roast Turtles
33) Ice Cream
34) Brunswick Stew
35) Cake and the Era of Andrew Jackson
36) Spanish California Rabbit Stew
37) Hangtown Fry
38) Irish Potatoes
39) Mint Juleps
40) Chitlins

From the Civil War to the Factory Age (1860-1875)

41) Lincoln's Favorite Cake
42) Soldiers' Rations
43) Fried Catfish
44) The Rise of Thanksgiving
45) Railroad Workers and Chop Suey
46) Borden's Canned Condensed Milk
47) Beer and Pretzels
48) Pasta with Red Sauce
49) Lunch Pails
50) Rhubarb

The Gilded Age to the Turn of the Century (1870-1900)

51) Baked Alaska
52) Oysters Rockefeller
53) Beef Tenderloin
54) Cold Cereal
55) Cracker Jack
56) Chicken Paprikash
57) Scrapple
58) Bagels and Bialys
59) Celery
60) Barbecue

The Progressive Era, World War I, and Prohibition (1900-1928)

61) Hot Dogs
62) Bananas
63) Commercial Canning
64) Peanut Butter
65) Home Canning and Food Conservation
66) Doughboy Rations during World War I
67) Lace Cookies and Oreos
68) Cocktails and the Roaring Twenties
69) Canapes
70) Tostadas

The Great Depression and World War II

71) Mulatto Rice
72) WPA Soup
73) Lamb's Quarters
74) Eleanor Roosevelt's Scrambled Eggs
75) SPAM
76) Meatloaf
77) Hershey Bars
78) Peach Cobbler
79) Navajo Fry Bread
80) Frozen Food

Post-War into Cold War

81) Jell-O
82) Iceberg Lettuce
83) Coca-Cola
84) Pizza
85) TV Dinners
86) Cuban American Food
87) Jack Kennedy's Fish Chowder
88) Crème Caramel
89) McDonald's

From Childhood to a New Millenium (1969-2000)

90) Southern Fried Chicken
91) Microwave Popcorn
92) Wonder Bread
93) Granola
94) Mesclun Greens
95) Ginger Carrot Soup
96) Quiche
97) California Vintage Wine
98) American Cheese
99) Salsa
100) Sushi

America Today

101) Chili Con Carne
102) Super Foods and Diets
103) Molecularly-Modified Foods

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American Cake - Cake #35: Mary Lincoln's White Almond Cake

 Time Period: 1870 - 1899

In absolutely none of my American History education was I told that Mary Todd Lincoln was an avid baker. I suppose that fact doesn't have much to do with things like, oh say, the Civil War, but would have certainly made me more interested in her as a person. Evidently, the wealthy Todd family first had this almond cake at a catered event, and requested the recipe from the caterer. Mary proceeded to make it regularly, including while she and Abraham Lincoln were dating, as well as in the White House. Apparently, she made it so much that it became a symbol of the Lincoln family, and was found on important governmental event menus as late as the 1870s,

So, how was it? Pretty good! One serving suggestion mentioned that Mary Lincoln may have iced the cake and topped it with additional nuts or sugared fruit, but I opted to just give it a dusting of powdered sugar. I was expecting the almond flavor to pack a punch, but it was actually quite subtle. And unlike the other egg white cakes I've prepared, this one was better about holding its shape. It may not be as top tier a recipe as Lincoln was a president, but it was solidly enjoyable, and frankly, those are the types of cakes I've been preferring lately.

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American Plate - Bite #24: Oxtail Stew

When you think about the days of yore (at least the American ones), you tend to picture horses and donkeys being the main drivers of farm work; the colloquial term is "workhorse" for a reason. However, in colonial America, the real beasts of burden were oxen. They were far more inexpensive than owning and caring for horses, and bonus, when the animal reached the end of its use in the field, it headed for the kitchen.

Ox meat can be very tough, but early cooks discovered that simmering the tail released the meat from the bones effectively, and it made for a hearty, cost-effective stew. Nowadays, oxtail stew is a perennial favorite in soul food cuisine, becoming an important milestone in the African American experience. After all, let's not kid ourselves about who was being tasked with the cooking in the southern colonies.

For most of the Bites in this project, I either eat/drink them in a restaurant, or prepare them myself. This was a fun exception, as I was hanging out with some friends of mine, and was invited to dinner at their place, where oxtail stew was already simmering on the stove. It was served over a heaping mound of polenta, and was delicious. It's certainly not hard to understand why this dish has endured for hundreds of years.

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American Cake - Cake #34: Cold Oven Pound Cake

Time Period: 1917 - 1945

Modern Americans are used to preheating their ovens before baking anything, but it wasn't also so. It used to be common wisdom to not turn on gas ovens until you were ready to start baking, not only because it was cheaper to use less gas, but because people thought putting a cake into an already-hot oven would adversely affect the texture and the rise. 

Obviously, attitudes shifted, as this recipe is now one of a grand total of two that I've used a cold oven for. This cake starts at zero, and once the oven is lit, is increased in temperature partway through the process. Doing this preserves the moist center while providing a nice crust on the exterior.

One thing I've noticed along the way with this project is the challenge of getting cakes out of a tube pan (however nice it is) without the exterior looking raggedy. Am I over-buttering? Under-buttering? Not letting it rest long enough once out of the oven? Resting it for too long? How on Earth does one get a smooth exterior out of these things?

That said, I made this one for a friend's birthday, and was heartened by his reaction. Despite its...humble appearance, there were no complaints, flavor-wise. I'm not sure if this'll be a repeat recipe or not, but it was definitely a solid dessert (in more ways than one).

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American Cake - Cake #33: Alaska Rhubarb Cake

Time Period: 2000 - The Present

Rhubarb does well in cooler climates, which may explain why this cake is identified with Alaska. Though its leaves are poisonous, the stalks are often combined with sweeter fruits and added to pies and cakes. Benjamin Franklin first introduced to America as a medicinal plant, which isn't surprising, given its flavor. It wasn't until we started copying Britain's tendency to use it for jams, sauces, and baked goods that the States began turning out the sweets it's most associated with today.

I have a checkered history with rhubarb. I've never liked cherries or cherry-flavored anything, but I try them every few years to see if that's still the case (and wow, as of this writing, is it ever.) I'm not sure why I didn't extend the same opportunity to rhubarb. When I first tried it, I found it bitter and unappealing. Maybe that's just because it wasn't balanced well with the other flavors in whatever it was in, because this cake was outstanding. It didn't even need a balancing factor like strawberries - the sugar and cinnamons was all that was required to give this cake a moist sweetness with a slight tang from the rhubarb.

I shared this cake at a party, and it was remarkable to see people take a tiny sliver, try a tentative bite, and then immediately come back to carve off a bigger wedge. Thanks to this recipe, rhubarb's reputation has been rehabilitated in my mind, and I'm already thinking about what I've been missing out on.

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American Cake - Cake #32: Lois's Original Plum Torte

Time Period: 1980-1999

Although the time period this cake was assigned to is in the '80s, the recipe itself dates back to 1960. Lois Levine and Marian Burros put it into their Elegant But Easy Cookbook, and 20 years later, Burros shared it even more publicly via the New York Times. It became one of the paper's most requested recipes, and was eventually re-published annually. Plum tortes used to be made with crushed zwieback (sweetened toast) back in Depression-era America, but evolved into buttery cake batter in the 60s.

I can see why this recipe became so popular; it was really delicious. The plum size and placement can be a challenge, because crowding the cake pan turns this recipe almost into a cobbler, while spacing the plums out makes it feel too sparse. However, when it works out, you have a perfect late-summer, early-autumn dessert that tastes fresh yet comforting all at the same time.

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American Cake - Cake #31: Beet Red Velvet Cake

Time Period: 2000 - Present

While the red velvet cake recipe is inherently American, what's usually even more American about it is the shortcut bakers use by using food coloring. Not so with this one, which is given its coloring via roasted beets, which not only dyes the cake, but contributes some natural sugars. While my cursory internet research suggests that red velvet cake was popularized by the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York, and then spread more widely by Adams Extra and their food coloring, this particular version comes from a pastry chef in Atlanta.

Fun fact: Tiddy hates beets. Loathes them. He didn't even want to be in the house while I was roasting them, due to the smell. I don't mind them as much, but I'm usually only good for a few bites before I'm done with them, too. So how would a cake with a full bundle of roasted beets go over? 

Pretty well, it turns out! While the beets lent plenty of color, their flavor was overshadowed by the other ingredients, and with the addition of a cream cheese frosting, this cake was quite tasty, and actually achieved the impossible: Popularity.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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