Classic Cakes That Need Resurrecting

[bratlet]

Battenburg (four squares of coloured sponge enclosed by marzipan)

Stuffed Monkey (Cinnamon pastry enclosing and almond filling)

Black forest Gateau (chococolate and cherries)

But greatest of all, at 11am or 11pm, with a glass of Bual...

Madeira Cake (doesn't contain any wine but is a light lemon sponge made to go with a glass of Madeira)

Hi,

I'm a newbie here, and I'm having a blast on this web site. I am very interested in the recipe for Stuffed Monkey. The name is great. Is there any chance I could get the recipe?

Thanks so much....I look forward to reading and posting here often.

Lynn

[TrishCT]

OK, OK...i just skimmed this thread so...is there a recipe for Velvet Spice Cake out there? I Google Recipe Searched it and came up with nada.

Thanks

Ok.... I have too much time on my hands today...

I didn't come up with a recipe doing a quick google search ( "velvet spice cake") but did see that there should be a recipe in Rombauer's 1985 Joy of Cooking... Seems like a book that should be a the library.

I was curious as to what to what makes a cake "velvet" -- is it just a descriptitve name or is there some technique or group of ingredients in common with, say for instance, "red velvet cake".

edited for typo

Velvet Spice Cake

(Maybe so-named for it's "delicate consistency?" Joy of Cooking says that about this cake.)

Have all ingredients 70 degrees. Sift before measuring:

2 1/2 cups cake flour

Resift twice with:

1 1/2 teaspoons double-acting baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon cloves

1/2 teaspoon salt

Set aside

Cream:

3/4 cup butter or shortening

Add gradually and cream together:

1 1/2 cups sifted sugar

Beat in:

3 egg yolks

Add the sifted ingredients to the butter mixture in 3 parts alternating with:

7/8 cup yogurt or buttermilk

Stir the batter after each addition until smooth.

Whip until stiff but not dry:

3 egg whites

Fold them lightly into the cake batter.

Bake in a greased 9 inch tube pan 1 hour or more in preheated 350 degree oven. Spread when cool with chocolate butter icing or boiled white icing.

Edit: typo

Edited April 22, 2004 by TrishCT (log)

[Basilgirl]

OK, OK...i just skimmed this thread so...is there a recipe for Velvet Spice Cake out there? I Google Recipe Searched it and came up with nada.

Thanks

Ok.... I have too much time on my hands today...

I didn't come up with a recipe doing a quick google search ( "velvet spice cake") but did see that there should be a recipe in Rombauer's 1985 Joy of Cooking... Seems like a book that should be a the library.

I was curious as to what to what makes a cake "velvet" -- is it just a descriptitve name or is there some technique or group of ingredients in common with, say for instance, "red velvet cake".

edited for typo

I checked my OLD (very pre-1985) Joy of Cooking and there it was! Thanks, Ludja, and thanks to TrishCT for posting the recipe.

I'll get my sister to make this; I'm a lousy baker. Well, except for pizza dough and foccacia, but that's a different thread.

[foodie52]

I like the idea of the peanut butter frosted Pepsi cake -- the homage to the Southern classic, Peanuts and Pepsi.

Hey, claire797...did you ever make that cake?

Or are you too busy practicing your Bake Off recipe??

[claire797]

I like the idea of the peanut butter frosted Pepsi cake -- the homage to the Southern classic, Peanuts and Pepsi.

Hey, claire797...did you ever make that cake?

Or are you too busy practicing your Bake Off recipe??

Ha Ha! As a matter of fact, that was my Bake Off entry!

Edited May 27, 2004 by claire797 (log)

[jgarner53]

Wow, what a great thread! So many great cakes (I'm dying to try the red velvet cake!)

My favorite cake was the Lemon Jello cake (my mom calls it Lemon Supreme cake), which uses a lemon cake mix, and a box of lemon jello. You whip the egg whites separately, though I'm not sure why because the cake is SO dense and moist from the 3/4 cup of oil and the lemon juice/powdered sugar glaze that you really don't get any superior volume. I hadn't had it for years and recently made it for a friend's birthday (at her request). I'd really love to devise a scratch recipe for this. I think the taste would be superior to the chemical-ly, fake lemony, neon yellow that this cake turns out to be.

My mom also used to make an angel food cake (probably from a mix as she wasn't a big baker) and sometimes cover it with a whipped cream icing (I think) that had cocoa powder and crushed Heath bars in it. Wow, was that good!

Cakes are where I started baking at a pretty early age, though I probably did start with mixes, I quickly moved on to scratch cakes, preferring chocolate, though for some reason I was leery of using a double boiler to melt chocolate, so I always sought out cocoa powder recipes (we had a book of Hershey's recipes).

I don't make many cakes now (though I'm hoping that will change as I get my baked goods into more people's mouths), mainly because with just 2 of us, a cake can last a Looooooong time.

My favorite cake memory, though, is when my sister took a bite of a chocolate potato cake I'd made for mom's birthday one year (a Cooking Light recipe) and enjoyed it, but once she knew there was potato in it, she couldn't finish her piece.

[andiesenji]

Speaking of resurrecting "classic" cakes, this one is truly ancient.

Here is a very old family recipe. The earliest mention of the cake is in one of my ancestor's journals ca. 1690. My great-grandmother found the "receipt" and deciphered the recipe in about 1880.

Although it was prepared at other times of the year, it was always called Christmas Cake.

I brought it up to date about 20 years ago when I was allowed access to my great grandmama's journals. I have continued to refine it right up to the present.

Like many cakes of that era it contains dried fruits and is fairly heavy. You can use a combination of dried fruits, but the larger ones have to be chopped so all pieces are about the same size. I have used cherries, cranberries, blueberries, black currants, Zante currants, sultanas and my home-dried extra sweet seedless red grapes, dried plums, dried persimmons, peaches and pears.

As long as the total amount is as listed in the recipe, it doesn't matter about the combination.

I often make this for parties and most people love it. Technically it is a "fruit" cake but even people who do not care for fruitcake will eat this.

Also like most of the English cakes that are served at tea, it keeps very well, as I have noted in the recipe.

FRUITED COCOA CAKE original recipe ca. 1690

Notes:

It is important to use Dutch process cocoa. I use King Arthur Flour's Double Dutch Cocoa and Black Cocoa Half and Half.

When glazed with the glaze at the end of the recipe, this cake will keep for several days at room temp and will stay incredibly moist. I have in the past made this cake ahead of time and wrapped it well in aluminum foil and kept it in a cool place for 6 weeks. However I now live alone. When my family was still all together, I could not keep it more than a couple of days......to give you an idea of the way things used to be, the original "receipt" called for 6 pounds of twice-boulted flour and 3 full pound loaves of sugar well beaten..... 2 pounds of butter and 3 dozen eggs.

1 cup BUTTER unsalted

1-1/2 tsp SALT

1 tsp CINNAMON

1 tsp CLOVES, ground

1 tsp NUTMEG, ground

1 tsp ALLSPICE, ground

1/3 cup COCOA, Dutch process

3 cups superfine SUGAR

4 extra-large EGGS

3 tsp BAKING SODA

4 cups unbleached FLOUR

1-1/2 cups CURRANTS

1-1/2 cups DRIED CHERRIES

1-1/2 cups WALNUTS, chopped or pecans or macadamia nuts, etc.

3 cups APPLESAUCE, unsweetened chunky style if you can find it, even better is homemade.

Preheat oven to 350 F

Grease and flour a deep 11" x 15" pan or 2 10-inch square pans or 2 holiday mold pans.

In a large mixing bowl (or mixer bowl) cream together butter, salt, spices, cocoa and sugar. beat until smooth.

Add eggs one at a time, beating well after adding each one.

Mix baking soda with flour and sift, reserve 2 heaping tablespoons.

Instead of sifting the flour you can simply put it in a large bowl and run a wire whisk through it which does the same as sifting, i.e. fluffing it up a bit.

Add flour to batter alternately with applesauce.

Sprinkle the fruit and nuts with the reserved flour, toss to coat well and fold into cake batter.

Pour batter into pan and bake for about 1 hour or until cake tests done. (deeper pans will require longer baking)

ORANGE GLAZE

GRATED PEEL OF 2 ORANGES

1/3 CUP SUGAR

1/4 CUP WATER

1 CUP ORANGE JUICE

3 TABLESPOONS GRAND MARNIER LIQUOR OR BRANDY

Combine ingredients in saucepan, bring to simmer, stirring constantly, continue cooking until liquid is reduced by 1/2. Drizzle over cake ( I use a turkey baster and a perforated spoon as the glaze is too hot to dip my fingers into which is usually the way I drizzle icing) . After the glaze has set, decorate edges of the cake and the plate edges with powdered sugar sifted thru a fine sieve or use a cut-out pattern or paper "lace" doily.

[andiesenji]

More notes about the fruited cocoa cake.

I like to give friends the makings for this cake, pre-measured dry ingredients, fruits, nuts, spices, etc., wrapped with a baking pan, and a laminated copy of the recipe.

People who seldom go to the trouble of making cakes from scratch have fun with this one, particularly because it doesn't need icing. It is so easy to just dust it with XXX sugar.

It is also easy to decorate when one uses the glaze because dragees, candy spots, and othre decorative sugar items stick to it quite well.

I bake it in a large Christmas tree pan and 4 small tree forms and group them on a large tray.

I surround the "grove" with macaroon coconut and decorating the trees with red hots, green candies and making "strings" of silver and gold dragees. If I feel ambitious I can pipe red and green garlands.

It can also be baked in a Bundt pan but the pan can only be filled half way. It takes so long to bake it so the center is done that the outer edges overcook if the pan is filled. It is because the fruit makes the center very moist.

[claire797]

Jayme's red velvet cake is very moist. Definitely worth a try. However, if you want to try the classic Waldorf Astoria version, here's the recipe below. A friend of mine did a red velvet bake-off of her own and declared this one a winner. I was suprised since it contains less fat, but she declared it the moistest of them all (red velvets tend to be dry).

Here's the recipe. I suppose technique is extremely important in keeping this one moist. I didn't bother including the Waldorf's icing recipe because I always use a cream cheese/sour cream icing on red velvet.

Note: The recipe said to bake at 300 for 30 minutes. It will probably take more like 40-45 minutes.

Waldorf Astoria Red Velvet Cake

1/2 c. Crisco (Butter Flavor)

1 1/2 c. sugar

2 eggs

2 oz. red food coloring

1 tsp. vanilla

2 c. flour

2 T. cocoa

1 tsp. salt

1 c. buttermilk

1 tsp. soda

1 tsp. white vinegar

Preheat oven to 300F. Grease and flour a 13x9 inch or 2 8 inch round cake pans.

Cream shortening and sugar. Add egg, food coloring, and vanilla.

In a separate bowl, sift dry ingredients together. (sift a few times w/ a wire strainer or sifter) Alternately, add some of dry ingredients and some of buttermilk to red bater. Start and end w/ dry ingredients.

In a separate container, mix soda and vinegar (this will bubble up really high) After it bubbles, add mixture to rest of cake mixture. Pour into greased and floured pans. 1 13x9 or two 8" pans. Bake at 300 for 30 minutes. Check for doneness with a toothpick. Depending on your oven it may take up to 10 minutes longer. Cool for about 20 minutes. Turn out of cake pan to finish cooling.

[Tepee]

Andiesenji, I'm in awe of your cocoa fruit cake recipe. When I do bake it, I'll do so with great reverence, knowing the age/history of its origin. Thank you so much for sharing it.

[Jaymes]

Speaking of resurrecting "classic" cakes, this one is truly ancient.

Here is a very old family recipe. The earliest mention of the cake is in one of my ancestor's journals ca. 1690. My great-grandmother found the "receipt" and deciphered the recipe in about 1880.

Although it was prepared at other times of the year, it was always called Christmas Cake.

Wow. Impressive. Thanks for sharing it with us.

[racheld]

The classic Lane Cake Filling verges on Obscene.  Eight egg yolk custard.  A cup of pecans.  Bourbon.  Sultanas.  Coconut.  dates. Maraschino cherries

←

Chris has mentioned his Aint Maggie's Lane Cake several times in the past couple of years---I'll have to see where the recipe's hiding in my Mother's great drawerful of clippings and jottings and saved-from-Farm Journal and McCall's bits and pieces, all accumulated over a LONG kitchen life, and scooped up by me, drawer and all, to be tumbled into a big box and put on "our" truck when Daddy sold our family home a year after Mother's passing.

His Aint Maggie was a sweet woman, I've been told, taking in a teenage brother-in-law and being GIVEN a niece my age when she was two---there were seven children in her family and her Mom thought Aint Maggie would like to have one.

And Chris' Dad went to stay for weekends every Saturday and Sunday of his life until he was married, though the two houses were less than half a mile apart.

I'm sure when the Lane Cake was made in their house, the baker might have mentioned, as did my own Aunt Lucy, whose recipe I will seek out soon, that the cake was "Made backerds" in that the whites went into the layers and the yolks made the "fillin.'"

And I don't know what spirits are in Aunt Lucy's recipe, but Aint Maggie made a special "run" of blackberry wine every Summer just for making Lane Cakes.

And those three gentlemen of her household---those upright, hard-shell Baptist fellows, had better NOT be caught with a purple smear on their lips anytime between---oh, no.

[Kendi]

On 5/11/2003 at 2:00 PM, kitwilliams said:

I've just added a recipe to the archive for an awesome, moist marble cake. It's from a pamphlet put out by General Foods in 1941 (I mentioned this earlier in this thread) which pushes Swans Down Cake Flour. The technique used for the chocolate mixture is fun and interesting: you add baking soda to the melted chocolate/sugar/water mixture before adding it to part of the cake batter.

The pamphlet suggests frosting it with a Hungarian Chocolate Frosting which I made and it tasted just fine but it has egg yolks in it which are just stirred into the warm melted chocolate mixture. If anyone wants the recipe I'm happy to supply it as well, but your best ganache is an even better bet.

An awesome, classic layer cake which totally took my dad back to his youth.

Hello Kitwilliams,

Good morning, Thank You for sharing. Where can I find this recipe please? Thank You

[blue_dolphin]

27 minutes ago, Kendi said:

Hello Kitwilliams,

Good morning, Thank You for sharing. Where can I find this recipe please? Thank You

 

It's here

[Kendi]

2 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

 

It's here

Hello Blie_dolphin,

Thank You so much. I am going to bake it.

Thank You

Kendi

Edited September 18, 2018 by Kendi (log)