Baking from Vintage Recipes

[Nina C.]

I have inherited a wonderful handwritten cookbook that my great grandmother gave my mother when she got married - titled "All the Good Things." The book is full of wonderful family history and advice - invaluable because all of the cooks in my family died before they taught me very much.

I have been trying to cook from it but I find that she writes shortcuts or makes assumptions that I'm not familiar with. For example - "bake in a very slow oven" which I successfully interpreted as 315 degrees.

I am specifically wrestling with a recipe marked "Nanny is famous for this!" - My Great-Great Grandmother's Cream Cake. It's a sponge cake baked in a tube pan, which you tort, fill the middle and the center with custard, and then ice with a boiled icing that has nuts in it. The sponge cake was delicious, but neither the custard nor the icing set up, so it turned into cake soup. Not the world's biggest disaster, still tasty, but I'd like to know what went wrong, and get it right.

Here is the recipe:

Custard Filling

6 egg yolks

1/2 T cornstarch (heaping)

1 cup sugar

1 t vanilla extract

1 t almond extract

1 pt rich milk or cream (boiled)

Cream sugar and eggs. Add cornstarch. Add milk. Stir well. Cook in top of double boiler, stirring constantly until cornstarch is thoroughly cooked. Let custard cool, and add to it 1/2 pt. whipped ccream or 1 pt wh cream. Cut cake through center. With a spoon cover lower half of cake with custard, cover lower half with top half of cake. Fill the center hole with custard. Whiskey (Bourbon) or sherry may be added to custard. We always did.

Ice the whole cake with:

Icing: 2 c. sugar

2 heaping T white karo syrup

Enough water to cover

2 egg whites well beaten

1 c nuts

1 t vanilla (1 t almond if you wish not necessary)

Boil sugar, karo, and water to a thread. Beat egg whites until they stand in peaks, and fold the syrup in gradually. Add nuts and vanilla last. Beat until creamy. Spread on cake with spatula. Take a large spoon (T will do) and with a quick movement, throw by spoonfuls over the filled hole in cake - makes petals of white lookes like flower petals.

I think that my problem with the icing was that I wasn't sure what "boil to a thread" meant - I was boiling it to about 160 when now, looking on the internet, it looks like I should have boiled it to 220. Does that seem like the problem?

On the custard, I'm not sure. I hadn't seen the (boiled) notation so the cream was room temp, not hot. But since you are heating the whole mixture anyway, it didn't seem like it would be a problem. I also wasn't sure when the cornstarch was cooked through. But I tasted it, and it didn't have a raw taste, so I assumed I was done.

Any thoughts you all had would be much appreciated!

Here is the cake recipe for anyone who wants it:

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 c water

6 eggs

1 1/2 t cr of tartar

1 c flour

1 t vanilla

Boil sugar and water to a thread like you do for icing. Add beaten whites to the cooled syrup. Add well beaten yolks and fold in flour that has been sifted 4 or 5 times. Add cream of tartar to last sifter of flour (scant cr. tartar) {inch of salt. Bake 45 min in Ring shaped spring pan. Cook more if necessary in very slow oven. Remove from oven and invert on boxes to cool, and put a damp cloth over top - allow to steam, and then run knife around edges of cake to loosen it. Mount on large tray (silver) or a large glass plate (larger the plate the prettier the cake).

[Kim Shook]

Nina, what a treasure! How I wish I had something like that from the cooking side of my family! I am compiling something like that, though mine is on the internet, not handwritten - I imagine that our great-grands won't be able to recognize actual handwriting and that even the internet will seem quaint ! I do have a few handwritten recipes from a famously good cook great grandmother and have tried one that didn't work either. So, I don't have an answer for you, but, if it is ok to do this (let me know if it isn't and I'll delete), I'll piggyback on you to try to get a solution, too! This dried apple cake is supposed to be a moist, rich, dense 19th century type cake. Instead it came out like a giant, thick cooky - almost impossible to cut and VERY, VERY chewy. The taste was excellent. According to the two people still alive who tasted this cake when she made it, the flavor was spot on, but the texture much too heavy. Any ideas??

Ma's Dried Apple Cake

Source of Recipe

My Great Grandmother Easterwood

Recipe Introduction (first paragraph written previously)

I haven’t made this yet – just got it from my grandmother, but even if NO one likes it, I will still leave it in. Historical recipes don’t have to be tried and true! This is in her own words, but I will add notes when I make it.

NOTE: Well, I made it and something is definitely wrong. The flavor is great, but it cooks up like a big, chewy cooky. Very hard to cut. Both Grandma Jean and Momma had tasted this when Ma made it and said that the taste was good, but the texture when she made it was moist and dense, but not hard and chewy. And I don’t know how the hell you are supposed to beat baking soda into dried apples??? There is obviously too much flour in it. I will try it again using ½ the flour. I cooked it in a tube pan, which Grandma Jean says she thinks Ma did.

List of Ingredients

2 c. sugar

1 c. butter

2 ½ c. dried apples

3 eggs well beaten

1 c. chopped nuts

1 pkg. Raisins

4 c. flour

4 t. baking soda

1 t. nutmeg

1 t. cinnamon

Recipe

Cream butter and sugar. Add apples after beating soda into them. Add other ingredients.

Bake 1 ½ hours at 300 degrees.

[Sugarella]

List of Ingredients

2 c. sugar

1 c. butter

2 ½ c. dried apples

3 eggs well beaten

1 c. chopped nuts

1 pkg. Raisins

4 c. flour

4 t. baking soda

1 t. nutmeg

1 t. cinnamon

Recipe

Cream butter and sugar. Add apples after beating soda into them. Add other ingredients.

Bake 1 ½ hours at 300 degrees.

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Kim there is no liquid in this cake! Are you sure there isn't anything else scribbled on that recipe card?

I think the flour is exactly right, given the amounts for other ingredients. And I think this will need a lot of liquid, given the large amounts of dried applies and raisins and knowing how much they'll absorb the liquid from the batter during baking. And I suspect that baking soda was to be mixed with some liquid in order to be able to beat it into the apples! (unfortunately, I'm no expert on mixing soda with liquids and NOT making a disaster.... it's easier to whip the egg whites seperately and fold them in at the end, for me, anyways) I wouldn't cream the butter and sugar together, either....I'd melt the butter and add it as part of the liquid.

WARNING: THIS IS OFF THE TOP OF MY HEAD, but I suggest you include:

1 cup unsweetened applesauce

1.5 cups unsweetened apple juice (although I suspect it will take more)

2 tsp. vanilla

I'd play with this recipe with you but I've got an awful lot of other baking to do this month....

Nina, what a great gift you got for your family. Treat that book like it's priceless! Sorry, I can't help with yours except to say you're right about the sugar syrup temp, and I suspect "enough water to cover" for the sugar should be approximately half, or in this case 1 cup.

Edited April 17, 2006 by Sugarella (log)

[SweetSide]

I have inherited a wonderful handwritten cookbook that my great grandmother gave my mother when she got married - titled "All the Good Things."  The book is full of wonderful family history and advice - invaluable because all of the cooks in my family died before they taught me very much.

I have been trying to cook from it but I find that she writes shortcuts or makes assumptions that I'm not familiar with. For example - "bake in a very slow oven" which I successfully interpreted as 315 degrees.

I am specifically wrestling with a recipe marked "Nanny is famous for this!" - My Great-Great Grandmother's Cream Cake. It's a sponge cake baked in a tube pan, which you tort, fill the middle and the center with custard, and then ice with a boiled icing that has nuts in it. The sponge cake was delicious, but neither the custard nor the icing set up, so it turned into cake soup. Not the world's biggest disaster, still tasty, but I'd like to know what went wrong, and get it right.

Here is the recipe:

Custard Filling

6 egg yolks

1/2 T cornstarch (heaping)

1 cup sugar

1 t vanilla extract

1 t almond extract

1 pt rich milk or cream (boiled)

Cream sugar and eggs. Add cornstarch. Add milk. Stir well. Cook in top of double boiler, stirring constantly until cornstarch is thoroughly cooked. Let custard cool, and add to it 1/2 pt. whipped ccream or 1 pt wh cream.  Cut cake through center. With a spoon cover lower half of cake with custard, cover lower half with top half of cake. Fill the center hole with custard. Whiskey (Bourbon) or sherry may be added to custard. We always did.

Ice the whole cake with:

Icing: 2 c. sugar

2 heaping T white karo syrup

Enough water to cover

2 egg whites well beaten

1 c nuts

1 t vanilla (1 t almond if you wish not necessary)

Boil sugar, karo, and water to a thread. Beat egg whites until they stand in peaks, and fold the syrup in gradually. Add nuts and vanilla last. Beat until creamy. Spread on cake with spatula. Take a large spoon (T will do) and with a quick movement, throw by spoonfuls over the filled hole in cake - makes petals of white lookes like flower petals.

I think that my problem with the icing was that I wasn't sure what "boil to a thread" meant - I was boiling it to about 160 when now, looking on the internet, it looks like I should have boiled it to 220.  Does that seem like the problem? 

On the custard, I'm not sure. I hadn't seen the (boiled) notation so the cream was room temp, not hot.  But since you are heating the whole mixture anyway, it didn't seem like it would be a problem.  I also wasn't sure when the cornstarch was cooked through. But I tasted it, and it didn't have a raw taste, so I assumed I was done.

snip

←

Oh how I wish I had anything traditional from my grandmother. Not a thing was passed down save her wedding ring. That I treasure though.

As for your custard, you must bring it to a boil or it will not set. And boil it until it has bubbled for a minute or two. I went through this on another thread -- can't recall which -- but it has to do with killing enzymes in the eggs that will break down the cornstarch if not brought to a boil. Then you get your soup. As for the notation about the boiled cream or milk -- that may be a throwback since the recipe is old and pasteurization may not have been the norm. Our many scientific friends out on eGullet may have a comment on that one.

For the icing, you would need to bring it to thread stage which is 230F to 235F. In all likelihood, not doing so is what ruined the icing. Didn't have enough body -- none of the water was boiled out to create the thick sugar syrup.

Best of luck on your next go -- and post a picture when it's done!

[Nina C.]

Thank you so much! I had a feeling it was something like this - I will give it another try - perhaps this week and show you what happens. Although, between all three steps, it takes a lot of time and eggs to make!

[Nina C.]

Kim - I did a search for dried apple cake and found this one with similar ingredients:

It looks like some molasses or other liquid ingredient might be useful to add to your cake?

http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,166,144178-241201,00.html

DRIED APPLE CAKE

2 c. dried apples

1 c. sugar

2/3 c. butter

2 tsp. baking powder

2 eggs

3 c. or more flour

1 c. raisins

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

1 tsp. soda

1 c. molasses

1 c. milk

Soak apples in water long enough to make them soft. Chop them to the size of raisins and boil for 15 minutes in the molasses. Dissolve soda in a little hot water and add to molasses mixture when cold. Sift dry ingredients together. Beat butter, sugar and eggs together until fluffy. Add molasses mixture, milk and dry ingredients. Stir in raisins. Bake at 350 degrees until done.

[jgm]

Thank you so much! I had a feeling it was something like this - I will give it another try - perhaps this week and show you what happens.  Although, between all three steps, it takes a lot of time and eggs to make!

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Would you report back to us on your results? I'd love to make this, also, and promise to think loving thoughts about your Great-Great Grandmother and her descendants.

[alligande]

Good Luck with your book, my mother has my grandmothers handwritten cookbook which I used extensively to develop ideas for tradtional afternoon tea service, but it took lots of trial and error, I often would find a modern recipe that was close, if it was a technique I was unfamiliar and use those instructions using Grans ingredients. Then kept my fingers crossed.

I think the custard was undercooked from your description.

[Kim Shook]

Thanks so much for the answers to my question! I will try adding more liquid! It is very possible that she accidentally left the liquid out. She apparently never used recipes, just did things from out of her head and only wrote them down when requested by someone else, when I do that I can easily miss a step.