recipes

Birthday Cake

tuplesandattributesLeave a comment

Once again, this year, I tried to find a bakery where I could buy what many consider to be the traditional birthday cake: yellow cake with chocolate icing. Once again, I failed. The bakeries I checked with actually told me that I should just buy a mix from the store and my brief internet search suggested that as well.

I do not understand why this attitude of “a mix is better” does not apply to other flavors as well. Here, for instance, is Freed’s Bakery list of cake flavors:

Signature Cake Flavors

– White Cake
Our signature white cake is both light and delicious. The perfect base for any flavor combination.

– Chocolate Cake
Our chocolate tea cake is rich and decadent and just perfect. A bit heavier than our white cake, though still fluffy and delicious.

– Marble Cake
Can’t decide? The perfect marbleized swirl of our white and chocolate cake.

– Red Velvet Cake
Our traditional rich red velvet cake. Deep flavor and a deep color.

– Almond Cake
A light white cake with a lovely almond flavor. Great with raspberry, amaretto, or Nutella.

– Lemon Cake
A light lemon cake with a flavorful citrus burst. Great with seasonal favorites like strawberry or raspberry.

– Carrot Cake
Our classic carrot cake chock full of pecans and fresh carrot. Perfect with our signature cream cheese filling.

There are Betty Crocker cake mixes in all of those flavors (and more) except almond. So why is yellow cake different?

At any rate, it was clear that I would have to bake my own cake (using the Betty Crocker mix) and I did so:

And since I had all the accouterments, I went all out and created a true birthday cake for myself:

I must say it was very good. I will be freezing a lot of it to enjoy in the coming months.

Vintage Pyrex

tuplesandattributesLeave a comment

I made a dish this past weekend that used a recipe that has been in my family for many years. It’s a dish I helped my mom with many times as we often took it to potlucks. As I set out to make it, I realized I couldn’t picture mixing it in anything other than my mom’s (and now mine) yellow, Pyrex bowl. The bowl seemed almost as much a part of the recipe as the ingredients themselves!

From what I can tell from a few online sites, these bowls were manufactured in the 1950s. They are still the bowls I use more than any others.

Here’s the original recipe:

Stuffed French Rolls

1/2 dozen hard boiled eggs, chopped
1 pound. cheddar cheese, shredded
1 t salt
1 c vegetable oil
1 c tomato sauce
1 large onion, chopped
7 ounce olives, chopped
24 small french rolls

Combine all ingredients and let sit for several hours.

Scoop out insides of rolls. Fill cavity with mixture. Wrap in foil and steam in heavy covered roaster for 3 hours at 200°.

My main job as a kid was scooping out the insides of the rolls. As I got older, I filled and wrapped the rolls as well. When I decided to use this recipe for a party I had this past weekend, I wanted to find an easier way to use the filling without all the effort of stuffing and wrapping rolls.

My solution was to pull out my mini-muffin pan and buy some puff pastry. I cut each sheet of pastry into 24 squares, pressed them into the muffin pan, and filled each little puff with a dollop of the filling. Then baked at 400° for 12 minutes or so. Perfection!

The other change I made was to cut way, way down on the oil. I think I used about 1/8 of a cup; just enough to make everything come together. The recipe made enough for 72 little puffs: perfect vegetarian appetizers.

Baklava

tuplesandattributes1 Comment

I made baklava yesterday. It’s the first time I’ve made it in two years, maybe three. My mom and I always baked a batch at Christmas time to give to various friends and neighbors. I didn’t make any last year as mom had just died* recently and I had been gone part of December and I didn’t have the heart or the time for it.

As I was putting it together yesterday, I realized that this is the first time I’ve made it without my mom’s help/supervision. I was a bit rusty at it, but I believe it is edible. I do think I’m going to have to calibrate my oven temperature, though, as it seemed to take too long to bake.

Walnuts and pistachios are common in baklava, but mom and I always made ours with a half and half mixture of pecans and almonds. Also, all the sweetness comes from drizzling honey over the baklava rather than a sugar syrup.

It didn’t turn out perfectly, but the piece I ate was certainly enjoyable. I’m going to be comfortable handing it out to my neighbors, at least.

*Is “died” too harsh a word here? I always feel a bit odd using euphemisms like “passed away”.