Lady Baltimore Cake

Happy New Year! 2020 was a year of change and learning but now it on to 2021. Dylan has been bugging me about doing videos so that may happen. No promises. I am hoping to get a lot more baking done and really start to work on my sewing pile. 

In the mean time here is a recipe from last year. I always make a dessert for Thanksgiving. Last year I was planning on making a daffodil cake but upon further reading it sounded too much like an angel food cake. Too light and summery. I need something rich, heavy, and fattening! Another recipe that seemed to pop up in several of my cookbooks is the Lady Baltimore Cake. The recipes varied a little but they all included layers of white cake separated by either a mixture of dried fruits or icing and all of it topped with boiled icing.

I decided to use the recipe from The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, 1924 edition, since it seemed the easiest and the best sounding filling. My family is very picky when it comes to fruit in cake. I love fruit! I am the only one. This is not fruit cake but close enough that I got looks.

This recipe is simple enough. Lots of egg whites. I'm not certain what I'm going to do with all the yolks.

A stand mixer is a necessity when whipping egg whites!

I had to purchase another cake pan just for this recipe. Yep, that is the reason why I bought it. I went with round pans because I think they have a more traditional look. And I already had 2 pans.

These smell heavenly! There was no time given so I just had to keep watch. Just have to wait until they cool to do anything else. The one really annoying part aspect of baking cakes: the wait.

I could not find figs so I went with dates and extra raisins. 

Yummy fillings! Every Lady Baltimore cake recipe I found had different fillings.

As I was following the recipe, it never occurred to me that I was making boiled icing. If I had known than I probably would have done a bit more online research about it.

Hot sugar syrup and egg whites...interesting. It took a considerable amount of time for the bowl to cool off and start to form the icing. I may have let the egg whites sit a little too long and it may have caused the icing to come together slower.

Eventually the icing started to thicken. It is still a little soft but I think it is thick enough to ice the cake.

Making the filling! It looks like I will have more filling than I need. Tastes good!

Well, the filling seems a little soft...kinda nervous about the rest of the icing. Did not use all of the filling. I may have snacked on the filling.

Looks so pretty! So bright white!

Still feels kinda soft. I do not think this will stay upright and iced over night. It has to last until tomorrow afternoon! I hope.

Well, the icing do not last well overnight, even in the fridge. It is still tasty, just oozy. I'm feel lucky that my cake carrier locks or my fridge would have been filled with oozy icing.

It looks prettier sliced than whole! 

We may have scooped some of the icing back onto the slices of cakes. Some of the filling oozed out as well. I was definitely missing some fruits and nuts!

Pretty slices! 

This was an interesting cake both to make and eat. The cake was quite dense, very similar to other cakes from that time. I have noticed that older cake recipes tend to be dense and not light a fluffy. The icing needed more fruits and nuts. Maybe less icing mixed with the fillings, maybe a different filling. I have many recipes to choose from. I liked the boiled icing! I liked the thickness of it and the slight crunch as you bite into it. I need to do a bit more research on it so that it doesn't flow off the cake. It does not last very long. The sugar starts to crystalize after a couple of days and changes the texture completely. I can see why you never see it anymore but the taste is fantastic. I highly recommend!

My Rating: Not bad. A fun experiment. I might have to try another version. I am definitely making the icing again!

Friends and Family Rating: Good! Why is the icing half missing?

Peach Upside-Down Cake

Summer is peach season and I love peaches! I also have had way too many mushy, bland peaches hiding as good peaches so I have been very hesitant to buy any. I decided to take a chance when I found this recipe. It is from the 1953 edition of The Modern Family Cook Book. I did not use it as an excuse to buy a new oven safe skillet, kind of. But I did have to get a new shiny pan!

Why should pineapples have all the fun?! I had never heard of another fruit used in an upside-down cake but looks easy and delicious. I decided not to make the Hard Sauce.

I had to go out and get the peaches (oh darn!) and cake flour. I was a 1/2 cup short of cake flour...so annoying. But the smell of fresh, ripe peaches is everywhere! I love peaches.

 I chose wonderfully ripe peaches and they were a pain in the butt to peel. Next time, go for slightly under-ripe and firm peaches. They smelled amazing sitting in the caramel sauce.

The batter was more liquid than a normal cake batter. I didn't know how it would fill the side of the pan.

Actually filled in nicely! And smells so good.

Hmm....okay, it's not the prettiest of desserts but how can you go wrong with caramel and peaches?!

Some of the caramel is soft, some is hard.

The cake is nice and fluffy! I thought the caramel would mix with the cake batter more. There was practically no mixing of the two.

Very delicious. The caramel and peaches pair perfectly with the almond flavored cake. The most difficult/annoying part was peeling the peaches and I would recommend firm peaches over ripe ones. This cake is light enough and has just enough fruit that you can pretend it's healthy enough for breakfast. It pairs perfectly with hot coffee.

My Rating: Delicious! Will definitely make again!

Friends and Family Rating: "Looks interesting. Tastes great!" "I need a cup of coffee with this."

White Fruit Cake

It is the Holiday Season! Time for everyone to argue about whether or not egg nog is delicious (it is!) and to bad mouth fruit cake, even if they have never tasted a fruit cake in their life. I grew up on stories about the dreaded Fruit Cake, doomed to spend its entire existence being passed from family to family and never eaten. This year I decided to see if it was as terrible as I was told.

 In my wonderful Christmas Cookies pamphlet from the Wisconsin Gas & Electric Company, I found 2 entire pages with fruit cake recipes. I decided to go with one that did not require any alcohol and seemed relatively light...ish.

 I also decided that this would make a fantastic Holiday gift for all the fruit cake haters. This great chart came in handy.

 In my excitement I may have forgotten to take photos of the ingredients so this is the best I got. Tons and tons of candied fruits that I had to chop up into smaller pieces. Fun times. But not really. Most candied fruit comes in a mixture so it took a little bit of hunting to get everything.

 Creaming butter is always a beautiful start to baking!

 I could not find blanched almonds but I figured this wouldn't mess things up too much.

 Soo much fruit!

 Adding a dusting of flour is crucial!

 There is not a lot of batter in this mix. I was a bit concerned.

 I love these little baking containers. Perfect gift-sized!

 Even though I was concerned, they baked up perfectly!

My kitchen smells wonderful! It made to sad to wrap them up and set them aside. So they have been sitting all wrapped up tightly in a cool dark place until...now! Most have gone on to their holiday homes but I did keep one to try. It is surprisingly good! And very figgy. I tried to slice it but that did not work. It was easier to eat it with a spoon. After such a fantastic beginning I may have to try to make a few others on that page.

My Rating: Delicious! Full of fruit so it's healthy, right?

Friends and Family Rating: Still waiting to hear back...I will update you later!

Tomato Soup Cake

Sometimes you just need to grab something weird and go with it. This oddity comes from the 1960 Better Cooking and Baking pamphlet put out by Robertshaw-Fulton Company.

There isn't a lot of tomato soup in this recipe so I am not exactly certain of its purpose. Other than to scare people...which is a perfectly good reason.

 Looks normal, except for the soup. It really stands out in the group. I am guessing this is going to taste like a spice cake of some sort.

 The batter turned out rather thin and very sticky before adding the raisins and walnuts.

 I love a batter that has more nuts (and other stuff) than actual batter!

 I'm not a fan of layer cakes but I am following the recipe this time. I didn't have 8 inch cake pans so I had to settle for 9 inch. It shouldn't be a problem.

 My oven tends to be a bit wonky with the temperature. I went for the longer time, as usual, and the look great! And smell great...like autumn.

 Just following the recommended icing.

I was going for a 'rustic' icing look. Turned out great!

Despite the less-than-perfect icing job, this was a delicious cake! The cake turned out a little dry but I will take responsibility for that since I went straight to the longer baking time. Dumb oven. This was a surprisingly good and tasted just like a spice cake, as predicted. I still don't know the point of the soup. It didn't add any flavor. The icing was light and just a bit crisp. I just needed a little more to cover the entire cake. Oh well. All in all a good recipe!

My Rating: Delicious but dry. Need to try baking it again to make sure it wasn't me.

Friends and Family Rating: "Interesting." "Surprisingly good!"