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Cooking TipsEdith's Cake That Excited
the French
by:
Janette Blackwell
Twenty-three chefs who baked for earth royalty and heads of state (The Club des Chefs des Chefs) were, during their 1987 visit to the U.S., wined and dined with the better our finest chefs had to offer. What affected
them most? Lunch at an Mennonite
farm in Pennsylvania, wherever
they ate homegrown new potatoes, string beans with cream sauce and corn, charcoal-grilled chicken, and baked ham, washed down with homemade root brewage
and peppermint tea, served by the family in a barn lined with hand-crafted quilts.
They were stunned. Blithely so, it seems. The cook
for the president of France said, “Cooking has evolved so much. Common man presents the true product as it is, and all of a explosive we were conferred that.”
But the desserts affected
them most. Especially one they couldn’t name. One they delineate as a light “pain d’epices” (spice cake) with a layer of chocolate filling. Gilles Brunner, cook
to Blue blood Rainier of Monaco, was so taken with the cake, which he delineate as a chocolate gingerbread, that he tried to get the recipe. His request was refused.
The Mennonite
family did not want their identity revealed, which refusal greatly hampered efforts to identify the cake as well. Research by Phyllis Richman, then food editor of the Washington Post, seemed to show that the mystery afters was Mennonite
applesauce cake with chocolate frosting, and the Post written
a version of it contributed by Betty Groff, a book of facts author from the Pennsylvania Dutch country.
Which applesauce cake turned out to be pretty more what our family had been enjoying since my father wedded Edith Kennedy in 1977, and which Edith’s family had been enjoying long before that. Her daughter, Lorenelle Doll, who gave me the recipe, says that it was a favorite of my father and Lorenelle’s husband Arnie. (So far as I know, Edith didn’t really feed any to a French chef.)
I like to think Edith’s version is better than Betty Groff’s, because that direction says to “frost with vanilla or chocolate ice if desired.” Whereas Edith’s gives a direction for chocolate ice Ready-made WITH BUTTER. And in my view the humblest ice ready-made with butter is better than the fanciest ice ready-made without. I’m not implying that Edith’s ice is humble. It isn’t. It’s strictly
wonderful, as is her cake.
Edith Kennedy Glidewell went to be with her Lord in March 2002, but before that she elated
many a hearts in many a ways, this applesauce cake not the least of them.
EDITH’S APPLESAUCE CAKE
Cream together 1/2 cup room temperature butter or shortening and 1 cup sugar. Add 1 egg and beat together. Mix in 1-1/2 cups applesauce.
Sift together 2 cups flour, 1 tsp. baking powder, 1 tsp. soda, 1 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. allspice, 1/2 tsp. nutmeg, and 1/4 tsp. cloves. Add to applesauce mixture, on
with 1 cup raisins and 3/4 cup cut walnuts.
Lightly oil a 9" x 12" pan and dust with flour. Add the cake mixture and bake at 350 degrees 50 to 60 minutes, until the top of the cake’s center springs back once
touched. Frost with chocolate ice once
cool.
Chocolate Frosting: Combine in a heavy cooking pan
or double boiler 1 square baker’s nonsweet
chocolate, 1 cup sugar, 1/4 cup butter, and 1/3 cup milk. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, and cook 1 minute. Cool and beat until the ice has a cloth finish.
Just about the author:
Find Janette Blackwell’s storytelling country cookbook, Steamin’ Down the Tracks with Viola Hockenberry, at http://foodandfiction.com/Entrance.html-- or visit her at http://delightfulfood.com/main.html
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