July 25: Mocha Loaf Cake

With Leon and his cake at the Durham Bull

I got a head start on the weekend, this time.  Our daughter took college campus tours at Duke University and Davidson College at the end of the week, so I made a loaf cake that could easily be packed for a car trip.  Since Durham was one of our stops, we knew we would have to visit our friends, Leon and Areli, who own Cocoa Cinnamon, Durham's finest coffee house.  Saturday was Leon's birthday, so I made three loaf cakes; one for our car trip, one as a gift for Leon, and one for the folks who watched our house and cats while we were away.

I chose the Mocha Loaf Cake from the Opti-Mrs. Cook Book by the Atlanta Optimist Club, published in 1958.  This book is pretty fabulous.  It includes recipes submitted by wives of club members.  It features recipes, requested by the editors, from wives of national and Georgia politicians.  It includes advertisements from long-defunct Atlanta businesses including their "prefix + five digit" phone numbers.  The best advertisement is the one for J. Austin Dillon Company, funeral directors and ambulance service, clearly a family-owned business of the Dillons and Thomases.  Mrs. Dillon and Mrs. Thomas are listed prominently in the ad as "Lady Embalmers."

This book is also among my favorite cookbooks because it includes notes and recipes by its previous owner.  This lady was obviously a bit fond of Mock Cheese Cake (uses egg, condensed milk and applesauce instead of cream cheese).  She has several versions of the recipe, one written in her own hand, stuck into the back of the book.  She used a straight pin like a staple to hold a small stack of recipe clippings together.  I wonder if she ever found the perfect Mock Cheese Cake recipe...

While I am intrigued by a cheesecake that contains no cheese, I thought that my Mocha Loaf Cake was a better choice for this week.  The cake contains buttermilk, strong coffee and unsweetened chocolate.  The frosting has coffee, too, as well as cocoa and cinnamon.  The mocha flavor is really nicely balanced and the cake is very light.  I used disposable loaf pans for portability, and they worked really well.  For the frosting, I added a little more powdered sugar than the recipe prescribed because I was afraid it would be too soft and melted for the trip.  The family thought the frosting was a little dry, but they gobbled it up.  Leon enjoyed his cake and gave me great feedback; he thought that the flavors of coffee, cinnamon and chocolate were well balanced, and he enjoyed the contrast between the soft cake and the texture of the frosting.  I might make this as a layer cake in the future because of the dark/light, firm/fluffy contrast of this cake and its frosting.

Our trip to Durham was terrific fun and beneficial to Autumn in prioritizing her college choices.  It helped her frame her Duke TIP camp experiences at Duke and Davidson for making her college choice.  She is a great student with (a lot of opinions and) aspirations for attending medical school.  She wants to become a forensic pathologist, or medical examiner.  But we'll be proud of her no matter what college or career she chooses... even if she decides to become a "Lady Embalmer."

Letter to Opti-Mrs Editors from the White House...

and from Mrs.Herman Talmage, First Lady of Georgia,
well-known for her cooking (see next Saturday's post!) 

Ads with cheeky cartoons about domestic help in the kitchen!

Next Saturday:  Hat-in-the-Ring Cake

July 19: Lane Cake

The Lane Cake is a classic, southern cake.  I decided to make a Lane Cake back in January when I undertook this Cake on Saturday resolution.  I had never made one before and like the Caramel Cake, it seems like a good regional specialty to know.

A couple of weeks ago, Keith sent me a link to a PBS.org article about American Cakes Through History, written by Tori Avey.  In it she writes about her research into the Lane Cake.  She included a quote from To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, in which Scout commented "Miss Maudie Atkinson baked a Lane cake so loaded with shinny it made me tight."  The "shinny" refers to alcohol.   Since Ms. Lee's new book Go Set A Watchman was released this week, what better time to try a Lane Cake?

Ms. Avey's article traces the history of the cake created by Alabama-native, Emma Rylander Lane. Ms. Lane had named it "Prize Cake" since it won first prize at a county fair in Columbus, Georgia.
When I originally picked the Lane Cake, I had chosen Nathalie Dupree's recipe from her book, New Southern Cooking.  However, after reading Ms. Avey's article, I decided that there was a much better choice of recipe.  Dupree's recipe did not call for any alcohol at all, instead using orange or white grape juice in the filling.  A later Dupree cookbook, Mastering the Art of Southern Cooking gave the option of using bourbon or orange juice.  There were several changes between the two versions of the Dupree recipes. I chose to stick more closely to the source material...

Ms. Avey references the 1921 Atlanta Woman's Club Cookbook version as it cites Mrs. Lane as the source of its recipe.  Since that cookbook is a prized part of my collection, I made my "prize" cake from Mrs. Lane's recipe.  It is even labeled as the "original" recipe.  Ms. Avey also refers to Mrs. Dull's Southern Cooking:  in the 1928 edition of the book there is no Lane Cake, but it is in the 1941 edition.  I have a reprint of the 1928 edition and I have Mama Judy's 1941 edition.

The recipes from 1941 Dull and AWC cookbook call for wine in the filling.  Mrs. Lane's recipe in the AWC specified using English walnuts, not pecans.  Mrs. Dull's lists pecans.  Since almost all later versions use bourbon and we like the bourbon/pecan combination, I decided to use bourbon.  The AWC version does not mention icing at all.  The 1941 Dull says "cover the cake with white icing."  No recipe for this icing was specified, but I chose a Seven Minute Icing since that was Mama Judy's go-to icing.  I used the recipe from Mrs. Dull since that was the one and only cookbook Judy ever owned.

Seven Minutes later...

Layers with filling

 Ms. Avey gave the option of baking the cake in three or four layers.  Mrs. Dull specifies three.  Mrs. Lane does not specify a number.  I chose to make three and included filling on the top layer as in Ms. Avey's article.  I made the cake and filling, and assembled the cake on Thursday because Ms. Avey recommended letting the flavors mingle for a few days before icing the cake.


Overall, I would say that this cake is a rich, boozy success.  The same could be said of some people I've known, but that is another story entirely.

This cake has a great visual impact and is much better than any fruitcake I have ever tasted so I can see why it is a favorite holiday cake in Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi.  I will certainly bake this cake again.  Several recipes for Lane cake require adding coconut or chopped dried cherries to the filling.  Keith thinks that anything more than pecans, bourbon and raisins would be excessive - but he votes for more filling and more layers. I concur that coconut and cherries are unnecessary.  In the future I will make it in four layers, while keeping the extra filling on the top.  This will require multiplying the filling recipe.  Perhaps I will give it a try using wine instead of bourbon.  More Lane Cake loaded with shinny in our future...

Next Saturday: Mocha Loaf Cake

Lagniappe!

After despairing my lack of a proper compotier last weekend, I had a terrific find yesterday.  I shopped an estate sale and found a lovely, footed compote dish.  I was attracted to the subtle pattern, pleased by the pristine condition of the ironstone, and happy with the asking price of $8.  I noticed a mark from John Maddock & Sons, England on the bottom and I was then hooked.

When I found a few other items at the sale, I decided to negotiate the price down on the compote.  I paid $6.

When I returned home, I went online to research the printed mark.  Based on information from a website relating to North Staffordshire pottery marks, I believe that my footed compote dates anywhere from 1896 to 1906.  I cannot find the pattern in any online galleries, so the story of the dish is incomplete.  Online prices for later compote dishes from Maddock are as high as $195 for more elaborate patterns.

Last night, I started the Lane Cake for tomorrow.  It was quite an extensive process to find the right recipe.  The most important step, it would seem, is letting the filling "soak" into the cake for two or more days.

Come back here on Sunday to read about Mrs. Lane's cake.

July 11: Gateau Américain

I was gap year, when gap year wasn't cool.

My senior year of high school was marked by: the heartbreak of first college visits, the only migraine headaches of my life, and the pressure to maintain good grades while working part-time at a couture fabric store called Sew Magnifique.  My college counselor, at my usually low-key, hippie high school, screamed at me across the commons for embarrassing her by not applying to all of the Ivies, and for not attending the information sessions she had arranged for "her seniors" with Ivy League admissions officers.

After choosing Dartmouth, I applied Early Decision, then was deferred to Regular Decision.  I was finally offered admission to Dartmouth Class of 1990 and I accepted with much celebration whereupon my father, stated "I think it would be a good experience for you to pay for college yourself."

Whoa.  Slow down.  What did you say?  Pay for college?  Myself?

I realized that I was too burnt-out and broke to approach my life-changing college opportunity with any hope of success.  I wrote to my admissions officer and requested to take a year off before matriculation.  I needed a chance to save as much money as possible and save my sanity by getting my priorities in order.  The college responded that they would save me a spot with the Class of 1991 if I would write to them every couple of months to let them know how I was spending my year.

For high school graduation, I received a solo, round-trip ticket to France as a gift from my parents.  I had made friends with a French au pair, Sabine, here in Atlanta the previous year.  She hosted me on a brief visit to Paris during Christmas break, and I wanted to go back to France for a more "thorough" experience.  I worked at the fabric store, taking as many hours as I could for that entire month of June.  When I wasn't working, I was sewing to build a wardrobe of Paris-worthy clothes for my trip.

A view from the apartment

I spent almost all of July and August in France; six weeks in Paris and two weeks with Sabine's family at their vacation home in the south of France.  Sabine's family hosted me for my entire trip.  My weeks in Paris were spent at the apartment of Sabine's uncle who worked a correspondent for Le Monde and was never home.  It was as if I had my own apartment!  His apartment was located near the Place de la Bastille, the site of the former prison.

Sabine at Les Lacets

I spent most of my days walking around Paris alone, visiting museums, taking pictures (sticking to a strict film budget) and riding the Metro.  On rainy days, I stayed in the apartment re-reading Agatha Christie novels and Gone With The Wind.  I ate cheaply, and walked-off all of the calories from fattening pain au chocolat and rillettes du porc sandwiches.  I met Sabine most evenings to go to movies, art exhibits or discothèques.  I saw Top Gun for the first time there, in English with french subtitles.

Like most French families, Sabine's spent eleven months out the year in a modest apartment and spent the entire month August on vacation.  Her family had restored an old shoelace factory in Uzés, near Avignon to use as a vacation home.  They named it Les Lacets (Shoelaces) and during renovations had discovered Nazi helmets and other German paraphernalia from the occupation.  I got my recipe for tabouleh from Sabine who prepared it for me at Uzés.  Sabine's grandmother made homemade yogurt in glass jars which she topped with a sprinkle of sugar before serving it.

In honor of Bastille Day, July 14th, I have prepared a cake from a truly French cookbook, Je Sais Cuisiner (translated, I Know How To Cook), copyright 1932.  Mom bought the cookbook from Bonnie Slotnick's Cookbooks in New York and gave it to me for Christmas a couple of years ago.  The pages are very fragile, and the recipe instructions, like many in vintage cookbooks, are gloriously vague for a modern chef.  Faire cuire 20 minutes a four vif - cook for 20 minutes in a quick oven.

Gateau Américain is the only "American" recipe in the book in the section on foreign recipes, Recettes Etrangeres.  

I am not certain what makes it so "American."  It contains corn flour, wheat flour, caster sugar, lemon zest and cinnamon.  Only the corn flour is truly American. Which presented a quandary to me, since the French word, farine, refers to flour or meal, and English recipes from the UK use the term "corn flour" to refer to corn starch.  To double check my rusty French, I consulted the most contemporary source I have, a Larousse's French-English dictionary, copyright 1942.  It backed-up my translation of the word farine, which assisted none in deciding which flour to use.


I ended up making two cakes; one using corn flour and one using corn starch.  The recipe called for serving the cake warm with "une sauce a l'abricot," but the book contained no such recipe.  Instead I made a compote of lovely, organic apricots to accompany my dueling cakes.  Lacking the "compotier" called-for in the compote recipe, I used a simple glass bowl to serve.  I hope that the authors, Mademoiselles Delange and Mathiot can forgive me.

Neither cake was c'est magnifique.  The required zest from an entire lemon made the single layer cake taste too astringent.  The corn flour version had an interesting flavor dimension, but the corn starch version was more cake-like and provided a less assertive accompaniment to the delicious apricots.


I returned from France that summer of '86 with rolls of photos to be developed (when my budget allowed) and a renewed sense of possibilities and my own potential.  I went back to work at Sew Magnifique and took a second job for a Swiss chocolatier.  The rest of the gap year, I saved as much money as I could and wrote to the admissions office, as I had promised.

In addition to the recent gift of the cookbook, my mother gave me my college degree.  It was through her pursuit of financial aid and scads of loans that I was able to graduate from Dartmouth and have retained enough French to be able to prepare this simple recipe.

Merci, ma mere!

Happy Bastille Day!

Next Saturday: Lane Cake

July 4: Yellow Cake with Chocolate Ganache Frosting

My Saturday Cake for the Fourth of July had to be an iconic American cake.  A yellow cake with thick chocolate frosting is so nostalgic that it borders on cliché.  When I was very young I had a Little Golden Book that featured a picnic with a chocolate-frosted, yellow cake.  I cannot remember the title of the book or even the main characters, only the cake and the nifty trick the character in the book used to take the cake on a picnic.  The character packing the picnic basket taped a knife for the cake to the bottom of the cake plate for safe transport.  I don't remember anything else that the folks in the book packed for the picnic.  Sandwiches?  Fried chicken?
All I remember is the cake.

This recipe is from the January 2006 issue of Gourmet.  I remember the reason I clipped it was for the frosting.  I have been on a special chocolate frosting quest for many years.  More indelible than the children's book illustration of a cake with a knife taped to the bottom, is my memory of the chocolate frosting from Rich's Department Store Bakery.

Rich's was an Atlanta landmark with a main store downtown at Five Points and locations at malls in the metro area.  For many decades, Rich's was the store at which you rode the Pink Pig at Christmastime.  As a teen, you took deportment classes in the Juniors' department, or had your "makeup done" for the first time at their cosmetic counter.  As a bride, anywhere in Georgia, you registered for gifts at Rich's, no matter how far you had to drive or take the train.  As an Atlanta matron you had your furs cleaned and stored in the Rich's Fur Vault.  The Rich's Bakery had counters in almost all of the stores and even had a few freestanding bakeries in Atlanta due to the popularity of their products.  They were known for their spectacular, stunningly-white coconut layer cakes.  A Rich's coconut cake was all my Granna requested for Christmas after they moved to Tennessee.  Going to get a cake for Granna (packed in Rich's iconic, cane-pattern-printed, green & white box, tied with white bakery twine) was a prerequisite to every Christmas road trip to her house.

Rich's Bakery Box Design

Better than the coconut cakes, to me, were the cupcakes with chocolate frosting; yellow cake with a shiny chocolate dome.  Sometimes I would get to pick out a cupcake on our way out of the store after a shopping trip.  Often for my birthday, Mom would buy a box of those chocolate cupcakes for me to share with my classmates.  For my seventh birthday, Mom threw a puppet-show-themed birthday party for me at our house.  She built a hinged, tri-fold puppet theatre out of Masonite that was big enough to conceal two or three "puppeteers."  Mom painted the theatre white and trimmed the borders with gold tinsel garland.  She covered the dining room table with piles of puppet materials and each guest got to build a puppet.  Every guest also got a box lunch, packed in a distinctive Rich's Bakery box along with a cupcake.  I kept the puppet theatre for many years; it even became a curbside lemonade stand during some summers.  Rich's was bought by Federated Department Stores years ago and was eventually sold to Macy's.  After the sale to Federated, the Rich's Bakeries were closed and the landscape of Georgia birthdays, weddings and Christmas changed, not for the good.

I have tried to find a comparable chocolate frosting for many years.  Ganache seems to come the closest.  But, Rich's frosting was not applied by dipping the tops of the cupcakes; it was applied generously with a knife or spatula that left a couple of subtle tracks in the chocolate sheen.

Back in 2006, when I clipped this recipe, I neglected to tear out the second page of the directions.  I looked online for the recipe, but had no luck after nine years.  So, my guidance ended when the batter went into the pans.  The baking of the cake layers was no problem, but when I got around to the frosting I had only the list of ingredients and the magazine picture to go by.  I made the ganache the way I have made it in the past; heat the heavy cream to a boil then pour it over the finely-chopped chocolate in a large bowl and still until melted, smooth and shiny.  After that, the frosting needed to cool and then be beaten with a mixer to make it the right consistency to spread and resemble the Gourmet picture.


This ganache frosting was DELICIOUS.  But the cake, though tender, was a little "crumby" for our tastes.  I will stick to my standard 1-2-3-4 cake.  I will keep the frosting "recipe" (such as it is) for other cakes since both the flavor and texture was perfectly rich.  

However, my search for a recipe for the elusive chocolate frosting of my childhood must continue...

 Too bad I haven't found it taped to the bottom of a cake plate.

Next Saturday: Gateau Américan