March 21: Sheath Cake

When I began my U.S. Secret Service career in 1996,  I was assigned to the Jackson, Mississippi, Resident Office.  Within ten minutes of meeting the Agent-in-Charge, he told me that I was the first female special agent ever assigned in the state of Mississippi.  Approximately an hour later, during a tour of the office, this same boss pointed-out the coffee maker and said "of course, you know, it's the female agents who make the coffee..."

I was scheduled to depart for training the very next day after that tour.  Fortunately for me, during the six months I was away for training, that supervisor was promoted to another office.  Special Agent Sam Mitchell in Jackson was assigned to be my on-the-job trainer/partner when I got back to the office.  Sam Mitchell is a Vietnam Veteran and recipient of the Purple Heart.  As with most veterans of the Vietnam conflict, he never discussed his experiences there. 

Sam knew everything about our job; other special agents joked that he "slept with the manual under his pillow."  He was fastidious, followed the rules, and was the repository of an unbelievable amount of agency history (plus, a fair amount of agency gossip).   But most importantly, he treated me with the patience and kindness of a father.

Sam was the firearms instructor for our office.  USSS minimum proficiency standards for firearm accuracy are even higher than other Federal agencies, due to the likelihood that we might need to use our weapons in close proximity to one of our protectees.  All gun-carrying personnel in the office had to qualify on all of our weapons (handgun, shotgun, UZI sub-machine gun) every quarter.  Sam was the best marksman in the office and ran the range with a constant eye for safety.  Following the rules of the range and the instructions of the range master is imperative.

After about a year, Sam asked me if I would like to go to Firearms Instructor Training in Washington.  FI school is a grueling two-week course and many people wash out.  I jumped at the chance, but was filled with apprehension.  When I arrived at FI school, an instructor told me that if I passed I would be one of only two female FI's in the agency.  No pressure.

I passed the school and Sam passed the FI responsibilities to me.

One day in the office, Sam was looking for some word processing documents on floppy disks from a box of  disks in his desk drawer.  He accessed each disk and scanned the menu, then ejected the disk when it didn't contain the file he needed.  After a while, he seemed to find something important and he selected the document then sent it to his printer.  He handed the printout to me saying "this is the best cake recipe in the world, I make it every time I have to take a dessert someplace."  It was a recipe for something called Sheath Cake.  "Sheath Cake?  Does it have to do with a knife sheath?  A sheath dress?  Why is it called a SHEATH cake?"  Sam replied to just trust him and make the recipe, that it would be the best cake I ever tried.

I was surprised to get a cake recipe from Sam.  I put the recipe in a protective plastic sleeve in my binder of trusted recipes, where it has resided for more than fifteen years.  I smile, thinking of Sam, whenever I see it in my recipe book.  But I have never made his cake; I would always have other chocolate cakes to make.  So, today I made the Sheath Cake.

Sam's recipe calls for using sticks of margarine instead of butter.  I never use margarine for anything!  But, who am I to defy my training agent and the range master?

Besides the margarine, there are other unusual instructions:  add the melted margarine to the dry ingredients already in the bowl, then add the eggs and liquid ingredients.  But, the most interesting part is the frosting.  While the cake bakes, make the frosting, then as soon as the cake comes out of the oven, pour the frosting on the hot cake and immediately cover the whole thing with aluminum foil.  Then, after it cools, put the cake in the refrigerator because "it slices better when cold."  It did slice well out of the refrigerator.  The texture is dense and very moist.  It has the slightly disappointing flavor of other chocolate cakes made with only cocoa.  The pecans in the fudgy icing give it nice dimension.  However, I prefer a chocolate cake with more depth of flavor.

I hate to disagree with my training agent, but this isn't the best cake I ever tried.  I hope he'll forgive me; but of course, you know it's the female agents who bake the cakes.

Next Saturday:  Carrot Bundt Cake