County Fair White Cake

My youngest daughter’s adventures with baking award-winning cakes for our county fair started in 1983 when she was a 13-year-old 8th grader and never that interested in fairs – to attend or to exhibit.  But her older sister and her mother were immersed in getting things ready for the Hamilton County (Cincinnati) Fair and she decided to enter the cake division.

Cakes were not allowed to be frosted, so all of the attention was centered on the attributes of the cake itself.  She made the cake, I took it to the fair and she won a Blue Ribbon and even got her recipe printed in our community newspaper.  Here is the recipe:

BLUE RIBBON WHITE CAKE

• 2-3/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 1-2/3 cups granulated sugar
• 4-1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 cup milk
• 2/3 cup Crisco shortening
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 5 egg whites

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In large mixer bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.  Add one cup milk and Crisco.  Beat with electric mixer for 2 minutes at medium speed.  Add 1/3 cup milk and vanilla and beat until smooth.

Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form.  Fold into batter.  Pour batter into two greased and floured 9″x1-1/2″ round cake pans.  Bake approximately 25 minutes until cake tests done when a toothpick is inserted near the center.

Cool in pans for 15 minutes, remove from pans and cool on wire rack.  Frost as desired.

The years passed by,  she married, had two children, and out of nowhere in 2006, 23 years after her first blue ribbon, she decided to enter again.  But this time she was adamant that she was going to get a Best of Show Rosette.  Her sister and I, seasoned fair exhibitors, tried to tell her it was very difficult to get the Rosette which would represent the best cake out of all kinds of cakes – white, chocolate, spice, layer, sponge, angel food, pound, etc.  She said the Rosette was all she really wanted and she would retire from fair competition after winning it.  In spite of a broken oven, coping with two young children and taking the cake to the fairgrounds on a day so hot that we were afraid the cake itself would dissolve – she did it.  She won the blue ribbon and the Rosette for Best of Show.

The cake was a favorite she had been baking for quite a few years as my birthday cake – White Velvet Cake from the Cake Bible cookbook.

WHITE VELVET CAKE (Cake Bible)

• 4-1/2 large egg whites (4 full liquid ounces)
• 1 cup milk, divided
• 2-1/4 tsp. vanilla
• 3 cups sifted cake flour
• 1-1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 Tblsp. plus 1 tsp. baking powder
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 12 Tblsp. butter, softened

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a medium bowl lightly combine the egg whites, 1/4 cup milk and vanilla.

In the large bowl of an electric mixer combine the cake flour, sugar, baking powder and salt and mix on low speed for 30 seconds to blend.  Add the butter and remaining 3/4 cup milk.  Mix on low speed until dry ingredients are moistened.  Increase to medium speed and beat for 1-1/2 minutes.  Scrape down sides.  Gradually add the egg mixture in 3 batches, beating for 20 seconds after each addition.

Pour batter into prepared pans and smooth surface with a spatula.  Pans will be about 1/2 full.  Bake 25-35 minutes or until a tester inserted near the center comes out clean.  Cakes should start to shrink from the sides of the pans only after removal from the oven.

Let cakes cool in pans on racks for 10 minutes.  Loosen sides with a small metal spatula and invert onto wire racks.  To prevent splitting, reinvert so the tops are up and cool completely.

Frost as desired.

Note:  Two 9×1-1/2″ cake pans should be greased, bottoms lined with parchment or wax paper and then greased again and floured.

Can be frozen for two months.  Texture is most perfectly moist the same day as baking.

The fair exhibit rules called for a single layer with no frosting, but I’m including the recipe for the lucious caramel frosting that she always uses for my two-layer birthday treat.

QUICK CARAMEL FROSTING (Fannie Farmer Cookbook)

• 6 Tblsp. butter
• 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup milk
• 3 cups confectioners’ sugar

Melt butter and brown sugar in a heavy-bottomed pan, stirring over moderate heat until sugar is dissolved.  Add the milk and blend.  Cool in the pan.  Then beat in the confectioners’ sugar until the frosting is thick enough to spread.

I don’t expect my daughter to enter a fair again but I do expect her to bake this wonderful cake for my birthday in September.

UPDATE:  My daughter did bake the cake for my birthday and it was delicious, as always.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Upside-Down-Cake

For 20 years, we lived in the country where my husband grew all kinds of fruits and vegetables.  One of my favorites was rhubarb, so when we relocated to a smaller house and yard almost 7 years ago, I planted some rhubarb and have some to use throughout the summer – plenty for one person.  But in 1989 when we had a lot of home-grown everything, I tried some different ways of using rhubarb and won a ribbon for this cake at the Ohio State Fair.

STRAWBERRY-RHUBARB UPSIDE-DOWN CAKE

• 6 Tlbsp. butter
• 1 cup dark brown sugar
• 1-3/4 cup sliced rhubarb
• 3/4 cup sliced strawberries
• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2-1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup shortening (Crisco)
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1-1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 2/3 cup milk
• Whipped cream and fresh strawberries for garnish

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Melt butter in a 9″ skillet.  I like to use a 50+ year-old cast iron skillet for this.

Stir in brown sugar. 

Lightly mix together the rhubarb and strawberries.

Arrange the rhubarb and strawberries over the top of the butter/brown sugar mixture.  Note:  Don’t do as I did once and try to increase the amount of fresh strawberries – it makes the topping too juicy.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt.  Set aside.

In large bowl of electric mixer, cream shortening, sugar and egg.  Add dry ingredients and milk alternately, starting and ending with dry ingredients, beating after each addition.  Add vanilla and blend.  Spread batter over the fruit. 

Bake for 35-45 minutes until top of cake is golden brown and cake tests done when a toothpick is inserted in the center.  Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then invert onto large serving plate.  If some of the fruit sticks to the pan, just scrape it out while it is still warm and add to the top of the cake.

Let cake cool to room temperature and serve with some whipped cream and a couple of fresh strawberries.

This makes a really nice summertime dessert.

Victory Quilts–Brave World Block

This is the final of 20 blocks I’ve been sewing and posting from Eleanor Burns’ new Quilt-in-a-Day book, Victory Quilts – 1942 Sampler Blocks.  See other blocks I’ve completed in my Quilt Blocks category.

This is an easy skill level block called “Brave World”.  It was a simple block to construct and I think it turned out very pretty.

The book was a Mother’s Day gift and I’ve had a lot of fun trying out each of the block patterns which will eventually be made into a sampler quilt.  Naturally, any one of the blocks or a combination could be used in a quilt and there are many suggested layouts throughout the book.  There are also patterns for some interesting borders along with instructions for assembling and finishing quilts.

This is a beautiful hard cover book with lots of pictures of quilts and also of World War II memories.  There are instructions for 6″ and 12″ blocks – 12 easy skill level, 3 intermediate skill level, and 5 advance level blocks – something for everybody.  I highly recommend the book.

Victory Quilts — Victory Block

This is the 18th of 20 blocks I’ve been sewing and posting from Eleanor Burns’ new Quilt-in-a-Day book, Victory Quilts – 1942 Sampler Blocks.  See other blocks I’ve completed in my Quilt Blocks category.

This is an advance skill level block called “Victory Block”.  Using a template and Eleanor’s clear directions, I didn’t have any problems with the block and think it’s an interesting patriotic example.

Victory Quilt–Fala (Scottie) Block

This is the third block from Eleanor Burns’ new Quilt-in-a-Day book, Victory Quilts – 1940s Sampler Quilts.   See previously posted blocks in my Quilt Blocks category.

This block is called “Fala” in honor of President Roosevelt’s scottie which made all scottie dogs popular in the 1940s.  The block is rated  ”easy skill level” and uses non-woven fusible interfacing to make the dog applique which is stitched onto the backing with a blanket stitch.  The block was very simple to construct and I think it’s pretty cute. 

Amanda’s Quilt Wall Hanging

When we were in Amish country (Holmes County, Ohio) last fall, I found this pattern for Amanda’s Quilt.  I finally got around to making it and it would have been a fairly easy project had I not decided to make the quilt of one-inch blocks (1/2 inch finished).  The pieces were too heavy and bumpy for fusing.  I would suggest using a fabric that looks like a quilt, rather than trying to put one together as I did. 

The pieces were fused onto the background fabric, zigzag stitched with invisible thread and the facial features were done with permanent fabric markers. 

The pattern also includes instructions for a thread spool border but I used smaller borders to make the piece the size I needed.

The pattern is #20011, made by Pine Meadows Designs, Connie D. Roys, 975 Hickory Grove, Medina, OH 44256. 

Happy Day, Mothers and Grandmothers

I’m looking forward to enjoying Mother’s Day with my two daughters and two grandchildren, and expecting phone calls from my two sons.   I’m so lucky that I was able to celebrate many Mother’s Days with my own mother and her mother …..

 

…and my father’s mother, Grandma-up-Dayton.

I wasn’t able to know my great-grandmothers, but I’m fortunate to have pictures, history and stories on three of them.  Minerva Alice is shown here with my Grandma Helen…..

I have a picture of Great-Grandma Emily, ca 1869…

…and Granny when she was in her 80s.

As I enjoy the day with my own children and grandchildren, I think about the women who came before me and especially the teenage girl who had me in the middle of the Depression and was an amazing mother and grandmother for the rest of her life.

Happy Mother’s Day, everyone, and happy memories.

 

Grandma’s Chocolate Pie

In the World War II days when gas was rationed, cars were kept running many times by wishful thinking, and the drive from Cincinnati to Dayton, Ohio, was a two-hour journey over country roads, our family made the trip several times a year to visit my paternal grandmother.  My little sister and I called her “Grandma-up-Dayton” and looked forward to leaving our inner city apartment behind and spending some time in rural Vandalia, just outside of Dayton.  I have a feeling our visits were unplanned most of the time with my father coming home from work on a Friday and suggesting we run up and see his mother.  I can still see Grandma standing at the door of her little house, wearing a dark dress and white apron, peering out into the twilight to see who had pulled onto her property on a secluded country road.  As we got out of the car, she would smile broadly and say, “Oh, it’s Johnny!”, acknowleging in that exclamation that it was Johnny, his wife and two little girls.  

Many times as we came into the house she would say that she had just made a few chocolate pies.  She worked as a cook in a high school cafeteria during the day and came home at night to bake a few treats. 

Cooking at all wasn’t easy in her small kitchen.  There was a large table, some chairs, some cabinets against the wall and a coal/wood burning kitchen stove.  Grandma must have had an ice box of some kind, but I don’t remember seeing it.  There was an outside door that led to a slope and the water pump.  On a stool by the door was an enamel washpan and towel so we could wash up in stone-cold water after making the long trek down the slope and on down the path to the outhouse.   There was a 3-foot tall metal lard can in the kitchen which I used as my chair when I was there.  There was a small window near the stove and tin cans were tossed out and onto a dump in back of the house.  No actual garbage was thrown away – scraps were given to the chickens – so the dump wasn’t really dirty.  Sometimes my little sister and I would wander around through the dump looking for different can labels and seeing brands that we didn’t get in Cincinnati.  We had to be careful – the real danger was in picking up a can with the rough sawtooth edge that the old can openers used to make.

There was various framed artwork on the kitchen wall, but the one I always loved was one in sepia tone of chubby pigs leaning on a fence with a frame that had tiny metal pigs running along the bottom.  At some point Grandma gave me the picture and I had it hanging in my dining room for a good while.  Finally, the frame came apart and the picture was damaged, but I still have it and enjoy seeing those cheerful little pig faces.

Grandma always had cream on hand to whip and add to the big slices of pie which already had a 2″ layer of meringue.  She was an excellent cook and to taste a freshly-made chocolate pie in that little country kitchen is a lasting memory.

I don’t have the recipe for Grandma’s pie but my version won a ribbon at the Ohio State Fair in 1987.

RICH CHOCOLATE PIE

• 9″ baked pie shell (see here for recipe)
• Two one-oz squares of unsweetened chocolate
• 1-1/2 cups milk, divided
• 1 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 eggs, separated
• 2 Tblsp. butter
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 1/4 tsp. cream of tartar (for meringue)
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla (for meringue)
• 6 Tblsp. sugar (for meringue)

FILLING:

Combine chocolate and ONE CUP OF MILK in 2 qt. heavy saucepan.  Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently until chocolate is melted.  Stir in brown sugar.

Combine REMAINING MILK with flour in a small cup, mixing until smooth.  Gradually stir the milk/flour mixture into the chocolate mixture.  Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens.

Beat 3 egg yolks slightly, stir a little of the hot mixture into the yolks, blending well.  Stir yolk mixture into hot mixture.  Cook over LOW heat, stirring constantly for 2 minutes.  Cool for 5 minutes.  Turn into baked shell.  Cover with meringue and brown in 325 degree F oven for approximately 10 minutes.  Cool on wire rack.

MERINGUE:

Beat 3 egg whites with cream of tartar and vanilla until soft peaks form.  Add sugar, a small amount at a time, and continue beating until mixture forms stiff peaks but is not dry.  Spread on top of pie, sealing to edge of pastry. 

 

We usually just stayed overnight and headed back home the next day.  My father was always irritated that Grandma loaded up our car with food but Mother was so grateful for the canned blackberry jam, produce and boxes of candy bars bought at the school kitchen.  I remember one time Grandma sneaked in a full chocolate meringue pie for our trip back home.  Along the way, one of our tires went flat and since my father was never prepared with a spare, my mother, sister and I waited for an hour or so in the car along the side of the road for him to come back with the patched tire.  We were getting hungry and here was this beautiful pie, but we didn’t have a knife to cut it.  Then, my mother thought of the car key, wiped it off carefully and used it to slice up the pie to eat out of hand.  Nothing ever tasted better.  My oldest daughter was always intrigued by this story and wrote her own blog version of it. 

I inherited my grandma’s love of cooking and baking pies is one of my favorite pasttimes.

Honey Whole Wheat Bread and Rolls

Every Wednesday, granddaughter Dolphin comes to my house and most of the time we make bread.  This week we made an old favorite going back over more than 20 years – Honey Whole Wheat Bread.

HONEY WHOLE WHEAT BREAD & ROLLS

• 2 packages fast rising dry yeast
• 2 cups of whole wheat flour (Gold Medal)
• 1/2 cup instant potato flakes
• 1/2 cup non-fat dry milk
• 2 tsp. salt
• 2 cups of water heated to 130 degrees F
• 3 Tblsp. oil
• 3 Tblsp. honey
• 3-4 cups all-purpose flour (Gold Medal)

In the large bowl of an electric mixer, place yeast, whole wheat flour, instant potato flakes, dry milk and salt.  Stir to blend.  Add heated water, oil and honey.  With paddle beater, beat at medium speed for 3 minutes.  Insert dough hook and continue beating for another 6:30 minutes, adding all-purpose flour as required to make dough springy and not sticky. 

Place dough in an oiled bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place for 30 minutes.  Punch down, form into loaves and/or rolls, place formed dough on oiled pans, cover and let rise for 30 minutes. 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Bake loaves, according to size, for 25 to 45 minutes until golden brown on top and loaves sound hollow when tapped.  Bake rolls for 12-15 minutes, according to size.  I like to bake one loaf of bread in a medium size 7-1/2″ pan for 25 minutes and form 12 rolls from the remaining dough to bake on a large cookie sheet for 12 minutes.

Dolphin and I enjoy a roll fresh from the oven with butter and a drizzle of honey.

Back when I first started making Honey Whole Wheat Bread, my aunt and then later my mother were fighting cancer and nothing tasted good to them but this bread.  I made each one a loaf every week until even this fresh bread didn’t taste good to them any more.   My aunt passed away in 1989 and my mother in 1991.  I know they would be happy to think that Dolphin is enjoying the bread now.

Dolphin Goes to the Park

Our local township park has several big play areas for kids, but granddaughter Dolphin’s favorite spot is a small lot that has a tire swing…..

….a wooden mountain to climb….

…a nice, slick slide….

….all guaranteed to make a child SMILE.