Coobook Corner Cake

One of the things about not feeling well, as long as you avoid the dreaded stomach flu, is that you have lots of time to read through cookbooks. There are old favorites that I haven't look at for a long time that ended up on the bedside table. Time for Cookbook Corner.

I even found a recipe that was simple enough for the Labor Day weekend and took advantage of some of the ripe blackberries on the monster berry patch that has overtaken the chicken coop. We've never had chickens...Sweetie had enough of that in the Peace Corps according to him...but there was one already built when we moved in. The kids used to use it as a sort of playhouse once I cleaned it out, but for years it has resembled Sleeping Beauty's castle...covered with briars. That means lots of blackberries, but most are out of reach.

The recipe started out as Peach Cake in the Silver Palate Cookbook written by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins in 1979. The Silver Palate was a specialty food store in New York. The idea behind it was to have "simple food prepared in a special way" for working women, bachelors, families to stop in and pick up for a meal, a picnic, or as part of their own feast or entertaining. Since it's been forever since I was in New York, it might still be there...who knows?...but the book is still full of interesting recipes.

This is a single layer simple cake covered with fresh fruit and a sugary, buttery, spiced nut topping and baked in a cast iron skillet. I changed peaches to blackberries and jazzed the topping up a bit. It is good the same day and was even better for breakfast the next day. I served it as is, with just a few more blackberries on the side, but I'm sure it would benefit from a scoop of ice cream or a dollop of whipped cream, too. If you prefer to make it with peaches (or nectarines or plums) the original recipe calls for 3 ripe peaches, peeled and slice.

Simple Cake with Blackberries

4 tablespoons sweet butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoons alt
1/4 cup milk
1 pint fresh blackberries, washed, drained and picked over

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter well a heavy 9-inch skillet that can go in the oven.
Cream butter and sugar until light. Beat in egg. Scrape beater and bowl.
Sift dry ingredients together. Beat half into creamed mixture, beat in half of the milk, Repeat, beating well.
Pour batter into prepared skillet. Arrange blackberries on top of batter...a pint pretty much covers the top.

Bake for 25 minutes. While cake bakes, prepare the topping.

Topping
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1/4 cup finely chopped toasted pecans
4 tablespoons sweet butter

Cut ingredients for topping together in a small bowl with a fork.

Here is how the cake looks after it has baked 25 minutes but before the topping goes on:


After cake has baked for 25 minutes, open oven and quickly crumble topping over blackberries.
Close oven and bake for another 8 minutes, or until cake is firm and has pulled away from edges of the skillet.

Doesn't that look yummy!?
Serve warm or cooled. More fruit, ice cream, and/or whipped cream can accompany slices of this cake.

Happy New Year!

A fresh slate, new ideas, new things to cook. Such a rush of energy accompanies the first days of January.

In that spirit, I've decided to devote a little more attention to some of my favorite cookbooks. My collection isn't as extensive as some people I know, but it fills a number of shelves in my kitchen island, plus I'm always borrowing cookbooks from the library. I use them often as references, but maybe making a recipe as written in the cookbook will expand my knowledge and skills. Can't hurt. Recipes will come from retro cookbooks, library cookbooks, old favorites in baking, vegetables, regional cooking and more. We might visit with Julia Child or James Beard from days gone by, or Alice Medrich' new book Pure Desserts or the fabulous Dorie Greenspan's Baking, From My Home to Yours from right now.

If I were the kind of person who made actual New Years Resolutions *TahDah!*, I'd promise to visit Cookbook Corner once a month. As it is, the visits will be more or less frequent than that, depending on free time, ingredients, and what sounds good at the time.

If you have a hankering to do some cooking from cookbooks, too, feel free to use the 'logo', but then could you link to this post? Excellent! Let's get cooking.

A cookbook that has been sitting almost unused came in very handy today. We were having barbecue pork sandwiches for an easy dinner and I like mine with coleslaw. I bought some cabbage, but forgot to get any coleslaw dressing. Then I remembered that The Good Home Cookbook is excellent for basic recipes. The link tells how I came to have this cookbook. It had a delicious sounding creamy dressing recipe for coleslaw. I only made minimal changes: I used Dijon prepared mustard instead of dry mustard and substituted 1/4 cup fat free sour cream for 1/4 cup of the mayo...plus used fat free mayo. Sweetie was very appreciative of the coleslaw, especially the dressing, so I can recommend it to you, too. It goes together very easily and used ingredients that are usually on hand.

Creamy Coleslaw Dressing

from The Good Home Cookbook, edited by Richard J. Perry

3/4 cup mayonnaise (or 1/2 cup mayonnaise and 1/4 cup sour cream)

3 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons cider vinegar

1 teaspoon dry mustard (I used 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Pinch celery salt

Combine the ingredients in a small bowl and mix well. (If the dressing is too stiff, thin with a little milk if desired.)

Pour over a head of shredded cabbage mixed with some grated carrots and, if desired, minced celery and sweet onion. Stir to coat the vegetables with the dressing. Serve salad chilled.
Serves 6-8