All Cakes Considered - Melissa Gray [51]
5. Slowly fold in the sugar, about 1 cup at a time, until incorporated.
6. Beat the egg yolks lightly (you may use a hand whisk) and fold them in. Fold in the flour until fully incorporated.
7. Fold in the mace, nutmeg, wine, and brandy.
8. Fold in the fruits and nuts.
9. Pour the batter into the pan and bake for about 1 hour and 15 minutes, until the cake tests done.
10. Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes, then unmold onto a cake rack.
TO MAKE THE FROSTING
11. When the cake is almost cool, preheat the oven to 200 degrees F and make the frosting.
12. Using a hand mixer (or your arms, if you’ve had your vitamins), beat together the egg whites and 2 tablespoons of the confectioners’ sugar. Continue adding the sugar, 2 tablespoons at a time, beating after each addition, until you have incorporated all of the sugar.
13. Add the grated lemon zest and orange extract flavoring. Beat until the frosting is stiff enough to stay parted when cut through with a knife.
TO FINISH THE CAKE
14. Smooth the meringue onto the cake. Let it dry and harden in the oven for 1 hour. The frosting will be brittle when cut with a knife.
Chapter Three
Break From Cake
Oh, you’d better believe it happens …
The Mistress Of Cake Sometimes Gets Sick Of Cake
Actually, It’s A Jonesing For Something Else, Like When Yuu’ve Been Dating The Same Guy For Two Years And You’re Not Sure If You Want To Move In With Him or Marry Him, And Then George Clooney or Taye Diggs Walks By.
This happens every December for me. Not George and Taye (I wish), but the itch for something else. I cheat on my weekly cakes and do nothing but cookies. Sure, bring in the Faux Fruitcake on Christmas Day, but leading up to that are Mondays of sugar cookies, gingersnaps, pecan sandies, Salty Oatmeal Cookies (page 140), Cowboy Cookies (page 137), Peanut Butter Fingers (page 138) and rugelach.
And about once every couple of months I go through two or three weeks of baking scones, biscotti, or bar cookies. And every now and then the ATC staff will look at me sweetly, and beg for Fried Pies (page 144).
With these moments in mind, I impart to you a few of my favorite noncake baked items. Other favorites you can find by investing in two books: Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours (Dorie’s scones makes you want to don a tartan and adopt a deep, rolling Edinburgh brogue) and the latest edition of The Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book (still including cookie recipes from forty years ago, bless their red-and-white checkered hearts!).
Cowboy Cookies
* * *
YOU’ll NEED
Parchment paper
2 baking sheets
A metal spatula
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar (light or dark)
1 cup shortening
2 large eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats (not quick-cooking)
1½ cups mixed morsels and/or nuts of your choice (see Tip)
Tip: Try ¾ cup bittersweet chocolate morsels and ¾ cup hazelnuts. Or ½ cup walnuts, ½ cup dried cherries, and ½ cup butterscotch chips. Go for 1 cup raisins and ½ cup white chocolate. These are just suggestions. Do what you like. It’s your cookie!
1. Center a rack and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Trim the parchment paper to fit the baking sheets; you will thank me later. Using parchment paper instead of greasing the baking sheets makes for a SUPER easy cleanup.
2. Combine the sugars and shortening in the bowl of a mixer, and beat on medium speed until blended. Add the eggs and beat until blended. Add the vanilla extract and beat briefly.
3. In a separate bowl, dry whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together. Add to the creamed mixture, beating on low to medium speed to blend.
4. Add the oats, beating until they are mixed into the dough.
5. Add no more than a total of 1½ cups of morsels, nuts, and dried fruit.
6. Drop the cookies by the teaspoon onto the baking sheets: you’ll