All Cakes Considered - Melissa Gray [77]
13. When the sugar syrup reaches 230 degrees F, turn your mixer to medium-high speed. Put on your oven mitts. In less than a minute, the syrup will reach 238 degrees F. When it does, remove the saucepan from the heat and, holding the candy thermometer steady in one mitted hand, pour a THIRD of the hot syrup down the inside of the mixing bowl. DO NOT POUR ONTO THE WHISK. Aim for the side of the bowl. Return the saucepan to the heat. Leave the mixer mixing.
14. When the syrup reaches 248 degrees F, remove the saucepan from the heat and, using the same technique, pour HALF the remaining hot syrup into the mixing bowl. Return the saucepan to the heat. Leave the mixer mixing.
15. When the syrup reaches 268 degrees F, turn off the heat and pour the remaining syrup into the mixing bowl, still aiming at the sides of the bowl.
16. Add the vanilla extract and beat until the mixture is thick enough to spread. It will be sticky. It will be gooey. It will be rather warm. When it cools off and is ready to use, it will taste divine.
TO CONSTRUCT THE CAKES
17. Spoon (or spackle, ‘cause I’m not kidding about the goo) half of your frosting into a separate bowl. Stir in the filling.
18. Divide and separate your layers as desired (see page 159 if you need a refresher course). Arrange wax paper strips on the serving plate so the edges of the bottom layer will sit on the strips, and transfer the bottom layer to the plate.
19. Put a heaping dollop of your filling onto the center of the layer. CAREFULLY spread it toward the edges, moving your spatula in ONE direction. This stuff is unlike any frosting you’ve ever worked with before, and if you try to add more frosting to the center of the top and then spread back and forth, you’re going to tear up the tender cake crumb beneath it. When you have to add more filling, literally spackle it on where needed and continue to carefully spread in one direction.
20. Add the remaining layers, one at a time, spreading each one with filling, until you reach the top or crowning layer.
21. Using a clean spatula, begin applying the frosting to the crown, starting with a heaping dollop in the middle. Again, move the frosting in one direction and spackle additional frosting where needed.
22. Get a butter knife and remove crumbs and spillover filling from the sides before frosting. Then go at it, again making sure to move in one direction.
23. Garnish the cake if you’re feeling special: Use the pecan halves or candied cherries you’ve saved and arrange on the crown of the cake. Be creative. Make a spiral, a figure 8, your boss’s initials, whatever. Let the cake sit for 15 to 20 minutes, then remove the wax strips.
Lane Cake
“Miss Maudie baked a Lane Cake so loaded with shinny it made me tight.”
—Scout Finch, in To Kill a Mockingbird
* * *
YOU’LL NEED
Two 8-inch or 9-inch round cake pans
A whisk attachment and extra bowl for mixer
A medium bowl
A food processor
A double boiler, real or improvised
FOR THE CAKE
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3¼ cups cake flour
3½ teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 cup egg whites (8 to 10 large egg whites)
FOR THE FILLING AND FROSTING
2½ cups pecans
2 cups unsweetened shredded coconut
2 cups raisins
1 cup candied cherries, quartered
1 teaspoon ground mace
½ teaspoon salt
8 large egg yolks
1¼ cups sugar
3 tablespoons grated orange zest
1 teaspoon orange extract
⅓ cup bourbon (apple cider or grape or cherry juice may be substituted)
When I first read Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird in seventh grade, I identified with Scout Finch. She’s the young daughter of Atticus Finch, the attorney assigned to defend a black man accused of raping a white woman in a small, Southern town during the late 1930s. But as I’ve gotten older, I