Things Change - and That's OK

I was 14 - maybe 15 when one of the ladies in the church showed my mom how to make her own mints, like peppermints - only not. The ingredients were cream cheese, powdered sugar, peppermint oil and the color of choice - green, red, blue, yellow - a minty rainbow. In small grey rubber molds - with maybe 12 small but identical depressions, you would force the confectionery putty into the molds and let it sit for an hour I guess. Pop them out onto a plate of sugar and stack them up in your trusty Tupperware box between sheets of waxed paper. 

Like anything new - you get a little excited about it I guess - and mom got excited about these mints. She made them for people coming over for dinner, church open houses, parties - any reason she could find - the mints followed - by what seemed like thousands. At the time, I didn’t like cream cheese and I complained about the taste of the cream cheese that came thru the mint extract. Both my mother and grand mother admonished me on how I couldn’t possibly taste the cream cheese. Over the years I grew to love cream cheese and my taste for many other lovely things grew and grew.
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Growing up, we bought most salad dressings in bottles - except ranch of course - a cup of mayonnaise, another cup of buttermilk and a packet of seasoning mix. Who couldn’t resist it. But our blue cheese was always in the back of the fridge and infrequently used. In high school, my friend Marjorie Cannon gave to me a lovely collection of recipes that she assembled and illustrated with vintage sepia drawings. One of them was Blue Cheese Dressing - another cheese that I scoffed in my youth but have grown to rapturously adore. Years later, I re-found her recipe and I was hooked for life. 

Sometimes you fall in and out of habit of making certain things (not for any reason really) - it happens to me all the time. You might change stores, make a move, things change and without realizing you don’t think about making some of the things you like and enjoy. i hadn't made this dressing for years, but i re-found it again and wondered to myself how i could have settled for bottled blue cheese and why i had forgotten to make such a splendid covering. So here it is - a salad dressing that will make you swoon - and never forget about it.

1 cup sour cream

1 cup mayonnaise

6 ounces crumbled blue cheese - as strong as you like

3 tbsp finely diced red onion

2 tbsp white vinegar or lemon juice

1 tbsp worcestershire sauce

1 clove minced garlic (2 if you’re daring)

1-2 tbsp minced capers (optional)

1 tsp black pepper
Salt - optional (I don’t) the cheese usually has enough salt for me and a few of them are salty in their own right.

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and taste it often with delight. Pour into a container with a good fitting lid. Keeps for a couple weeks. Spoon on liberally to any salad or put the celery stick all the way to the bottom while snacking.

Last night, my youngest daughter Anna asked me for help with a power point presentation for her computer class. She has to use her presentation to illustrate the making of her choice of recipe. While this might not be the easiest recipe, it will certainly be one of the most scrumptious.

I always wondered why German Chocolate Cake was called German Chocolate Cake. For a long time, assumed the recipe must have originally come from Germany. It didn’t. Here’s the scoop.

Contrary to popular belief (not just mine), this cake did not originate in Germany. Instead, the name derives from Baker's German's Sweet Chocolate, which was created in 1852 by an Englishman named Samuel German for the Baker’s Chocolate brand. The original recipe for "German's Chocolate Cake" was sent by a Dallas, Texas homemaker to a local newspaper in 1957. The cake became quite popular and General Foods — which owned the brand at the time — distributed the recipe to other newspapers in the country, and sales of Baker's Chocolate are said to have increased by as much as 73%. The possessive form (German's) was dropped in subsequent publications, forming the "German Chocolate Cake" identity we know today.

So here’s the recipe’s, cake and 2 frostings - the traditional coconut and pecan (or sometimes walnut) between the layers and on top, and then a rich plain chocolate buttercream for the sides.

German Chocolate Cake

Before you begin:

Preheat oven to 350F
(read any recipe all the way thru - more often than not, your recipe will turn out better because you’re better prepared.)

Prepare 3 - 9” cake pans. Lightly coat with butter (or spray with pan spray. This keeps the wax paper in place when you’re putting in the batter.) Use a knife, or a pen to mark a sheet of wax paper around the exterior of the pan. Then cut on the line you just drew. Cut 3 circles of wax paper or parchment paper and put in the bottom of each pan.

Separate 4 eggs into 2 bowls - yolks and whites. Make sure both bowls are very clean and there isn’t any yolk that drops into the whites.

2 1/2 cups cake flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/ tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Sift together in a separate bowl and set aside.

(remember is you don’t have cake flour, replace 5 tablespoons of flour with corn starch)

1 package (4 ounces) German’s Chocolate

1/2 cup boiling water

Take one package of Baker's sweetened chocolate and mix it with 1/2 cup of boiling water. You are done mixing the chocolate once it is all dissolved. Let this cool before adding it to the mixture.

(if you don’t have access to German’s chocolate and you still want a similar product you can use this substitution. 4 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate and 2 Tbsp sugar.)

1 cup butter

2 cups sugar

In a mixing bowl, combine eggs and sugar and mix on high speed until light and fluffy. 3-5 minutes. Add

4 egg yolks

Add in the egg yolks one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add

1 tsp vanilla

The chocolate mixture

Combine into the batter.

1 cup buttermilk

The sifted flour mixture

Combine into the batter - slowly at first and then on high for 2 minutes. Stop the mixer and using a spatula, scrape down the sides of the bowl and then mix on high for another 2 minutes.

(If you don’t have buttermilk, add 1 Tbsp lemon juice or white vinegar to 1 cup milk and let stand 10 minutes.)

4 egg whites

Make sure there is not egg yolk in the whites. Take four egg whites and beat them at a high speed until they’re stiff but not dry. About 4 minutes. (When you lift the beater out of the bowl it should have a peak, or pointed tip at the end of it. This means they are done being whipped.)

Now, fold in the stiff egg whites into the batter. (Don’t stir or beat them in, but gently fold them in.)

Here’s what that means. Using a spatula (or spoon or wire whisk), stir from the bottom of the bowl bringing over the top. This will keep the whites as full of air as possible. Stirring or mixing will break them down and the cake wont be as light.

Pour equal amounts of batter into each cake pan.

Put the cake pans into the middle of the oven and bake 30-35 minutes.

Check for doneness by inserting a tooth pick in the middle. If it comes out clean, continue to cool for 10-15 minutes. If it comes out gooey, then put it back in the oven for another 5 minutes. Check again with tooth pick.

Once your cake layers have cooled, remove them from their cake pans. Using a knife, run it around the inside of the pan to loosen it from the sides. Then flip it over on a cooling rack and remove the wax paper from the bottom. Cool completely. The top of these cakes will be a little crumbly around the sides - don't worry. They will also fall slightly back into the pans as they cool.

German Chocolate Cake Frosting - Coconut & Pecan

In a heavy bottomed saucepan, combine

1 cup evaporated milk

1 cup brown sugar

1 stick butter (4 ounces)

Stir over low heat until butter melts. Turn up to medium heat and bring to a full boil stirring continuously. Turn heat down to simmer and continue cooking for 8 minutes. Remove from heat.

4 egg yolks

Temper the egg yolks by adding a spoon (1/4 cup)of the hot mixture to the egg yolks and mix thoroughly. Add another 3 spoons, stirring after each spoon full. Then slowly stir the egg yolk mixture back to the caramel. Bring back to the heat and boil for another minute (you'll notice how the bubbles change in the mix as the egg yolks are cooked. Remove from heat. Stir in

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup pecans

1 1/3 cup coconut (3 ounces)

Combine into the caramel and let cool completely - stirring occasionally.

Chocolate Buttercream

In a mixing bowl, combine

1/2 cup Crisco

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)

And cream shortening and butter with electric mixer until light. Add

4 cups powdered sugar (approximately 1 pound)

3/4 cup cocoa powder

Sift together in a separate bowl. Gradually add sugar/cocoa mixture 1 cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often.

2-5 tbsp milk

When all sugar has been mixed in, add milk 1 tablespoon at a time and beat at medium speed until spreading consistency. It doesn’t seem like a lot of milk, but a little goes a long way. If it seems too thin, add 1/2 cup powdered sugar. Mix until light and fluffy - 3 or 4 minutes.

Now lets put it all together. Put the first cake layer on a plate and spread on 1/3 of the coconut/pecan frosting. Add the second layer, second bit of frosting. Top layer and last bit of frosting. Some people like to leave the cake with the sides exposed, but I like to cover them up with scrumptiousness. I mean if you’re going to go for a slice of it, you might as well go all the way. Spread the chocolate buttercream around the sides of the cake. It will be better the next day.