Search results
Ice Age Meals - Yahoo Recipe Search
Taste of HomeHere's a refreshing beverage that goes with any meal. Carbonated ginger ale makes it a wonderful alternative to ordinary iced tea or other soft drinks. This summer thirst-quencher will appeal to all ages. Be ready to refill the pitcher!Food52Adapted from The Ladies Receipt Book by Eliza Leslie. This, friends, is the earliest-yet-found printed recipe for Chocolate Cake. “Wait, really?” you may be thinking… but it’s true! Older recipes that mention Chocolate and Cake were actually referring to cakes meant for serving with chocolate, usually of the hot and drinkable variety. Though cakes containing chocolate as an ingredient date back further—the Marquis de Sade mentions one in a 1779 letter sent to his wife from prison—we have found no written recipe until Eliza Leslies’ 1847 book, The Ladies Reciept Book. Eliza’s recipe calls for using grated chocolate or “prepared cocoa.” I love that both the Chocolate Cake and the Chocolate Chip Cookie evolved containing bits of the heavenly stuff, so grated chocolate it is. As with the Indian Meal Cake, Eliza used an entire nutmeg. In fact, you rarely see an early 19th-century recipe that does not call for nutmeg. They were crazy for the stuff. The highlight of this cake, for me at least, is the icing. The word icing evolved from this thick mixture of egg whites and sugar; for ages, bakers would pour it over a hot cake, then return it to the oven until it was dry and, well, ice-like in its smoothness. Eventually bakers stopped icing the hot cake, and, like in the recipe below, poured the mixture over the a cooled cake, then set it aside to dry for a few hours (hello Royal Icing). As an aside, Eliza calls for lemon oil, rose extract, or vanilla extract to flavor the icing. Until the early 19th century, vanilla was used as a perfume by those well-off rather than for cooking or baking purposes due to the high cost of production (second only to Saffron).Food52As walnut cakes go, this must be the simplest and most essential of them all. The cake itself is made of just three ingredients–walnuts, eggs and sugar. A little lemon zest adds a delicate, fresh aroma and powdered sugar makes it pretty. It's a traditional cake from Calabria in southern Italy–the sort of cake that was born out of age-old peasant traditions; the sort of cake that your nonna might whip up and have sitting on her kitchen bench, ready to be offered to guests with a short, dark stove-top espresso for breakfast or an afternoon snack. Yes, cake for breakfast. This walnut cake seems rather humble when compared to other Calabrian sweets, which have a tendency to be deep fried, filled with custard or jam, and covered in honey, dark chocolate, or sprinkles. This cake, however, is elegant in its simplicity and so incredibly moist–it reminds me of the Spanish Tarta de Santiago Almond Cake. The walnuts are pulverized in the food processor, so it's chunkier and a little more rustic than a cake made with almond meal. In my opinion, it needs nothing more than a dusting of powdered sugar. This recipe is taken from a 1960s volume of Italian Regional Cooking by Ada Boni, who suggests splitting the cake and sandwiching it with a light lemon butter icing. It remains moist for several days–if it isn't eaten all by then. **** An update to this recipe 11/9/14 **** After reading a couple of comments that people have had difficulty with this cake (removing it from the pan, crumbling, being underdone inside), I wanted to retest this recipe again and offer some more advice–including testing the suggestion by the original author of this recipe, Ada Boni, who advises to fill this cake with a lemon buttercream. So–first, some better description on the texture of this cake. It is a very moist cake, it may even appear underdone to some - but do not fear. Let it rest a day. This cake is possibly even better a day or two old. Secondly, I would advise using baking paper to line your cake tin. Use springform if you prefer. Bake as described (I actually find personally that this cake cooks better at a slightly lower temperature, around 350F as walnuts–like a lot of nuts–have a tendency to burn easily). Remove from the oven when the top of the well-browned cake is firm to the touch. Let the cake cool in the tin before removing from the tin. Wrap in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator until chilled. This seems to give it a bit of time to settle and will be easier to handle. It will still crumble a little when slicing but if you are careful, you won't have any problem getting pretty, nice slices. Now on to the buttercream. This is a WONDERFUL idea! It's even better than the cake on its own, lifts it to something extra special. I followed a couple of recipes I found online for lemon buttercream using 2 egg whites, 1/2 cup of sugar, 1 stick of butter and the zest of 1 lemon. Whip the whites with the sugar over a double broiler for a few minutes minutes or until the mixture is warm and you can no longer feel the sugar granules if you rub it between your fingers. Remove from heat, beat 8 more minutes or until mixture has returned to room temperature. Slowly add the butter bit by bit, beating all the way until you have a glossy, smooth buttercream. Add zest and chill the mixture. Carefully cut the cake in half so you have two thin discs (this is a little tricky with a crumbly cake but if the cake is well-chilled it is easier). Fill with about half of the buttercream mixture. Place the top disc on top and cover the rest of the cake with the rest of the icing (I covered the top and just did a "crumb coat" around the sides). I topped it with some diced candied fruit for decoration but it's lovely just as it is. This lemon buttercream is a great pairing for this cake and it also is wonderfully forgiving as it hides any flaws, including crumbling, splitting or even an inside that might seem too soft/moist - it's hard to describe but the buttercream just holds it all together in the most amazing way! It also keeps very well for a few days and holds together very, very nicely. So for anyone else having a little trouble handling this flourless cake, I would highly recommend trying the lemon buttercream filling!Food.comThe Victoria Sandwich is the quintessential English cake, conjuring up images of old England and afternoon tea. It's always been a favourite in cake baking competitions and is even used by manufacturers to test new cookers.This is one of the recipes that I use when I make my Victoria Sandwich sponge cake - the other method is posted at the end of the recipe; the ingredients are the same but the weight ratio is slightly different. This method is the original and more traditional way of weighing your ingredients, bearing in mind that the recipe is Victorian! A true Victoria Sandwich would only contain jam, usually raspberry, but as the cake became more popular and cooks became more affluent, cream was added as a delicious addition. I was always taught that caster sugar was sprinkled on top - again, icing sugar is often used nowadays. This recipe adaptation was taken from the WI website, a wonderful organisation in Great Britain for woman of all ages, backgrounds, race or creed - remember The Calendar Girls? They were all WI members! Historical note: Anna, the Duchess of Bedford (1788-1861), one of Queen Victoria's ladies-in-waiting, is credited as the creator of tea time. She invited friends to join her for an additional afternoon meal at five o'clock in her rooms. The menu centred around small cakes, bread and butter sandwiches, assorted sweets, and, of course, tea.The practice of inviting friends to come for tea in the afternoon was quickly picked up by other social hostesses. Queen Victoria adopted the new craze for afternoon tea time. By 1855, the Queen and her ladies were in formal dress for the Victorian tea time parties. This simple cake was one of the queen's favourites and was named in honour of the Queen as a mark of the cake's most devoted followers! (I used home made lemon curd for the cake in my photos, a tangy change from raspberry jam!)Food52Macarons for me are whimsical beings......they choose when to succeed and when to fail! Having tried to conquer them as part of a new year's resolution, I've made them with varying degrees of success. Some tips I've picked up along the way? #1 – Age is everything! Macs work best when the egg whites are 'aged', so they turn from thick to thin and liquid. Various people leave them overnight on the counter to age/refrigerate them for a few days (always getting them back to room temperature before use). You can also (rather delicately) use the microwave to get them to a similar state in about 10 seconds but you'll need to watch rather carefully. Also, spread and leave the almond meal/flour to 'dry' on the counter for a week or pop in the oven at 150 deg C for 5 minutes to dry! #2 – Ensure everything is sieved. Sieve the eggs whites before you measure/weigh them. And keep extra on hand in case of emergency (accidents). Sieve the almond meal, and the icing sugar and the chocolate! #3 – Make it easy to get whole macarons by using a silicone mat/silpat! If you don't have a piping bag, a ziploc snipped at the end works FINE. #4 – Experts suggest doubling up your baking sheets! So instead of one baking tray, use two! This prevents the bottoms of the macarons from over-baking and over-browning!Taste of HomeHere's a dessert you'll have a hard time resisting until the end of the meal. It's every bit as yummy as it looks. One taste and you'll be smiling like a kid in a candy store—no matter what age you are!
