Wednesday, October 26, 2022

Mother Graham's Chicken Salad



Tuesday, October 25, 2022

Five Flavor Pound Cake

Cynthia’s pound cake
Put out butter eggs and cream two hours before you plan to bake.
3 c sugar
3 sticks of butter-salted
1/4 extra for flouring sides of pan 
6 eggs
3 c flour
1 tsp six flavoring rum lemon butter vanilla coconut almond
1c whipping cream or half/half
325 bake for 1 1/2 hour


Eggs and butter at room temp beat until creamy. 1-7 min.
Gradually add sugar, 1 c at a time continuing to beat until light and fluffy. These steps are important because they whip air into the cake batter so it will rise during baking.

Add one egg at a time, beating just until the yolk disappears. Overbeating the eggs may cause the batter to overflow the sides of the pan during baking or create a fragile crust that crumbles and separates from the cake as it cools.

Always add the dry ingredients alternately with the liquid, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. This will help to ensure that the dry and wet ingredients are evenly distributed throughout the batter. Mix just until blended after each addition. Overmixing the batter creates a tough, rubbery cake.

Grease cake pans with solid vegetable shortening, such as Crisco, and always dust with flour—a slippery surface keeps the batter from rising to its full volume.

Place the cake pan in the center of the oven, and keep the door closed until the minimum baking time has elapsed. If the cake requires more baking, gently close the oven door as soon as possible after testing to prevent jarring and loss of heat—both can cause a cake to fall if it’s not done.

MISTAKE: SUBSTITUTING STORE BRANDS
Prepare the recipe as directed, and use name-brand ingredients. Store brands of sugar are often more finely ground than name brands, yielding more sugar per cup, which can cause the cake to fall. Store brands of butter may contain more liquid fat, and flours more hard wheat, making the cake heavy.

MISTAKE: OPENING THE OVEN DOOR BEFORE IT'S DONE
Place the cake pan in the center of the oven, and keep the door closed until the minimum baking time has elapsed. If the cake requires more baking, gently close the oven door as soon as possible after testing to prevent jarring and loss of heat—both can cause a cake to fall if it’s not done.

MISTAKE: TAKING THE CAKE OUT OF THE OVEN TOO EARLY OR TOO LATE
Test for doneness by inserting a long wooden pick into the center of the cake. It should come out clean, with no batter or wet crumbs clinging to it. (Some cakes will have a crack in the center that appears wet even when fully cooked so avoid this area when testing.)

MISTAKE: REMOVING THE CAKE FROM THE PAN TOO EARLY OR TOO LATE
After removing from the oven, place the pound cake, right side up, in the pan on a wire rack, and let cool for 10 minutes away from drafts. This allows the cake to become firm enough to remove from the pan without breaking apart. Cooling too long in the pan will cause the cake to be damp and stick to the pan. Remove pound cake from pan to wire rack, and let cool completely.


1/10/2019
#1  Tried Cynthia's cake using butter-flavored Crisco with one stick of salted butter 
and cake flour no sifting. Next time sift. Use baking powder.
Beautiful crust. The cake fell leaving the crust. Fine texture and taste but dense.

#4 New Wilton bundt pan
Coconut oil to grease
Added 1/4 t. Salt
Use 2 % milk
Heavy, didn’t rise enough

# 5
1t baking powder
1/8 t salt
1/2 sour cream
1/2 % milk