It's been too long since I've written a post. I've been fiddling with the blog design, which is an ever evolving process of tweaking something, making a big mistake, trying to fix it, and starting all over again. This was the explanation I gave to my high school guidance counselor when we met to discuss why I was failing sewing class my freshman year. Basically, it was nearing the end of the semester and I had turned in nothing. I couldn't get past our first project, making a stuffed rabbit. It was to be made from a fabric of my choosing. I chose florals and lace with the idea of creating a Victorian masterpiece, a design the Laura Ashley company would want to add to their home collection. No one told me that sewing required patience and practice before I could turn out perfection. After a semester of seam ripping, multiple restarts, cursing under my breath, and parent-teacher meetings, I finally finished a rabbit worthy of county fair entry rather than the Laura Ashley Home Collection. At that point, nobody cared what it looked like, they just wanted me to finish and end our collective misery. In the end, my home-ec teacher took pity on my obsessive compulsive proclivities and graded me on quality rather than quantity. It still follows that when I get an idea for how I want something to look, I can't move on until it's exactly the way I had envisioned. As illustrated, this obsession with perfection can sometimes be a curse.
Sewing and I never reconnected after that and later in life baking became my thing. As of lately, cakes have been my focus and October Cake is one I've been thinking on for the past year. The important ingredient in the cake is apple cider. Using a locally made cider is worth your while for the quality of the taste and we are now in the height of apple season, so why not enjoy the fruits of the harvest? I picked up a half gallon produced by our local apple orchard. The idea for this cake was adapted from a 1959 copy of Farm Journal's Country Cookbook. In this book, the recipe is titled Cider and Spice Cake, but an accompanying note said it was referred to by someone's grandmother as October Cake and that's the name I liked best because it speaks to its seasonal appeal. The filling has a wonderful tart flavor set against the backdrop of apple and spice.
October Cake
Cake
3 cups sifted cake flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
3/4 cup butter
1 1/2 cups brown sugar, firmly packed
3 eggs, beaten
1 Tbsp. lemon juice (freshly squeezed is preferable)
1 cup apple cider
Cider Filling
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
3 Tbsp. constarch
1 cup apple cider
2 Tbsp. lemon juice (freshly squeezed is preferable)
2 Tbsp. butter
Creamy Cider Icing
1/2 cup butter
3 1/2 Tbsp. flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup apple cider
3 cups sifted confectioners sugar
For the cake: Preheat oven to 350 ℉. Butter and flour 3 round 8" cake pans. Sift together flour, baking powder, salt and spices. Cream butter and sugar, add eggs, and beat until thoroughly blended.
Add lemon juice to cider. Add alternately with dry ingredients to creamed mixture, beating after each addition.
Pour batter into the 3 prepared pans. Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean and the cakes are golden and spring-back when touched.
Set the pans on a cooling rack for 10 minutes before you flip them over and turn the cakes out to further cool on the racks.
For the cider filling: Combine sugar, salt, and cornstarch in saucepan. Add cider and combine. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly until the mixture becomes thick and somewhat clear. Remove from heat and add lemon juice and butter. Set aside to cool.
For the creamy cider icing: Melt the butter in a saucepan, then blend in the the flour and salt. Add the cider and stir well. Bring to a boil and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Add the confectioners sugar and beat well.
Assemble the cake by spreading half the cider filling on one cake round. Set another round on top and spread the rest of the cider filling on top of that layer. Top it with the third round and then frost the top and sides with the creamy cider icing. Top with something like walnuts or pecans or maybe even a sprinkling of cinnamon-sugar and you'll have a beautiful fall cake that wears the flavor of the season.
The Blueberry Crow's Nest was inspired by a recipe I came across in a vintage cookbook, The Lilly Wallace New American Cookbook, published in 1945. When I was looking through it, I found something called an Apple Crow's Nest. After reading the recipe, I realized it was an apple cobbler that had been flipped upside down after baking. I decided to try it with blueberries instead, adding lemon juice and cornstarch. For the crust, I decided to adapt a cornmeal biscuit recipe I found in a cookbook titled Rustic Fruit Desserts by Cory Schreiber and Julie Richardson. To adapt their crust, I just omitted the turbinado sugar and installed the dough differently. I love flipping the cobbler upside down to serve because the berries are so dark, shiny, and beautiful. You wouldn't be able to admire them if they were under a crust!
This was also how I used the blueberries from Taylor's Market and I was looking for something I could make and submit to a contest on Food52. Making the Blueberry Crow's Nest is easier than you might think and it was delicious. Great summertime dessert when blueberries are in season.
Blueberry Crow's Nest
Filling
3 1/2 cups fresh blueberries
1/4 cup sugar
1 Tbsp. cornstarch
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. fine sea salt
1 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
Crust/Nest
1 1/4 cup all-purpose unbleached flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. fine sea salt
1/2 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
1 cup cold heavy cream
2 tsp. sugar for sprinkling
Fresh whipping cream or ice cream and cinnamon-sugar for serving.
Preheat your oven to 375℉ and place top rack in the middle. Grease an 8 1/2 to 9 inch pie pan with butter (I used a metal pie pan which worked great). Make the filling first. In a medium bowl, whisk together the sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, and sea salt. Add the berries and using your hands, toss until coated. Add the lemon juice and stir it in. Pour the filling into the prepared pie pan and set aside.
For the crust: combine the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and sea salt in a medium bowl and whisk together. Cut up the butter and add it to the mixture. Then, using a pastry blender, a fork, or your fingers, cut the butter into the mix working until the butter cubes are mixed in and broken down into a pea size. Pour in the cream and stir until it's absorbed into the dough and the dough is sticking together.
It's easier to work with this sticky dough in small amounts. Pick up hand-fulls of the dough and flatten them into a biscuit or patty shape and lay them on top of the berry filling in the pie pan. As you lay each disk of dough onto the berries, spread it out a bit. The idea is to top the filling with the dough and spread it around so there are no gaps. You don't need the biscuit shapes to remain after you've laid them on. Once your dough is covering all the berries, sprinkle with the extra 2 tsp. of sugar.
Place the pie pan onto the top rack in the oven with a baking sheet on the rack below to catch the drips. Bake for about 45 min., but start checking it when there are about 5 min. to go. The crust should be golden brown and the juice from the filling is going to be bubbling up from below. When it's ready, take it out and set on a rack to cool for about 10 minutes.
I like to top it with fresh whipped cream, so I would use this time as it's cooling to make the cream or you could serve it with vanilla ice cream. After about 10 min. have gone by, find a serving platter bigger than the pie pan for turning the cobbler upside down. Place the platter upside down over the cobbler and center it. With both hands securely holding the two together, flip them around so the pie pan is now upside down on top of your serving platter. Using a large serving spoon, tap the bottom of the pie pan to loosen the pan from the cobbler and also run the spoon along the crust edge sticking out from under the pie pan. Ease the pie pan off of the cobbler which has now been transformed into a beautiful blueberry crow's nest! Serve warm with the whipping cream or ice cream and sprinkle with a little cinnamon sugar.
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| Caw! |
