recipes: Kiwi's birthday cake
Went over to zinjadu and ratzeo's apartment yesterday to celebrate Kiwi's birthday a bit early. I brought the cake. We split it among six people and ate the whole thing in an afternoon. >->
As follows:
Cake:
1/2c (one stick) butter, softened
1 1/2c sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 3/4c flour
1/3c cocoa
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1c soured milk (add a tbs. of vinegar)
Preheat yr oven to 350.
Cream together butter and sugar, add vanilla and eggs. Mom's recipe says, in parentheses, "add rum if desired," which I haven't tried but only because we had no rum in the house yesterday. Somebody should try it and let me know how it goes.
Add the flour, baking soda, and cocoa powder in intervals, alternating with the sour milk.
Pour the batter into greased and floured pans -- this makes enough for two 8" round layers, or one 9x13" sheet cake -- and bake for about 30 minutes, until a fork stuck in the middle comes out clean. Ice as desired, once cool.
And the icing of doom, by special request.
Icing:
required apparatus: double boiler (can be faked with a pan and a pyrex bowl) and an electric mixer (srsly, you don't want to do this by hand).
2 egg whites
1 1/2c sugar
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
1/3 cup water
Mix ingredients together, and cook over boiling water for seven minutes, beating with the electric mixer the entire time, until the icing has turned blinding scary white and started to hold stiff peaks.
Remove from heat and stir in a teaspoon of vanilla. Ice things. Go into diabetic shock.
...This recipe made far more icing than I needed for this cake; we had at least as much icing left over as we used for the two layers. Next time I think I'm going to try making a half-recipe (one egg white, 3/4c sugar, 1/8tsp cream of tartar, 3Tbs water) and see if it works.
As follows:
Cake:
1/2c (one stick) butter, softened
1 1/2c sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 3/4c flour
1/3c cocoa
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1c soured milk (add a tbs. of vinegar)
Preheat yr oven to 350.
Cream together butter and sugar, add vanilla and eggs. Mom's recipe says, in parentheses, "add rum if desired," which I haven't tried but only because we had no rum in the house yesterday. Somebody should try it and let me know how it goes.
Add the flour, baking soda, and cocoa powder in intervals, alternating with the sour milk.
Pour the batter into greased and floured pans -- this makes enough for two 8" round layers, or one 9x13" sheet cake -- and bake for about 30 minutes, until a fork stuck in the middle comes out clean. Ice as desired, once cool.
And the icing of doom, by special request.
Icing:
required apparatus: double boiler (can be faked with a pan and a pyrex bowl) and an electric mixer (srsly, you don't want to do this by hand).
2 egg whites
1 1/2c sugar
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
1/3 cup water
Mix ingredients together, and cook over boiling water for seven minutes, beating with the electric mixer the entire time, until the icing has turned blinding scary white and started to hold stiff peaks.
Remove from heat and stir in a teaspoon of vanilla. Ice things. Go into diabetic shock.
...This recipe made far more icing than I needed for this cake; we had at least as much icing left over as we used for the two layers. Next time I think I'm going to try making a half-recipe (one egg white, 3/4c sugar, 1/8tsp cream of tartar, 3Tbs water) and see if it works.