I told you I
went to Vermont recently. While I was there I went antiquing. I came back with
(you guessed it!) more vintage cookware. It’s an addiction.
But who could
resist a square pan with a tube in the middle? I didn’t have one (who on earth
does?), and I paid three dollars for it. So I brought it home, and then I had
to take it for a test drive.
I went
searching through the cookbook collection and pulled out Heirloom Baking, by the delightful Brass Sisters, and found a
wonderful recipe called Reverend Brown’s Cake, which the sisters found on an
old index card. They thought it was a late nineteenth century recipe, so
it’s just the right period for my new old pan. I hope they don’t mind my
borrowing it, but since they too collect vintage cookware, I’m sure they’ll
understand.
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking
soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp
cinnamon
1/2 tsp
allspice
1/2 tsp
nutmeg
1/4 tsp
cloves
1/2 cup
butter, at room temperature
2 cups brown
sugar
3 eggs, at
room temperature
1 cup
buttermilk, at room temperature
Preheat the
oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9” pan. Fit a parchment paper liner to
the bottom, then grease and flour that too. Tap the pan (over the sink!) to
remove extra flour.
Sift together
the dry ingredients.
Cream the
butter and brown sugar in the bowl of a standing mixer, using the paddle
attachment. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing each one thoroughly.
Add the
sifted ingredients alternately with the buttermilk and beat to combine after
each addition.
Pour the
batter into the prepared pan. Bake 55-60 minutes, or until the edges of the
cake begin to pull away from the sides of the pan and a tester comes out clean.
After a few minutes, remove the cake from the pan (don’t forget to remove the
paper too!) and let cool on a rack.
Topping (or you could
call this butterscotch sauce):
1/4 cup water
1 Tblsp light
corn syrup
1/4 cup
butter
1 cup heavy
cream
Pinch of salt
Combine the
sugar, water and corn syrup in a heavy saucepan over high heat. Bring to a
boil, stirring with a wooden spoon.
Dip a brush
in water and wash down the sides of the pan. Reduce the heat to medium high. Do
Not Stir! Continue boiling until the mixture turns golden brown (not too dark),
which should take about 6-8 minutes.
When it's ready |
When you start |
Remove the
pan from the heat and swirl gently, twice. Add the butter and stir slowly until
it melts. Add the cream (the liquid may foam up for a moment) and stir again. (If
you end up with a glob of goo in the middle, set the pan over medium heat and
keep stirring until it all smooths out.) Add the salt.
While still
warm, pour the sauce over the cooled cake and smooth the top and sides.
You can store
the sauce in glass containers in the refrigerator if you happen to have any
left over (stop laughing! Yes, there is some, but I have a spoon.).
By the way,
while I was antiquing I found a small friend for one of my favorite pans, a
vintage melon mold. I don’t know what the tiny version was supposed to be used
for, but it was too cute to pass up.
Coming in October. With recipes! (Think there will be one with apples?)
Available for pre-order at Amazon and Barnes & Noble
www.sheilaconnolly.com
Congrats on obtaining the vintage square tube pan! I didn't even know they made pans like that. Thank you for the recipe for Reverend Brown's Cake (this is a new recipe for me). :-)
ReplyDeleteYou have the most interesting addiction, Sheila, and the caramel sauce looks amazing! I'll be over with my spoon...
ReplyDeleteWhat amazing fun! What size is this new pan?
ReplyDeleteAnd what do you use the larger melon pan for?
It's about 9" square, so pretty standard. As for the other mold, I've made steamed puddings in it. but it was probably intended as a ice cream or gelatin dessert mold. I've never been a big fan of gelatin, but apparently it shows up in a lot of desserts a century or more ago.
DeleteI love your stories and your directions.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Sue. It's fun to recreate how people (mostly women, no doubt) did things in the past--and they did them with no electric help and unpredictable ovens. You have to admire them.
DeleteThat pan is too fun -- no wonder it had to come home with you!
ReplyDeleteI want one of those pans! It would be so much fun to experiment with recipes to see how they come out square. I love the idea of using a recipe from the pan's time period. And the cake sounds delicious!
ReplyDeleteI need an excuse to keep buying old cookbooks!
DeleteWhat a cool vintage pan for your yummy cake! Perhaps the tiny version of the melon mold was intended for shaped melon balls? Or is it too big?
ReplyDeleteI keep thinking a very large chunk of chocolate...Maybe filled? Or along your lines, it could be an ice cream or sherbet mold for a melon-flavored dessert. Hmm, now I need more.
DeleteThe recipe looks interesting. Weird thing is I think my mom has one of those pans and she makes her angel food cake in it. Yep a square one, lol. Love those melon pans too. You should see her lamb antique pan. Oh and I got her a rabbit chocolate mold from Germany that is an antique too. Thanks for sharing and cant wait for the release of your next great book
ReplyDeleteThe old pans and molds are so much fun. And most of them are a joy to cook with because they're fairly thick metal, unlike the modern versions, so they heat evenly. (My family used the typical round pan for angel food cake--my sister has that one.)
DeleteI swear, I have to go shopping with you. Amazing! Um, is the smaller for an acorn? Possibly squirrel cake? LOL Love the recipe. And the pan.
ReplyDelete~Daryl
Well, for some reason I'm collecting stuffed animals (a hedgehog!), so I could have an animal party and serve cake.
DeleteI'm not usually a big fan of nutmeg and allspice, but this was nicely balanced. And the butterscotch is yummy.
My apologies to all for being absent on the day of my post--I was consorting with (gasp!) romance writers in a hotel overlooking Times Square. They do not have three heads, I'm happy to say. I didn't ask them if they cooked. But I'm back!
ReplyDelete