Oops, I did
it again—I went to Brimfield (that's the huge antiques fair in central Massachusetts,
held three times a year). Yes, I am
addicted to stuff. In the past I have
bought a wide range of items there, including some furniture, but now I try to
restrain myself, and mostly I focus on vintage/antique cookware, which is
affordable. Well, there was that nice
antique apple basket I just had to have, but that was my only indulgence.
I love old
baking pans, and there is such a wonderful variety of shapes! This year I learned something new (see? It's
educational!). One vendor had a cast iron
pan with half-sphere compartments—I'm sure we've all seen them somewhere. I've always wondered what they were supposed
to be used for, but this one actually had BR-OW-NI-ES cast right into the metal
across the bottom. Made me wonder when brownies
stopped being round and became square. (No, I
didn't buy it.)
But I did
buy one new/old baking pan, so I had to find an old recipe to try it out. This
is actually a recipe developed by Proctor & Gamble in the 1950s (a bit
younger than the pan), shared by Julie Richardson in Vintage Cakes, with a few changes.
It worked in my cake pan (I had to adjust the baking time), but this
sounds delicious in any pan.
Cake:
2 ¼ cups
all purpose flour
2 tsp
baking powder
1 tsp salt
¾ cup plus
2 Tblsp unsalted butter at room temperature
¾ cup sugar
1/3 cup
honey (any variety you like)
2 tsp
vanilla extract
2 eggs, at
room temperature
1 egg yolk,
at room temperature
¾ cup
buttermilk, at room temperature
Preheat the
oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a
9x2" round cake pan or 9x3" springform pan (mine was a bit smaller). If your pan has a flat bottom (mine doesn't),
line the bottom with a circle of parchment paper.
Dry ingredients in my mother's vintage Pyrex bowl |
In a bowl,
sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.
In the bowl
of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, combine the butter, sugar, honey
and vanilla on low speed until blended.
Then turn the speed to high and cream until very light and fluffy, about
5-7 minutes. Scrape down the sides of
the bowl and the paddle a few times while mixing.
Blend in
the eggs and egg yolk, one at a time, quickly.
Turn the
mixer to low and add the flour mixture in three parts, alternating with the
buttermilk. Mix only until blended, and
scrape down between additions. Do not
overbeat! Do the last bit of the mixing
by hand with a spatula. The batter will
be thick.
Spread the
batter evenly in the greased pan. Place
in the center of the oven, and bake for 45 minutes, until the cake is golden on
top.
Glaze:
½ cup honey
¼ cup
firmly packed brown sugar
¼ cup
unsalted butter
In a small
saucepan, stir the honey, sugar and butter over medium heat until
combined. Bring to a bare simmer. Turn off the heat but do not let cool.
After 45
minutes, remove the cake from the oven and poke holes all over the top with a
wooden skewer. Pour half the glaze over
the cake, letting it sink in. Then bake
for an additional 5 minutes.
Cool the
cake on a wire rack for about an hour.
Then carefully turn it upside down onto a plate. Pour the remaining glaze over the top.
Let me tell you, there was a bit of prayer involved when it came to umolding it! |
This cake
will last well if you keep it covered, thanks to the honey.
(I sneaked in a new ebook last week!) |
Sheila, I am so impressed. How did you *ever* get the cake to turn out of the pan that beautifully? OMG! It's hard to get a bundt cake to turn out of a pan with a newfangled non-stick coating. I can't imagine how you did this. I love these older recipes. They do such clever things, like putting the cake back in the oven after adding the glaze. Lovely!
ReplyDelete~Krista
A lovely bit of nostalgia. And tasty sounding, too.
ReplyDeleteHi Sheila: I was happy to hear about your good luck at the Brimfield Fair and finding some vintage baking items. We live about an hour from there, but I can't do that kind of walking anymore. I had boxes of vintage items from my grandmother and antique shop finds but when we retired and moved the boxes just disappeared. Still feeling sad about it, but what can you do?
ReplyDeleteThe cake came out of the pan wonderfully well and that recipe was definitely a "trip down memory lane" wasn't it?? Thanks for the offer and the recipe.
Love this recipe, especially the honey glaze step at the end. The antique pan story makes the recipe even sweeter. (Echoing Krista...) My jaw dropped at how perfectly you were able to birth the cake from its antique mold. Brava and beautiful!
ReplyDeleteLooks absolutely delicious. A friend brought me some honey from a nearby farm--I will have to try this.
ReplyDelete