This is not a baking blog, but the moment I was offered a review copy of the book Vintage Cakes I had to say yes. Especially after I read more about the book and how it came about, springing from Julie Richardson’s discovery of crates of old baking books in the old Portland bakery space she took over. She had recipes dating back to the ’20s with all sorts of funny names: everything from the Shoo-Fly Cake to the Lazy Daisy Cake to the Shinny Cake. The names drew her in, but the ingredients sometimes put her off, especially the lard of the early recipes, and the cake mix substitutions of the later ones. So she went to work deconstructing and reconstructing her favorite of the old recipes, and Vintage Cakes was born.
Now it’s just my luck that the week a beautiful new baking book came in the mail would be the week I decided to go vegan. That’s worth a separate post in itself; it’s sort of an experiment for now, so if we stick with it I’ll let you know how it goes. Anyhow I’ve been baking a bunch still, trying to figure out the best substitutions for all the eggs and butter I used to use. So when I was picking out a Vintage Cakes recipe to make, I chose the one that looked easiest to make vegan. The Ozark Pudding Cake doesn’t call for any milk, and I substituted vegetable oil for butter and used a flax egg (one tablespoon flax seed meal, 3 tablespoons water) instead of a real one.
The result: not so great, which I’m going to blame on my allergied-up state of mind and the vegan substitutions. I also think that the iron skillet I used was too big, making the cake thin and crispy rather than soft and fluffy. I will say that it tasted really good–wholesome and simple, like something you’d have at a small town church potluck or at your grandma’s house. We ate the cake anyway, and if we had (vegan) ice cream around we would have crumbled it on top, and it would have been heaven.
Here’s the recipe. If you make this as-is, without any veganizing, I guarantee you it will turn out better (and look better) than mine did:
Ingredients:
- 2 large ripe but firm pears, peeled, quartered, and cored
- 1 cup (5 ounces) all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp. fine sea salt
- 4 Tbsp. (2 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup (7 ounces) plus 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 egg, at room temperature
- 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup (2 ounces) sliced natural almonds, toasted
- 1/2 cup (2 1/4 ounces) dried cranberries (optional)
- Vanilla ice cream, for serving (optional)
Directions:
Grease a 10-inch cast-iron skillet with 1 tablespoon of soft butter. Center an oven rack and preheat the oven to 350°F.
Finely chop one of the pears and thinly slice the other.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, ginger, and salt in a bowl, and then whisk the mixture by hand to ensure that the ingredients are well mixed.
Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, blend the butter and sugar together on medium speed until the mixture resembles wet sand. Add the egg and vanilla and blend on medium-high speed until fluffy, about 5 minutes. Scrape down the bowl occasionally as needed. Turn the mixer to low speed and add the flour mixture all at once. Mix until just blended. The batter will be stiff.
Using a rubber spatula, fold in the chopped pear (setting aside the sliced pear for the top), half the almonds, and the cranberries (if using), and stir just until blended. Dump the batter into the prepared skillet and spread it in an even layer. Arrange the pear slices on top of the batter and sprinkle with the remaining almonds and the remaining teaspoon of sugar.
Place the skillet in the middle of the oven and bake until the cake is golden in color and the center springs back when lightly touched, 38 to 40 minutes. (The heat from the pan will continue to bake the cake after it is removed from the oven, so take care to remove it when it is just barely done.)
Serve warm from the skillet with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
This cake is best the day it is baked. Well covered, it keeps in the skillet for up to 2 days at room temperature.
Vintage Cakes: Timeless Recipes for Cupcakes, Flips, Rolls, Layer, Angel, Bundt, Chiffon, and Icebox Cakes for Today’s Sweet Tooth by Julie Richardson, copyright © 2012. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group. (PS, I was too lazy to type out this recipe myself, so I stole it from Oprah’s site. Thanks, Oprah!).
17 Comments
I love the sound of his book. I like to see your baking adventures :-)
Aww, thanks I’m glad you enjoy reading these posts! I love baking and posting about it but worry it might get too off-topic sometimes. : )
i cant believe you’re going vegan! you’re already so tiny! :) i always like to hear about your baking adventures .. and that cake DOES look good even if it wasnt as good without the butter!
ha ha, thanks, Lexie, but I bet it would have looked a lot better with butter! Well, we’re thinking about going vegan for health reasons mostly. Drew’s kind of on an elimination diet right now, checking for food allergies, so we’re both just trying out veganism for now.
Oh, how DREAMY! I can’t wait to know more about what’s in that book!
Jill, you’d love it! Most of the cakes look much much better . . . I just chose one that was more rustic (and easy to make).
Sounds like an amazing book- that pink frosting on the cover is heavenly! That is so cool you are becoming vegan! I have wanted to do it too but it’s just so hard- however I am munching on some raw vegan fudge right now (process 1 cup cashews, 1 tablespoon coconut oil, 12 grams cacao powder, pinch salt, 1/4 cup agave and roll into balls or press into a VERY small pan- it doesn’t make much- store in fridge/freezer to harden- It’s GOOD and really indulgent) I hope you write about the reasons and the challenges you encounter on this blog, as well as the recipes you find. I would love to read about it.
Thanks for that recipe–sounds so delicious. Have you seen all the black bean brownie/cookie recipes going around on blogs? I”m so tempted to try those too.
And I’ll probably write about the vegan thing later on–if we stick with it. Not sure yet; it’s only been a few weeks but so far I really love it. I’ve been making lots of tofu/bean/salad dishes and making sure to eat a ton of vegetables/fruits, and I feel better than I have in ages. I always assumed that I would feel weak and shaky if I went vegan, but it’s really the opposite. Anyhow I’ll probably write about it later, but these are my favorite blogs that have some vegan dinner recipes:
http://mynewroots.blogspot.com/
http://www.101cookbooks.com/
http://www.greenkitchenstories.com/
Cool, well I hope you stick with it! You have inspired me. I had a false start a few months ago but I think i am ready to try again. Thanks for those blog links!
Congrats on going vegan (4 years for me)! Don’t forget to take an iron/B12 every once and a while. And I was going to recommend Mynewroots but I see you already have checked it out. Everything on her blog is so delicious- she’s a culinary genius. Also on par: Isa Chandra from PostPunkKitchen. I make her “quarter pounder burgers” at least once a week- they are so good. Everything on her blog is scrumptious and flexible to accomodate whatever’s in your fridge.
Have fun!
Looks lovely and very tasty! As for the food allergies, I suffered from severe eczema for a long time, and did both a food allergy test and a food intolerance test. I did the elimination test too for a while but found out it wasn’t that accurate for me. (I thought I couldn’t eat tomatoes when it was actually gluten that I was intolerant to, so I was to blame the pasta/pizza, not the sauce :)) Long story short: if the elimination diet doesn’t give you (or your boyfriend) the results you’re after I highly recommend you do the food intolerance test. I postponed it for a long time because I thought it was expensive, but am so glad now that I did it. I’m completely eczema free and know exactly what I can and can’t eat. Worth every penny!
Good luck with the diet changes and the cake baking! :)
Thanks, Viola! Drew’s actually scheduled for a food allergy test, so hopefully we’ll find out soon . . . (though I’m hoping it’s not gluten; I love bread and muffins too much, ha ha)
you probably already know this, but you might try coconut oil for the butter. it’s richer than veg oil and better health-wise. it’s supposed to have health benefits, or so they say for the moment. anyway, it does taste good.
Actually I was wondering what that was for–a few of the vegan ice cream recipes I’ve tried suggested it, though I just used full fat coconut milk instead. I’ll have to go buy some–thanks for the tip!
you can use the coconut oil/butter in your hair as a defrizz/gloss and as a moisturizer on your skin too!
Congrats on making the switch to veganism, Rhi! You won’t regret it! I’m a professionally-trained vegan chef (as in, I have a Culinary Arts degree and have been vegan for over 4 years now and only cook/bake vegan food, including vegan wedding cakes), so if you have any questions about veganism or veganizing your recipes, just shoot me an email any time. I’d be pleased to help you out with anything you’re having difficulties with.
As for this recipe, the flax egg was a good choice as a replacement. It works great as a binder, which the cake definitely needs, but it won’t provide any levening to give you that nice, fluffy cake you’re looking for. If you’re up for trying to making it again, definitely use a smaller skillet (as you mentioned), go with the flax egg again, but go with about 1.5 Tbls of baking powder rather than 1 tsp and you’ll have much fluffier results.
If you want some vegan ice cream to go with it (and don’t want to make it yourself), I highly recommend this one: http://www.sodeliciousdairyfree.com/products/coconut-milk-ice-creams/vanilla-bean
Enjoy :)
The cake looked great! I didn’t know you were going Vegan? You enjoy baking
to much and chocolate!!! Keep up the good work!