Fat Tuesday via 1914 Boston

Just in time to celebrate Fat Tuesday or what the Pennsylvania Dutch know as Fastnacht Day, this week's #tbt has everything to do with sweet batter, deep frying, and powdered sugar.  It's the last hurrah before Lent, one last opportunity to overindulge if sweets are what you're giving up for the next few weeks.

A well-worn, well-loved, and much used 1914 copy of 'The Boston Cooking School Cook Book' by F. M. Farmer provided this week's recipe.  You may recognize the cookbook by what most people know it as today, 'The Fannie Farmer Cookbook.'  Originally I was eyeing bread recipes, even more so when I came home from the deli the other night with a brick of fresh yeast, but on the sixth or seventh go-through of the fragile pages, I spotted the recipe for Fried Drop Cakes.  When I realized they were similar to donuts (without the yeast) and it was Fat Tuesday, there was no doubt this was the recipe to make.

The batter is easy to throw together, and once mixed, it's thick and sticky.  I suggest that you make them on the smaller size--using a teaspoon to drop the dough into the oil, instead of a tablespoon.  The first few larger ones I made, upon breaking them open, were still nothing but batter in the very center.  I don't doubt that the issues laid with me--a pan with not enough oil, and a pan with thin walls that kept the oil a little too hot, so they were browning quickly and I didn't want to burn them.  The smaller cakes were very good.  Chewy, cakey, and airy at once.

I'm not going to re-type the recipe here since I didn't stray from the original.  The skewer comes in handy to turn the frying dough, like flipping abelskivers.

Simplicity

Chocolate and vanilla....where some may see boredom, I see simplicity.  Ask me what my favourite ice cream flavour is, and despite having tried flavours as varied as mango, pomegranate, maple bacon, and Cabernet, I will usually vacillate between chocolate or vanilla.


So when asked by a friend to make mini-cupcakes for a baby shower, vanilla and chocolate was the plan.  A double-barrel shotgun of simplicity.  Singular flavours of vanilla with vanilla buttercream, and chocolate with chocolate buttercream were anything but.  Not all cake recipes are equal, I discovered.  I was like Goldilocks finding the one that was 'just right.'  Over the span of a week, out from the oven came four cakes, two winning recipes, and the end-result of a few dozen  mini-cupcakes.


The winning chocolate cake will be re-visited often.  Not too fudgy and not too sweet, you can enjoy it with a thick layer of buttercream or dusted with confectioners' sugar.


Texas Sheet Cake
Makes 20 to 24 servings
(From Bonny Wolf's 'Talking with My Mouth Full:  Crab Cakes, Bundt Cakes, and Other Kitchen Stories')  


1 cup butter
1 cup water
1/4 cup cocoa
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup sour cream
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cups chopped pecans (optional)


Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees. Butter or line with parchment a 15.5 x 10.5 jelly roll pan.  Combine the butter, water, and cocoa in a saucepan.  Heat to boiling, stirring occasionally.  


In a bowl, combine the flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda.  Remove the butter from the heat and add to the dry ingredients.  Mix well (either by hand or with a mixer).  Add the sour cream, eggs, and vanilla.  Mix again.  Pour into the pan and bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.


Note:  I halved the recipe and ended up with close to 4 dozen mini-cupcakes.  It will also make an 8 x 8 inch cake.