Ice Water Cake

Tags

almond extract, baking, butter, Cakes, cooking, custard, Dessert, egg whites, egg yolks, flour, Food, ice water, layer pan, recipes, sheet pan, strawberry short cake, tube pan, Vanilla

It is really hard to believe that you can make a cake with Ice Water, but you actually can! My mother loved this cake  for Strawberry Short Cake, she always said it was like it was in between a Hot Milk Sponge Cake and an Angel Food Cake. It is denser and heavier than an angel food cake but still light. (if this make sense)

We always like baking this in a 10 inch tube pan, however the recipe calls for  two layer pans or a sheet cake pan. I am thinking the tube pan makes a little fancier cake than just a sheet or layer cake, as we never did ice this cake.

Since the cake calls for just egg whites, we always used the yolks to make homemade custards to go with the strawberries  to serve with or over the cake.

I am sure you will love this cake as much as we do.

ICE WATER CAKE

1/2 cup  Shortening (we use butter)

2 cups Sugar

3 1/2 cups  Cake Flour (we use regular unbleached)

3/4 tsp  Salt

3 tsp  Baking Powder

1 1/2 cups   Ice Water

1 tsp.  Vanilla

1/4 tsp  Almond Extract (if we have it we use it if not good with just Vanilla)

4  Egg Whites

Cream Shortening

Add sugar gradually and beat until fluffy.

Sift Flour; measure and add salt and baking powder and sift again.

Add sifted dry ingredients alternately with Ice Water and flavorings.

Beat thoroughly after each addition.

Fold in stiffly beaten egg whites.

Pour into greased, layer pans, or a sheet or tube pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes (tube pan will take slightly longer about 40-45 minutes) test with a knife or cake tester.

An excellent white cake.

 

Sour Cream Biscuits

Tags

baking, Biscuits, butter, sour cream

Have you ever wanted biscuits, just to find out that you were out of shortening? However if you are like me and have a Costco near you, then you may have a 3 lb. container of sour cream in the refrigerator. Well you are in luck, sour cream is a great shortening replacer and makes fantastic biscuits!!

I actually prefer sour cream for biscuits now over any with shortening. They always come out light and fluffy, however upon looking through various cookbooks most from the 1930’s to the 1950’s, I found only one that had baking powder and soda, as most only call for baking powder, I tried it and and adapted it to the recipe below.

Sour Cream Biscuits

2 cups Flour

1 Tablespoon Baking Powder

1 teaspoon Soda

1 teaspoon Salt

1 teaspoon Sugar

1 cup Sour Cream

1 Tablespoons Butter (melted)

1/4 –1/3 cup milk, or 1/2 & 1/2 (I use 1/2 and 1/2)

Place dry ingredients in mixing bowl, and blend together, then add the sour cream, butter , then add the milk just pulsing the mixer to incorporate all liquids, just until mixed (continuously mixing make tough biscuits) in other words over working the dough .

Remove dough to a floured counter, or pastry cloth with added flour sprinkled onto surface, pat ball of dough out in a flat circle then roll out with a rolling pin. leaving it about 1/2 inch thick, cut out with round biscuit cutter.

If you do not have a biscuit cutter never fear, if you do home canning regular mouth and wide mouth canning bands make perfect cutters. a wide mouth band will yield 8-9 biscuits.

Place on buttered baking sheet and bake in a pre-heated 450 degree oven and bake 15 minutes, remove from oven when golden brown and brush the tops with butter.

Variations:

Savory Biscuits- add Italian seasoning to taste into the dry ingredients and mix together, Herbs de Province, or Thyme also make great biscuits

Parmesan – Add 1/4 to 1/3 cup dry Parmesan Cheese and mix together.

Dill- You can use dried dill to taste or freshly chopped dill chopped fine and mixed with the dry ingredients.

Flavored Sugars-So Easy to Make and to Use

Tags

baking, citrus, citrus sugars, Flavored Sugars, frozen citrus, frozen lemons, fruits, grapefruit, grated zest, Lemon, Lime, oils, Orange, Vanilla, Vanilla Beans, zest

Do you like lemon In your tea? How about making a lemon pie? Perhaps you don’t care for Lemon, perhaps Orange, Lime or even Vanilla!

Flavored Sugars can be made so easily anytime you need them or well in advanced and kept until ready to use. They also make great gifts anytime of the year for any occasion.  Who ever the recipient is, even yourself, they will love this simple homemade gift from the heart.

I will start by telling you most citrus fruits can be used, thought I personally have not tried grapefruit. There are several things that will make the job easier, depending on what you want to do.

Most citrus will yield more juice if frozen,and thawed. Have you ever gotten a lot of oranges over the holidays only to see them go bad, simply put the Oranges in the freezer, this works for all citrus fruits, when you need zest, take out a frozen fruit and grate the zest off with a rasp  or nutmeg style grater. while still frozen, if you don’t need the juice put the lemon back in a freezer bag until just the juice is needed. 

     A citrus zester, works easier on non frozen fruits for nice long ribbons of zest, or you can chop these ribbons fine if you wish with a good sharp knife.

Place whatever form of zest you prefer into a bowl of sugar mix and allow to set, as the days go by the sugar draws the vital oils into the sugar.The amount of sugar you use and the amount of zest is up to your personal preference. I prefer to put mine in mason jars, if you are ever feeling down just open the jar and smell, it will brighten of your day, the aroma is heavenly!! You might say it is like Aromatherapy for Cooks

The same can be done with Vanilla Beans,  simply slice open length wise and scrape the seeds out and mx with the sugar, I usually will put the bean itself in as well.

I would suggest you start with a cup of sugar and the zest of one lemon, lime or orange, then try it and and if to strong add another cup of sugar, if to weak, add more zest.

LEMON POUND CAKE–CLEAR LEMON GLAZE

Tags

baking, butter, citrus, Clear Lemon Glaze, cookbook, Country Kitchen, Daffodils, dense, eggs, flour, Forsythias, fresh, lemon juice, Lemon Pound Cake, lemon zest, Lemons, light, Mennonite, recipes, Rural Living, Spring Day, sugar, yellow, zest

It is spring now, finally and I felt like something bright and yellow like the Forsythia’s and Daffodils, so a nice Lemon Pound Cake was in order.

This recipe of course is made from scratch, with fresh lemon juice and butter, since the weather is warmer and you feel like being outside more and walking more you can eat this and work it off  outside now!! Better yet, make it and share it with friends, then the total burden will not fall on you to work it off.

I will add here like all things made from scratch that, at home we don’t always follow a recipe exactly, this time I did not feel like a tube cake, so I divided the batter into two loaf pans. (you may want to check your cake for doneness after about an hour, since it is in two pans) for me it was done in about 1 1/4 hours.

Also, I did not have lemon extract, so put a quarter cup lemon juice in, which I did reduce the milk by 1/4 cup.

I also love to use zests of citrus when I am cooking. so I added finely chopped lemon zest to the sugar about an hour or so before making the cake, (the sugar helps draw out the oils from the zest)

This recipe was NOT from a Mennonite cookbook which I rely on heavily, I found it online and used it basically because it had oil in it which I have never seen before (I am assuming they did this to make a less heavy or dense cake) which I prefer the heavier pound cake. However I feel that the recipe came out nice kind of middle of the road, not dense and not light. I was pleased with it.

I will also add here that the cake would have been just fine WITHOUT the lemon glaze. However I just wanted to  see what difference it made.

Pound Cake

1 cup Butter, softened

1/4 cup vegetable oil

3 cups Sugar

5 Eggs

3 cups All Purpose Flour

1 cup  Milk

1 tsp Lemon Extract (I used 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice)

Zest from 2 lemons, chopped fine and mixed with the sugar

Glaze

1/2 cup Sugar

1/2 cup Water

1 tsp grated Lemon Rind

1/4 cup Lemon Juice

Preparation

Cream butter in mixing bowl., at medium speed.

Gradually add oil. beating until well blended.

Gradually add sugar beating well.

Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Add flour to mixture alternately with milk, starting with flour and ending with flour.

Mix just until blended after each addition.

Stir in lemon extract (1/4 cup fresh lemon juice in my case)

Pour batter into greased and floured 10 inch tube pan (I used 2 loaf pans)

Bake at 300 degrees for 1 hour & 30 minutes, or until a wooden tooth pick or cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

Cool cake on wire rack for 15 minutes, then remove cake to wire rack to finish cooling.

Glaze

Combine all ingredients (I used warm water) and stir until sugar dissolves,

Brush over top and sides of cake a little at a time.

Let cake cool completely.

Enjoy