Suzi's Blog
Book Review: Baking for All Occasions by Flo Braker
Yesterday’s post was for a lovely Red Velvet Cake Roll or Roulade from Baking for All Occasions by Flo Braker.
Today, I just want to emphasize why you should consider Baking for All Occasions for your kitchen bookshelves, sagging though they may be. There are many baking books and, truthfully, many of those are interesting and have some recipes that you want to try. Baking is different for two reasons.
First, Baking is simply dense with recipes that do catch your eye and that compel you to utter the dessert lovers’ mantra: “Make me. Make me.”
Second, because this is a book by Flo, you know that there is substance beyond her seductive titles. You know that each recipe is real, has been tested, is ready for the home cook, and will — if carefully followed — give you exactly the results you desire.
For me, the first sign of a great cookbook is the title information in those recipes. If it says “Chocolate Cake with White Frosting” I’m interested, as any chocoholic might be, but not convinced. When Flo says “All American Chocolate Cake with Divinity Frosting” then I have to pause. Yes, “All American” can mean anything but this is Flo’s book so I know it represents research, testing, and a “best of breed” development.
And “Divinity Frosting?” Well, I remember being eight years old and making divinity for Christmas presents. It’s been a long time. I liked that divinity. I’m sure I’d like it on top of rich chocolate cake. So sure, that the next time Suzen is not around, I fully intend to …
On the list of Flo’s recipes goes, for example:
- Banana Streusel Snack Cake
- Black Bottom Praline Chiffon Pie
- Caramel Chocolate Cream Pie
- Chocolate Vanilla Swirl Cookes [that's them in the picture below!]
- Cinnamon Bubbles with Sour Cream Dough
- Heirloom Banana Cake with Prune Plum Filling and Seafoam Frosting
- Strawberry Mango Shortcake with Basil Syrup
Take that last recipe, which Suzen and I will be testing for you later this summer. We’ve all had strawberry shortcake. It’s classic, it’s a delight. But Flo adds dimension and flavor here. Mangos are married with the strawberries. And that basil syrup is sure to enrich the experience.
This is typical Flo: more flavors for a deeper flavor profile. New ideas are matched up, and yet adroitly balanced so that they complement rather than compete. You’ll know, in that first bite, that before you is something quite special.
Baking for All Occasions is surely a book you’ll enjoy. Just reading it is fun. Sampling your way through, one treat at a time, can be your personal journey to dessert nirvana. Don’t wait for reincarnation. Bake now. Bake with Flo.
Coffee-Walnut Layer Cake [Except I Used Pecans] from Retro Cakes and Cookies
So darned good. I took one look at this cake, in Retro Cakes and Cookies by Wendy Sweetser, and I had to make it. Coffee flavor and nuts. Oh, this is an English recipe and they want walnuts. Suzen is not anti-English – she’d live in London – but she’s not a walnut fan. So I made this with pecans.
Compared to American recipes, there is a lot of coffee here. In the cake and Lord knows in that frosting. I used Italian espresso powder and just the amounts specified. I got the coffee tang, but it was not over the top. The cake is moist, filled with flavor and quite sweet.
Now, in the book, there is a picture of this cake and it is well frosted. So is my cake in my picture. And that is because I doubled the amount of frosting in the recipe below. So, you have an option. Go with frosting that is more of an icing, or go for the gold. Or the brown. Or whatever.
Jeez, just go for it.
And to serve with it? Well, what else. Espresso.
Personally, I would not eat this after 9 PM at night unless you have an exam in the morning.
That picture of the cake above is one I made by combing three exposures with the HDR software from NIK, plus their special vignette effect to tone the entire picture. I think that the picture style here matches the idea of a retro recipe.
Retro Cakes and Cookies is filled with recipes from the home kitchens of Great Britain in the 50’s and 60’s. There are things here you’ve never seen or heard of before. There are things here you need to taste.
I may have made a mistake in that last paragraph. This cake may be much older than just 50’s. Older than me, even. You’ll see in the section describing how to make the cake. You don’t cream the butter, add this, then that. Oh, no. You just put everything all at once in the bowl and mix. Everything. All at once. My grandmother would have made this cake.
I wish she had.
Coffee-Walnut Layer Cake
Yield: 1 3-layer cake
Ingredients:
For the cake:
- Oil or butter to grease 3 cake pans
- 2 sticks butter, softened
- 1 ⅛ cups superfine sugar
- 4 extra-large eggs
- 1 ¾ cups self-rising flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 tablespoon instant coffee dissolved in 2 tablespoon hot water, and cooled
- 1 cup chopped walnuts [or pecans!]
For the frosting [remember, you may want to double this]:
- 1 ½ sticks unsalted butter
- 2 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar
- 1 tablespoon instant coffee dissolved in 2 tablespoons hot water, and cooled
- Walnut [or pecan] halves to decorate
Preparation:
For the cake:
Preheat the oven to 325°F. Lightly grease 3 8-inch layer cake pans and line the bottom with parchment.
Put the butter, sugar, eggs, self-rising flour, baking powder, and dissolved coffee in a large mixing bowl, and beat together with an electric hand mixer on low speed, or a wooden spoon, until smooth. Stir in the chopped walnuts.
Divide the mixture between the pans, spreading it in even layers and leveling the tops. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until risen and springy to the touch. Leave the cakes to cool in the pans for 5 minutes, before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
For the frosting:
Beat the butter until soft and creamy. Gradually sift in the confectioners’ sugar, beating well after each addition. Add the dissolved coffee after three quarters of the sugar has been added.
Sandwich the cake layers with some of the buttercream, and spread the remainder on top. Decorate with a ring of walnut [or pecan] halves.
Source: Retro Cakes and Cookies by Wendy Sweetser [published by CICO Books]
