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Text ©1989 by Sam Waring. All rights reserved.
Created: Sat, 14 Aug 2004 at 20:17:44 UTC
If it’s February, this must be Assorted Holidays Month. February used to be a pretty good month for holidays, since there had to be some excuse for such a dreary month However, the government, who just can’t leave off meddling with a good thing, decided it was too much to have two very popular Presidents born in the same month (and you had better know which two). I mean, it rankled them that these guys’ parents were so inconsiderate as to make it necessary to have two officially-recognized holidays in the same month. There had to be another way, and sure enough, there was. Along about the time Washington (the government, not the man) decided to declare that all the traditional holidays were being moved to Monday for official purposes, they also lumped the two inescapable Birthdays into one and moved the result to a Monday as well, and then opened up the door and let all sorts of nobodies into the holiday. So forget celebrating G. Washington’s and A. Lincoln’s; now we have to put up with “PRESIDENT’S DAY” and celebrate willy-nilly for all sorts, including the perennial wallpaper favorite Millard Fillmore, marginal dummy Warren Harding, and outclassed nebechs like Hoobert Heever.
It is, therefore, nice to think that the bureaucrats haven’t been able to make a mess of the other holiday in February, even if they won’t recognize it as a real holiday. Saint Valentine still gets celebrated on the 14th, and it’s good to realize that even a functionary hasn’t been able to screw up romance. A good thing it is, too; the ordinary average Joe can manage to screw up romance completely without any help at all.
And as long as we’re on the subject, I’ll put in a plug for romance and say our anniversary comes up this month, as well as my wife’s birthday (both on the same day and falling around Washington’s Weekend, too; and if that’s not good planning, I don’t know what is). In celebration of all this hooraw, I’ll dig out a recipe I found several years ago, which was being given out by someone who was doing a show on KLBJ-AM. I got two or three good recipes from those handouts, and I like this one for February because it’s a nice deep red color, and when you ice it with a white icing, there you are with a perfectly on-topic Valentine’s cake.
| 3½ cup unsalted butter or shortening | 2 teaspoons cocoa |
| 1½ cups granulated sugar | 2¼ cups flour |
| 2 eggs, lightly beaten | 1 cup buttermilk |
| 1 ounce red food coloring | 1 teaspoon baking soda |
| 1 teaspoon vanilla extract | 1 tablespoon vinegar |
With an electric mixer, cream together the shortening and the sugar until fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time.
In a small bowl, make a paste of the food coloring, vanilla, and cocoa. Blend it into the shortening mixture. Gradually mix in the flour and the buttermilk, adding each alternately. When the flour is completely mixed in, combine the baking soda and the vinegar and add to the batter (this will fizz, and you want the carbon dioxide that’s being released by the reaction to help raise the cake, so work very quickly).
Take two nine-inch round cake pans; grease and dust them with flour. Line the bottom of the pans with greased and floured heavy brown paper (I use cut-up grocery bags) or kitchen parchment. Fill each pan two-thirds full with the batter and bake in a 350 F. oven for twenty-five to thirty minutes. The cake is done when a toothpick poked into the center of each layer comes out clean (no batter).
Loosen the sides of the layers from the pans and turn them out carefully onto a cake rack to cool. Once they are completely cool, you can assemble and ice the cake.
| ½ cup unsalted butter, margarine, or shortening (if you dare to use Crisco, you deserve what you get) | 2½ cups confectioners’ sugar |
| 1/8 teaspoon salt (leave out if you use margarine) | 3 tablespoons cream or milk |
Cream the shortening and the salt together, then beat in the sugar. Stir in the cream or milk and beat well, adding more sugar or milk if necessary to get a creamy frosting-like consistency. NOTE: If you are a mind to, add a few drops of flavoring extract (mint, vanilla, almond, or whatever) to the icing.
When I opened my mail one day a couple of weeks back, I found a letter from my mother. She had enclosed a photocopy of a recipe written in pencil on soft yellow copy paper. The recipe is one from my great-grandmother Mackey, whose chocolate cake recipe I published here several months back, and who has a deal to do with my philosophy of cooking), and is for fried pies made with dried peaches, which is a real survival of frontier culture. In rural West Texas fifty years ago and more, there wasn’t much fresh fruit to be had, so you used what there was and what there was, was mostly dried fruit from the store. The recipe is somewhat extravagant by those standards, calling for white sugar and enough fat to deep-fry the pies.
I am delighted to have it for both sentimental and cultural reasons, and may well end up trying it soon, although I normally don’t like deep-frying things. The recipe reproduces Mackey’s own words.
| 1 11-ounce box dried peaches | 1 2/3 cup hot water |
| ¾ cup sugar |
Put peaches in two qt. pan. Add hot water, cover, set aside to soak 3 hr. (better over nite) let them cook slowly till well done about 30 min. the water should all be used up. If not drain out till only a tabs[.] left, put back on fire put in sugar, stirring let boil 2 min. Take from fire, mash with potato masher. A package of Pi-Do will make 5 or 6 about the size of a butter plate. You know to put fruit on nearly 1/2 of do[ugh]. Fold and press edges. Prick 6 or 8 times with fork so air will come ont with out edges opening. Fruit must be cold before put on do[ugh]. You know I don’t know much how to tell, I just have to show.
[Some comments are in order: this was written thirty years ago, and I don’t believe you can get Pi-Do any more. It was a commercial dough mix, and you can get the same-effect by doing up a recipe for a two (I think) crust pie from your Fannie Farmer or Joy of Cooking.]
Don’t run the cooked fruit through a food processor; you don’t want to end up with jelly. The fruit should have identifiable texture left to it. A butter plate, in Mackey’s lexicon, would have been about six inches across. The part about “put the fruit on nearly half the dough” means put the fruit purée off-center on the dough, so it becomes the center when you fold the dough over. Be sure to lay the dough over carefully, to try to avoid air bubbles. Press the edge closed with the tines of a fork, starting at one side and carefully working around, trying to force as much air out as possible before it’s completely sealed. Don’t get too enthusiastic about pricking the dough; you don’t want the filling to leak out into the fat any more than you can help.
Heat three to four inches of oil in a deep fryer or wok to 350 F., and fry the pies two or three at a time (don’t crowd them in the pan) until the pastry is a nice golden color. Fish them out and put them on paper towel-covered newspaper to drain. While the pies are still hot, sprinkle lightly with granulated sugar (or even brown sugar) to glaze them.
This has sure been a hodgepodge of items this month, but I think it’s like leftovers; some days you find that supper is “clean out the refrigerator,” and that’s what this looks like.
first ran: February 1989
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Text ©1989 by Sam Waring. All rights reserved.