I don’t know about you, but whenever I have company coming, and decide to bake at the last minute, I’m inevitably out of one or more of the ingredients I need to make whatever it is I want to make. With 18″ of snow on the ground and a 2WD pickup, there was no way I was going out for eggs or white sugar today, so here’s the recipe for the no-egg company cake that is cooling on my dining room table as I type.

In the absence of eggs, the reaction of baking soda and vinegar provides the leavening needed for a light, fluffy cake. This recipe can be used as a base for any number of mix-ins – add chocolate chips for a chocolate chip cookie cake, cocoa or melted baking chocolate for a simple chocolate cake, cinnamon, nutmeg, and raisins for a spice cake, or galangal, pepper, coconut, and ginger for an eastern flavor.

No-Egg Company Cake

Ingredients:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups dark brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 cup half and half
• 1 cup whole milk
• 3/4 cup melted butter
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350° F; lightly grease a 13×9″ pan. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda. Set aside. In a separate bowl, stir together remaining ingredients. Add wet ingredients to dry, stirring until just combined. Pour into pan and bake for 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Set aside to cool.

Quick Chocolate Spice Frosting

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup softened butter
• pinch salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 5 cups confectioner’s sugar
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup strong brewed coffee, cooled
• 2 tablespoons whole milk

Mix together butter, salt, cinnamon, sugar, and cocoa until ingredients are well-combined and butter is evenly distributed. Slowly add coffee and milk, adding more milk if needed to achieve desired consistency. Spread on cooled cake.

I enjoy collecting old cookbooks, and pick them up at yard sales and flea markets whenever I can. Each Saturday, I post excerpts from my collection. Today’s post comes from Kate Smith’s Favorite Recipes.

Kate’s “Hermits” are in the Tea Cakes section of the book, and appear to be something of a cross between drop cookies and scones. Mace, one of the spices called for in this recipe, is actually the outer web-type covering of the nutmeg, dried and usually ground for use in cooking and baking. It’s similar enough in flavor to nutmeg to complement it well, but it does impart a unique oomph that is all its own.

Hermits

Ingredients:

• 2 cups sifted Swans Down Cake Flour
• 2 teaspoons Calumet Baking Powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon mace
• ½ cup butter or other shortening
• ½ cup brown sugar, firmly packed
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs, well beaten
• 2 cups raisins
• ½ cup broken nut meets

Sift flour once, measure, add baking powder, salt, and spices, and sift together three times. Cream butter thoroughly, add sugars gradually, creaming until light and fluffy. Add eggs and beat thoroughly; then raisins and nuts and mix well. Add flour gradually, mixing well. Drop from teaspoon on greased baking sheet and bake in moderate oven (350° F.) 15 minutes. Makes 4½ dozen hermits.

This is what fruitcake aspires to be – moist, fruity, and flavorful, without a hint of gummy, odd-colored candied bits. I love experimenting with different teas in this recipe – Earl Grey for a hint of bergamot, chai for extra spice, and herbal lemon teas have all been successes for me (although not all at once!)

When Mer tried this bread, she thought it tasted like something that the British Colonialists would enjoy when doing business in Colonial India: from that point on, we’ve called this our “Imperial bread”.

Dried currants can be found in the grocery store with the raisins and other dried fruits, and they’re a great pantry staple – I like them in place of raisins in oatmeal and other hot cereal.

Tea and Currant Breakfast Bread

Ingredients:

• 1 cup packed brown sugar (dark or light)
• 1 1/2 cups strongly brewed tea of your choice (chai or other spiced teas work well)
• 3/4 cup dried currants
• 2/3 cup raisins
• 2 teaspoons brandy or rum
• 2 tablespoons melted butter
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
• 2 tablespoons grated orange zest
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• heavy pinch salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease and line two loaf pans. In a medium bowl, whisk brown sugar and hot tea until sugar is dissolved. Stir in currants, raisins, and rum, and allow to set for 2 hours or until fruits are plump and mixture hass cooled. Add butter and egg, mixing well. Set aside.

Combine remaining ingredients in a large bowl and whisk well to combine. Pour wet mixture into dry and stir until just incorporated. Divide evenly between prepared pans and bake for 50 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool completely before cutting.

Serves 12-16.

I enjoy collecting old cookbooks, and pick them up at yard sales and flea markets whenever I can. Each Saturday, I post excerpts from my collection. Today’s post comes from Kate Smith’s Favorite Recipes.

Kate Smith, voluptuous songstress and radio star, appears to have had quite a few opinions on this recipe, or at least her publisher did. At the bottom of the page is Ms. Smith’s disembodied head with a note about urgent requests (see below). That may be my favorite part of the book.

I like this recipe because it’s not a normal (chocolate/vanilla) marble cake; instead, the darker batter is flavored with molasses and spice. Try adding ground walnuts to the “plain” batter for a little extra kick.

Marble Spice Picnic Cake

Ingredients:

• 2 cups sifted Swans Down Cake Flour
• 2 teaspoons Calumet Baking Powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter or other shortening
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs, well beaten
• 2/3 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 2 tablespoons molasses

Sift flour once, measure, add baking powder and salt, and sift together three times. Cream butter thoroughly, add sugar gradually, and cream together until light and fluffy. Add eggs and beat well. Add flour, alternately with milk, a small amount at a time, beating after each addition until smooth. Divide batter into two parts. To one part, add spices and molasses. Put by tablespoons into greased loaf pan, 8x4x3 inches, alternating light and dark mixtures. Bake in moderate oven (350° F.) 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until done. Spread Clever Judy Frosting (page 40) on top and sides of cake.

Or bake in greased pan, 8x8x2 inches, in moderate oven (350° F.) 50 minutes. Spread Seven Minute Frosting (page 40) on top and sides of cake. Decorate top of cake with chopped pecan meats and raisin clusters.

Autumn. The leaves are falling (and clogging my gutters), the weather is changing (finally), and I start craving flavored coffee, pumpkin pie, eggnog, and amaretto – not necessarily in that order. This recipe combines two of those cravings into one sinfully delicious dessert.

Amaretto Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients:

• 1 cup amaretti cookies, crushed fine
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 2 cups pumpkin puree, unsweetened if canned
• 1 cup half and half
• 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon corn starch
• 3 tablespoons amaretto
• 2 pinches salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Toss cookie crumbs and butter in a small bowl until well-combined. Press into the bottom and up the sides of a 9″ pie pan. Cover edges with tin foil and bake for 10 minutes. Set aside to cool.

In a large bowl, combine remaining ingredients and whisk until smooth. Pour into prepared and cooled pie shell. Bake for 45 minutes or until skewer inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely before cutting; serve with freshly whipped ginger cream (1 cup heavy cream whipped with 1/4 cup sugar and 1/2 teaspoon powdered ginger) and garnish with slivered almonds, if desired.

Image by JamesJyu.

Every winter when I was a child, my mom and I baked cookies together. As the years passed, the holidays became busier and more complicated, so we created a new tradition: we bake cookies in February or March, when the holiday rush is over and we can really enjoy our time together. This is one of our traditional recipes.

The classic sugar cookie shines with the addition of nutmeg, replacing the cloying sweetness of years past with hints of traditional winter flavors. Be sure to use fresh nutmeg in this and every dish that calls for it; pre-ground nutmeg has a very short shelf life, but whole nutmegs will keep for years. There are adorable miniature box-graters available for nutmeg grating, but a microplane, hand-held cheese grater, or the small holes on a box grater will work just as well.

Nutmeg Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 2/3 cup butter, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten

In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg. Set aside. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, cream together butter, vanilla, and sugar, beating until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, waiting until one is completely incorporated before adding the next. Add flour mixture in three stages, scaping down sides of bowl between each stage. Cover mixture by pressing wax paper to the surface of the dough, and chill for at least 90 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Divide dough in half and return non-working half to refrigerator. Roll dough to 1/8″ thickness on a floured board. Cut into desired shapes. Repeat for remaining dough.

For soft cookies:
Transfer cookies to parchment-lined baking sheet and set on top of the oven to soften for 3-5 minutes. Move baking sheets to oven and cook for 10-12 minutes, or until edges are golden. Cool for 5 minutes on baking sheet before transferring to cooling rack.

For crisp cookies:
Transfer cookies to parchment-lined baking sheet and chill for 30-45 minutes. Move sheets directly from refrigerator to freezer, and bake for 10-12 minutes, or until edges are golden. Transfer to cooling rack as soon as cookies are cool enough to be moved without losing their shape.

In a grown-up twist on traditional pumpkin pie, this dessert combines the smoothness of a custard pie with the crisply burnt goodness of creme brulée. Use whatever pie dough recipe you prefer here (even store-bought crusts will work). For an extra-crispy crust, refrigerate the dough for 2 hours before blind-baking. If you use canned pumpkin, be sure to use the unsweetened, pure pumpkin variety and not pre-seasoned pumpkin pie filling.

Bruléed Pumpkin Custard Tart

Ingredients:

• Dough for 1 pie crust
• 1 cup pumpkin puree (drained if fresh)
• 1/3 cup whole milk
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• 1/3 cup sugar, plus 1/4 cup for topping
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
• pinch salt
• 2 whole eggs plus 2 egg whites, lightly beaten

Special Equipment:

• 9″ round fluted tart pan, buttered

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Fit pie dough into the tart pan and dock with a fork. Bake for 15 minutes and cool, in pan, on a wire rack.

Lower oven temperature to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, whisk together milk, cream, 1/3 cup sugar, vanilla, spices, salt, and eggs until well-combined. Pour into crust and bake for 40-45 minutes, or until filling is almost set. Cool to room temperature, then cover and chill 6 hours or overnight.

Just before serving, sprinkle remaining 1/4 cup sugar over top of tart; melt sugar under broiler or with a kitchen torch to desired doneness. Serve immediately.

Serves 8-10.