Monday, December 15, 2003
Booze Cakes
Well, frangelico in carrot cake makes a tremendous difference in the flavor and texture.
Yes, we were experimenting with booze cakes of all sorts. After all, fruit cakes are boozy, and this is the Season of the Fruit Cake.
So, we played around with adding frangelico to carrot cake, and amaretto to spice cake, and elderberry wine to chocolate cake.
All were successes. Light, melt-in-your mouth with a dense sponge that held up well under the glazing. We did not frost these delicious beauties, but instead used fancy cake molds and glazes. These are your mother's coffee cakes, the hidden treats that were brought out for Ladies' Day, when the men were at work, the kids off playing or in school, and the women gathered to discuss politics, religion, sex, and economics.
These were the cakes we kids used to try to sneak and our moms would slap our hands and tell us we weren't old enough for them.
We still snuck crumbs. When we washed the dishes, we'd lick that cake plate to get all the yummy goodness from "grown-up" cake.
I hadn't had cake like that in decades. I'd almost forgotten how wonderful they were.
It's a tradition I hope to see return via the Cracked Cauldron.
