American Beauty Cake will be a hit for Valentine’s Day

Grand Island Dispatch, February 2,2007

When we were in the first few years of our marriage, we rented a duplex in Kenmore.

The mail was delivered two times a day. There were many peddlers who came down the street. One had to listen carefully to hear their calls, unless they had stopped to sell you some of their wares at an earlier time. The flatbed wagon, pulled by a droopy-eared ancient horse, always stopped at the curb in front of our place on Woodward Avenue. The vendor? He sold 25-pound blocks of ice – summer, fall, winter and spring.

With huge ice tongs, he or his young son would grab the block, follow me to the back door and put the block securely in the tray below our icebox.

We shopped for food almost daily.

One day, a young gentleman rang our doorbell. With a tip of his hat, he introduced himself.

He explained that he was in our neighborhood to give away samples of a new product. He said he would be back in a week to ask for opinions on the product.

What was this revolutionary new produce? A cake mix!

My reaction was swift. A “No, thank you; I bake from scratch.”

Those days are well remembered, but I now know that I was privileged to have had the time to do so. Today’s young married couples work or are still fulfilling their dreams for a college degree. No time for “from scratch.”

And, today, I don’t always make meals or desserts the old-fashioned way, either. I am known for my bundt cakes, using a mix plus instant pudding.

There is still a bit of a stubborn streak in me. I bake and frost an exceptional Valentine’s Day cake that says, “I love you,” with no words necessary.

Here is a recipe that I found many years ago on a cake flour box.

I modify it by using 7/8 of a cup (one cup minus two tablespoons) of unbleached regular flour to substitute for each full cup of cake flour, then add a “scant” one third cup more, all as a substitute for 2-and-1/3 cups of cake flour.

American Beauty Cake

2-and-1/3-cups cake flour
2-and-1/2-teaspoons baking powder
1/2-teaspoon salt
3/4-cup butter or margarine
1-and-1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs, unbeaten
2/3-cup milk
1-teaspoon vanilla

Stir flour, baking powder and salt together in a separate bowl

Cream butter or margarine with sugar and add eggs, using an electric mixer and beating well.

Add flour mixture alternately with milk. Add vanilla.

Bake in two 9-inch layer pans (I use heart-shaped pans), greased and lined on the bottoms with waxed paper and greased and floured again.

Bake at 350° for 25 or 30 minutes.

Cake is done when a toothpick is inserted in the middle and it comes out clean. You may also use this as a gauge of “doneness”: the cake has shrunk away from the sides of the pan.

Cool cake for a few minutes. Turn out one layer onto a plate dusted with powdered sugar. Turn out the other onto a rack to cool.

When cool, frost with seven-minute frosting.

Seven-Minute Frosting

2 egg whites
1-and-1/2-cups sugar
5 tablespoons water
1-and-1/2 teaspoons light corn syrup
1-teaspoon vanilla

Using a double boiler, put water, sugar, corn syrup and egg whites into the top section before placing it over the heat. Beat with an electric beater. Have enough water in the bottom section to boil, while not touching the top section of the pan.

Put the top section in place over the boiling water.

(Using an old-fashioned, hand-powered beater took seven minutes. That’s how this frosting got its name.)

Beat with the electric mixer on high for approximately four minutes. The frosting should stand in stiff peaks, clinging to the beaters.

Take the top section off the boiling water and add the vanilla. Beat until thick enough to spread.

I divide the frosting into three separate parts. One, I leave white. One, I tint light pink. The last, I tint a darker pink.

Starting, I spread the bottom layer with the white frosting, then I put the second layer of cake on and frost the outsides with light pink. Finally, I swirl on the darker pink to cover the top.

Fancy it all up with cinnamon hearts or pat on sweetened, flaked coconut to the sides, or do both.

My heart-shaped pans are dented, but still hold their shape. Once a year for more than 40 years will do that.

Take heart, young bakers – using a boxed cake mix, follow the directions for two 8-by-8 layers.

While the cake is cooling, open a can of frosting and put one-half in a bowl, leaving one half white. Tint the separated half a light pink. Decorate as above.

All you have to do is give the cake to your loved ones. No words required.

All right, get a card, if you insist.

As an addition to this column, it would be only proper to tell you of a friend and teacher, William Joseph, who was honored at a memorial service last Saturday.

Bill’s vast and lengthy career was amazingly diverse. A retired professor, he taught a creative writing workshop at the Grand Island Golden Age Center as part of the Continuing Education program.

Someone – perhaps Bill himself – dubbed the group the Rough Writers.

Interesting and complex, he influenced his pupils to learn the writing craft.

Bill, we loved you.