A Tale of Two Cakes

It all started so innocently.  It always does.  
My Mother-in-laws  birthday was last week and the only thing she wanted from us was a caramel cake.
Done!  Like anyone needs to twist my arm to make a dessert.
I had been eyeing the recipe for Commitment Caramel Cake in Screen Doors and Sweet Tea for quite some time.  The picture in the book is so lovely and I love how cheeky Miss. Martha is in the sidebar: Caramel icing can sense fear.  Do not psych yourself out and it will be perfect.
Maybe that should've been my first clue that perhaps I was getting in over my head.
But, as I so oft tend to do, I just plowed right ahead.
I gathered my ingredients.  Butter (lots of butter), many many eggs,  vanilla extract, almond extract--ah, the batter smelled so divine!!  I carefully poured it into my cake pans and gently set them into the oven.  20 minutes passed.

Wow, this batter seems awfully, well, batter-y.  Lemme give it another 5 minutes...10 minutes...30 minutes.  By this time I was getting a little irked.  WHY IS MY CAKE NOT BAKING???
I turned to the Internet, and looked up other peoples blogs who had made this cake.  HUZZAH!  I was not the only who had cakes that wouldn't bake!  Maybe Miss. Martha used a convection oven and forgot to add that into the directions?  Who knows.  I was a little irritated.  And Jake was done watching Tinkerbell and wanted to play.  I threw the cakes on the counter and said to heck with it.  After the cakes and I cooled down, I took stock of my ingredients and realized I was not going to be able to make another Commitment Caramel Cake.  So I bid adieu to Miss Martha and turned to my other obsession, The Southern Foodways Alliance Cookbook. In it, is a recipe for Revelatory Caramel Cake, and lo and behold I had just enough eggs left to make the recipe.  I did not, however, have any cake flour left.  So I did a little all-purpose flour + cornstarch magic.  I also recruited my sous chef who makes anything an adventure. I took some liberty and added a little almond extract to the batter since it smelled so good.  Popped the cakes in the oven.  30 minutes later, perfectly done cake.  A perfectly white moist cake (no yolks in this recipe).


Hallelujah!


Now, since I abandoned Miss. Martha once she did me wrong with the cake, I decided to go ahead and make the caramel icing that went along with the SFA recipe.   Easy enough, it's caramel right?  I'd made Cracker Crack a million times--how much more difficult could it be?  Well...
pouring caramel on a cracker is a lot, A LOT different than trying to frost a cake with it.  It hardened almost instantly as I poured it on.  Then I dropped the bowl I was using ONTO THE CAKE.


Many expletives.

By this time I had been making cake (or cursing making cake) for about 4 hours.  We were to meet the family for a birthday dinner in approximately 15 minutes.  PLENTY of time to make another batch of caramel, right?  Despite the fact that you are supposed to let the caramel rest for 15 minutes before you whip it into icing.  I hurried through the steps and just poured the whole thing over the cake.  Resulting in the cake plate running over with caramel.

I said a little prayer that it would harden into a beautiful shell, and we ran out the door.

After dinner we headed back to the house for cake and presents.  The cake was...

Not photogenic.

I cut into the cake, or rather sawed through a relatively thick layer of caramel into a fluffy white cake.  Despite the homely appearance of the cake, it tasted pretty good.  

My ever-gracious father-in-law (who honestly declares everything I cook as the best thing he's ever put in his mouth) declared it the best caramel cake he ever put in his mouth.  

For me, the icing was a little thick and maybe diabetes-inducing sweet.  But the cake was moist and perfumed with vanilla and almond.

I'm of the opinion that it's going to take me a few more tries to perfect my caramel cake technique.  And I'm sure I'll adjust and tinker, that's just what I like to do.  I'm definitely going to try Miss. Martha's icing recipe, as she incorporates marshmallows and I imagine that helps keep the icing fluffy and smooth.

Ultimately, the cake ended up in the trash the next day.  

But PattyCake (my son's nickname for my Mother-in-law) arrives home from Charleston today, and there just might be a Caramel Cake waiting on the kitchen counter for her.

Here's a link to the recipe for Revelatory Caramel Cake.

Cheese Straws Vs. Cheese Wafers

There are some things that are quintessentially southern:
Sweet Tea
Fried Chicken
Greens
Country Ham
Pimento Cheese
Chicken Salad
And
Cheese Straws.  Or Wafers.
The debate rages on.
Cheese straws are one of those snacks you come to expect upon arrival below the Mason-Dixon line.  They are expected at cocktail parties and dinner parties.  At picnics  and black tie events.
Cheese straws are basically elevated cheese-its.
(I hope saying that didn't just put me on some foodie black-list.)
They are cheesy, crisp, should have a nice spicy bite, and usually leave you with a slight buttery sheen on your fingertips.
I love cheese.  Oooey gooey cheese, stinky cheese, cheese so sharp it makes your cheeks hurt.
And I do love cheese straws, be they in wafer form or not. In fact, I think I prefer them in wafer form.
(Foodie black list.)
I've been putting off making them for awhile, because literally, every southern cookbook has a recipe for them.  And they are all slightly different.  I was knee-deep in recipes.
Finally I just combined The Lee Bros.  and Miss Martha Hall Foose.  That is like some sort of southern super-hero.
I also discovered the joy of shredding cheese in the food processor. I may never go back to a cheese grater again.  Jake thought it was pretty cool too.
We rolled out the dough and used a pretty copper cookie cutter we found in the kitchen.  Made the perfect size wafer for me!
I added extra hot-sauce and red pepper, but they still weren't quite spicy enough for me.  Oh well, guess I'll have to make some more!  And they are super easy to make, so don't put it off!
I made 64 cheese wafers (and I still had some dough left over), which might sound excessive, but I ate about 10 straight out of the oven, and my husband had 7 when he got home, Jake ate about 4--so you can see how quickly these things disappear.
Get rolling!

Cheese Wafers (as inspired by Screen Doors and Sweet Tea)
Makes about 70

1 pound super sharp cheddar cheese shredded (The food processor is a big helper here)
2 sticks of butter softened and cut into pieces
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons crushed red pepper
2 or 3 dashes of hot pepper sauce
3 cups all purpose flour

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Line cookie sheets with parchment or foil.

Fit your food processor with the grater blade.  Cut the cheddar cheese into blocks that will fit into the food processor feeder tube.  Let the kiddo put his hand on yours while you feed the cheese through the grater.  Go ahead and marvel at how easy that was.

Change out the blade on the food processor to the metal blade.  Add the butter, salt, red pepper and hot sauce.  Pulse a few time to combine with the cheese.  Add the flour and pulse until a soft dough forms.  It'll gather itself into a ball.

Take the dough out of the processor and onto a lightly floured surface.  Roll out into a rectangle about 1/4 inch thick.  Cut out wafers with the cookie cutter.  Let the kid help.  Place wafers onto cookies sheets about 1/2 inch apart.

Bake in oven for about 10-15 minutes until lightly golden.  I kept checking them after 10 minutes.  I also like to check the bottoms to make sure they are not getting too brown.

Try to let them cool a bit before shoving into your mouth.

Rum Tum Tiddy

Say it with me: Rum Tum Tiddy!
Say what?
I know.  I had NO IDEA what it was either.
Is it a drink?  Kind of sounds like Hot Toddy.
But no.
Is it a musical?  The Rum Tum Tugger is a curious cat!
Nope.
Any guesses?
Okay, a quick google search will land you in a sea of condensed tomato soup, cheese and bread.  And basically that's what it is.
I hollered to my Mother-in-Law, "Have you ever heard of something called, Rum Tum Tiddy?"  To which she answered, "Of course!  It's an old Southern dish!"
Of course.
I stumbled across the recipe in Martha Hall Foose's new cookbook, A Southerly Course.  Haven't heard of her?  She is the amazingly talented chef behind, well, a lot of different things (click on her name!), but two really amazing cookbooks focused on southern food and traditions.  I first became acquainted with Miss Martha a few years ago on a visit to Nashville when my MIL introduced me to Miss Martha's first cookbook, Screen Doors and Sweet Tea.  It was love at first sight.  Basically I want to make everything in that book!  There is a list being whittled down...
I digress.
In A Southerly Course the very first recipe is for Rum Tum Tiddy.  Which is basically tomato soup and cheese over toast.  Which sounds perfectly delightful to me, but Miss Martha takes it to the next level.  She combines the classic ingredients in a totally new way, bakes it all up in the oven, cuts it up into cocktail sized nibbles and tops each piece with Parmesan cheese and some pickled okra.
Sounds good, right?
Lemme tell ya, it was the perfect light supper for a steamy summer night.
The recipe calls for fresh breadcrumbs, and I found out that there is something quite satisfying about making your own breadcrumbs!  The recipe calls for a 1 cup of grated cheddar cheese, and then it also calls for 2 tablespoons of finely chopped onion.  Since I already had the grater out, I just went ahead and grated the onion too (how Rachel Ray of me!).
Okay, lets get started.

Rum Tum Tiddy (just very slightly adapted from A Southerly Course)

1 large egg beaten
A few shakes of Worcestershire sauce
1 cup (or a little more) of sharp cheddar cheese
1 cup chopped pecan pieces
1 cup soft bread crumbs (just throw 3 pieces of white bread into a food processor, et voilà)
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons grated onion
1 cup tomato sauce
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Pickled okra sliced into rounds 


Heat the oven to 350 degrees.  Butter an 8 inch square baking dish.  I used a 7x9 inch Pyrex dish my MIL had because it was blue and white and super cute, and that worked just fine.


In a small glass softly beat one egg.  In a large bowl combine the Worcestershire sauce, cheddar cheese, pecans and bread crumbs. Add the egg and stir gently to combine.


In a medium skillet melt the 2 tablespoons of butter.  Add the onion and saute until just browned.  Add the tomato sauce and cook until incorporated.  Pour the onion and tomato sauce over the bread crumb mixture and stir to combine.  


Spoon the whole thing into the buttered dish and bake for 25 minutes, or until firm.  I baked mine for about 30 minutes and I probably could of let it stay in for another 5 minutes.  Every oven is different, so just keep checking it after 20 minutes.  Let cool for 10 minutes and then cut in 12 or 16 squares.  I then went ahead and cut a few in half to make triangles, just for looks.


Put the Parmesan on a plate and roll the squares (or triangles!) to coat.  Place a pickled okra round on each and secure with a toothpick.


Retire to the porch with libation of your choice and enjoy!