Make (December 6)

Prompt: Make. What was the last thing you made? What materials did you use? Is there something you want to make, but you need to clear some time for it?

Last night, Andy and I had a cheap date night at home. We made pan-seared strip steaks, baked sweet potatoes with green onions and sour cream, and a hearty dinner salad. We were pretty stuffed! A little while later, we both had a hankering for something sweet, so I decided to whip out one of my old cookbooks, a 1966 edition of Better Homes and Gardens: Pies and Cakes to find a simple buttermilk white cake recipe, to which I added Hershey's Cinnamon Chips. I omitted the shortening and used 1/2 cup of unsalted butter. I could have used lard for the extra fat, but the butter worked out fine. I ended up freezing one of the cakes for later consumption. For the topping, I mixed heavy 1 cup of heavy whipping cream with 1/2 cup of chocolate stout and 1 cup of confectioner's sugar. Freaking delicious!

 Buttermilk White Cake (p.51)

2 1/2 cups sifted cake flour

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 cup unsalted butter

1/4 cup shortening

1 1/2 tsps vanilla

1 cup buttermilk

4 egg whites

Sift together dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl. Add butter, shortening, vanilla, and 3/4 cup buttermilk; beat 2 minutes at medium speed in/with an electric mixer. Add remaining buttermilk and egg whites; beat 2 minutes longer. Bake in 2 greased and lightly floured 8x1 1/2 inch round pans in moderate oven (350 F) 30 to 35 minutes. Cool.