 |
|
 |
|
|
Ray Kennedy's Rum Cake: A
Slice of Austin, Texas History
|
|
November 20, 2011--When reader T.J. Campbell
wrote in search of the recipe for a famous rum
cake that used to be the signature at Cuneo's
Bakery in Austin, Texas, we didn't have
much hope of finding it. Cuneo's closed 50 years
ago, and attempts to find the former owners
didn't yield positive results. But, a string of
phone calls to food-history buffs in Austin, led
to Addie Broyles, a food writer at the Austin
American-Statesman newspaper, who unearthed a
link to an article in the paper mentioning Ray
Kennedy, former production manager at Cuneo's.
Chats with Kennedy's son James and daughter
Rita yielded more information about Ray, Cuneo's
and the famous rum cake. Turns out Ray, who
learned the baking trade from the Fleischman
School of Baking in the 1930's created and
perfected the rum cake recipe and brought it
with him to Cuneo's where he baked for 11 years
before leaving to open his own bakery in Cisco,
Texas. “But,” recalls Rita, “Mr. Cuneo asked him
to please come back, so he did.”
Decades later (1977), Ray shared a bulk-version
of his recipe with Austin readers. Among other
ingredients, the recipe called for 6 pounds of
sugar, 2 pounds of water and more than three
pounds of shortening. Introductory copy with the
recipe included Ray's memory that, “They used to
line up outside the bakery to buy those rum
cakes, they were so good.” Ray's secret to the
buttery-sweet flavor? Submerging the whole cake
in a butter-rum syrup while the cake is still
warm. “Give 'em a bath in it!” said Ray. Here
then, is the scaled-down-for-the-home-cook
recipe. --Monica Kass Rogers
Ray Kennedy's (Cuneo's Famous) Rum Cake
Note: Be sure to bake this for a full 1 1/2
hours at 325. The cake forms a crust as you bake
so touching the top won't indicate doneness:
Poke a toothpick in the center to test for
doneness.
Makes one, tall, 10-inch tube cake
For cake:
4 cups cake flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsps baking powder
4 cups sugar
1 cup shortening
¾ cup butter
6 eggs
½ tsp each lemon and orange extract
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup milk
For butter-rum syrup:
1 cup sugar
½ tsp salt
½ cup water
1 oz corn syrup
2 Tbsp butter
2 tsp rum extract
1.Generously grease 10-inch angel-food tube
pan. Trace and cut out a paper liner for the
bottom round of the tube cake pan. Place in the
bottom round and grease again over the paper.
2.Sift together cake flour, baking powder and
salt. Set aside.
3.In bowl of a standing mixer, beat sugar and
butter and shortening together. Slowly (one or
two at a time) add eggs in, beating between
additions. Beat for three minutes. When batter
is fluffy, add extracts.
4.Mix in dry ingredients in two batches,
alternating with the milk.
5.Pour batter into the prepared tube pan and
bake at 325 for 1 and ½ hours. Test for doneness
by poking a toothpick into the center of the
cake.
6.Remove cake from oven and let rest for 15
minutes.
7.While cake is resting, make butter-rum syrup.
Stirring constantly, mix sugar, water, butter
and salt in small saucepan and heat until syrup
begins to thicken and bubble. Remove from heat.
Let cool slightly. Mix in rum extract.
8.Using a sharp knife, loosen cake from sides
of the pan. Invert pan onto a foil-covered plate
and remove pan center, using a sharp knife as
needed to separate pan center from what is now
the top of the cake. Remove paper from top of
cake. Brush or pour syrup all over cake. Remove
cake to a clean platter and serve. Cake keeps
well wrapped in foil.
|
|
|
|
|
|
More stories with recipes
you'll like...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Pie-Revival
Jim Woodworth's Honeyed
Apple Pie
Jim Woodworth started entering his pies in
the Colorado State Fair in the mid '90s. His
second year in competition, so many of
Woodworth's 150 (!) entries won ribbons that
he was crowned King of the Kitchen. It was a
gender-busting moment: “In Colorado, they'd
never had a man win the contest before,”
said Woodworth, pointing to a silver prize
bowl incongruously etched, “Queen of the
Kitchen.”
“Yeah, they jumped the gun on that,”
Woodworth laughs (click "more" for the
recipe)...more
|
|
|
|
State Fair
Fun
Barb Schaller's Sister
Mary's Corn Relish
This is the corn relish recipe that has won
self-professed “ribbon slut” Barb Schaller
eight blue ribbons at the Minnesota State
Fair. (Those, and a mock marriage proposal
from Garrison Keillor.) Crunchy, colorful
and easy to make (well...mostly
easy--cutting all of the corn off the cobs
takes a little practice), the relish cooks
up in 30 minutes flat (click "more" for the
recipe)...more
|
|
|
|
Then and Now
Doris and Ed's Soft Shell
Crab BLT
Overlooking Sandy Hook Bay in Highlands,
N.J., with a view toward Manhattan, Doris
and Ed's has exemplified fine summer
seafood at the Jersey shore for 33 years.
Merging traditional and contemporary, Owner
Jim Filip and Executive Chef Tom Donohoe
feature a Today and Yesterday menu that
gives (click "more" for the recipe)...more
|
|
|
|
Gone But Not
Forgotten
Marshall Field's Frosted
Chocolate Cookies
"Mom," six-year-old Charlie says to me
through a mouth full of chocolate cookie,
"These are Frog & Toad cookies." I must
look puzzled, so he explains: "You know!
Like in the Frog & Toad books [Arnold
Lobel] These cookies are so good, it takes a
lot of discipline not to eat them all up!"
And Charlie's right: Melt-in-your mouth
crisp around the edges...tender fudgy
chocolate crumb interior complemented by a
chocolate glaze on top (click "more" for the
recipe)....more
|
|
|
|
Better Left
Lost
Jellied Hot Dog Loaf
I just noticed a little 1968 boxed set on
my shelf including the "New Hotdog Cookbook"
chock full of incredibly inedible-sounding
tube-steak casseroles, salads and even pies.
Don't know how I missed this fun until now.
There are the "Asparagus & Hot Dog
Recipes 1 and 2," the "Oriental Hot Dog
Casserole" (with plenty of canned green
beans, chinese veggies and water chestnuts
under a blanket of mushroom soup and
American cheese) and the
I'm-actually-curious-to-try-this "Drunken
Hot Dogs" recipe which calls for steeping
hotdogs in a sauce of sour-mash bourbon
& brown sugar. But this gelled
monstronsity is the Pièce de résistance.
Click "more" for the recipe. ...more
|
|
|
|
Spin This! Ad
Campaign Recipes
Gingersnaps with
Pillsbury's Merry Millers: Freshy, Smoothy,
Whitey, Choosy
In the '50s Pillsbury's Best XXXX Flour
cookie recipe pamphlets were graced by four
"Merry Miller" baker cariacatures: Freshy,
Smoothy, Whitey and Choosy. All bear a big
"X" across their aproned chests. Whitey
peers out from the page bearing this
fantastically-flavored and easy-to-make
Pillsbury Gingersnaps recipe. He looks like
he likes the snaps as much (click "more" for
the recipe)...more
|
|
|
|
For the Kids
Gingerboys
They can be thick, soft and cakey, or thin
and crispy, but in our household, any
gingerbread boy cookie is worth chasing
(click "more" for the recipe)...more
|
|
|
|
Back from the
Bar
You thought sangria had to be Spanish
themed? Think again. Restaurateurs Lynae
Fearing and Tracy Rathbun, co-owners of Dallas'
Shinsei restaurant re-conceived the
classic fruited wine punch with Asian
flavors and fruits. And the bar-snack to go
with? An Asian-inspired retread of best '70s
snack mixes... more
|
|
|
|
Vintage Veg
Brussels Sprouts:
Diminuitive Darlings
A lot of people don't bother with brussels
sprouts because they remember having had
bitter sprouts. Here's why: Mothers from
eras past who overcooked the little green
globes, thinking that would make them milder
and more palatable to kids, actually ruined
them. Overcooking brussels sprouts leaches
out their sulfurous-smelling,
cancer-preventative compounds, making the
soggy result less nutritrious and the
kitchen bad-smelling.(Here's a link to a
current story I wrote about that, with a
modern-day example WebMD
story:) Better to stick with quick
preparations like this one... more
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Recent Recipe Picks 2011
|
|
|
|
Chicken with Garlic and
Parsleyed Potatoes
Fresh Fig Cake with Fresh
Fig Preserves
Burnt Sugar Cake, Rum
Frosting, Sugar Shards
Banana Crumble Sundae with
Bourbon Caramel
Banana Funnel Cake Fritters
with PB Caramel
Maida's Cowtown (Ft.Worth)
Choco Cake
Poor Man's Stroganoff from
Frederick&Nelson
Peas Three Ways with Mint,
Pecorino & Bacon
1970s Best Oven-Barbecued
Ribs
|
|
|
|
|
Chef Recipes with
Vintage Flair
|
|
|
|
Chef Terry Koval's
Chicken Potpie Fritters
Put a farmer, a restaurateur, a butcher and
a chef together to open a burger joint and
the resulting food quality is several rungs
higher than usual. At Farm
Burger in Decatur, GA, meats used for
the dry-aged, ground-fresh-every day burgers
are from Moonshine Meats, a coop started by
Farm Burger partner Jason Mann. Burger
toppers from Chef Terry Koval range from
smoked Grafton white cheddar with
caramelized onion, to goat cheese with
house-pickled beets and arugula--all without
pretense or enormous price tags (specialty
burgers $8; straight-up $6) The same goes
for the snacks, from fresh Georgia boiled
peanuts, to beet-pickled eggs to these
crunchy chicken pot-pie fritters. (Click
"more" for the recipe)....more
|
|
|
|
|
Delicious Decades
Delicious Decades offers some fun,
decade-themed recipes for finger foods. From
'20s-style Olive Canapes, to '00s Crostini with
Goat Cheese and Tapenade, there's a nibble for
every era. Move your cursor over the numbers
below to view and click on the recipes. We'll
add more recipes to this section moving forward.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
From Guest Blogger
Barbara Revsine...
|
|
|
|
Mexican-style No-Mayo
Slaw
Coleslaw doesn't get a lot of time in the
spotlight. typically made with a
mayonnaise-based dressing, it's the standard
accompaniment for sandwiches and fried
chicken and fish. Early dutch immigrants
brought cabbage seeds with them here, and
the hearty vegetable quickly became a
staple. Reader Phil Josephs requested a
version made with lime juice and Dijon
mustard. Here's one that fits the bill.
(click "more" for the recipe)...more
|
|
|
|
|
Celebrity Citings
|
|
|
|
Kirk Douglas Favorite
Meatloaf
Reader Bill Hensge wrote in search of a
recipe he thought he read on an airline
flight 25 years ago. The recipe is actually
older than that. In 1973, United Airlines'
in-flight magazine, then called Mainliner,
started a several-year series of
cooking-based celebrity interviews,
including the one Hensge sought featuring
Kirk Douglas' favorite meatloaf. Made by
Douglas' German cook Fifi, the light-colored
and mildly-flavored loaf includes beef,
veal, pork and bacon. Douglas liked it with
nutmeg-seasoned mashed potatoes on the side
(click "more" for the recipe)....more
|
|
|
|
|
Food Yarns
|
|
|
|
Gale Gand: Brooklyn
Blackout Cake
Brooklyn Ebinger's fans, rejoice! The
Blackout Cake is back, thanks to the
re-creation efforts of Chicago-based chef
and baker Gale
Gand. As Gale tells it: "Ebinger's was
a chain of bakeries in Brooklyn renowned for
the purity of its ingredients, the sparkling
cleanliness of its stores, and the deep
chocolatiness of this cake. Even though the
last Ebinger's finally closed in 1972,
devotees kept Blackout Cakes in their
freezers for years afterwards." Recreating
the cake, Gand didn't have access to one of
these freezer fossils for analyzation
purposes. Instead, she relied on the
taste-memories of Ebinger's fans who grew up
in Brooklyn. Says Gand, "They're a tough
crowd, but they tell us we've finally got it
right. The custard filling is finally the
perfect deep, velvety, very, very, dark
brown...listen
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
- MKRogers Banana
Crazy story in national edition
Chicago Tribune
- Red Lobster's Cheddar Bay Biscuits are
the stuff food fetish is made of--written
about in both Chicago Trib and the St.
Louis Post-Dispatch! Here's
recipe that comes closest, from food
editor Judith Evans
- MKRogers Vintage
Pie Stacks front page Chicago
Tribune
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Donate Your
Old Cookbooks
Got old cookbooks too
dilapidated to use? Don't dump them, donate
them: They'll help in our efforts to search
out old recipes readers have lost. Contact us
and we'll chat about postage, and possible
book pick-up editor@lostrecipesfound
|
|
|
|
Pig: King of the Southern Table,
by James Villas. I probably don't need to
rave about James Villas. Writing as he has
for so many top food magazines and newspaper
food sections, he's famous already. But he's
a great storyteller--so good his newest book
won a James Beard award this year :) Every
one of the 300 pork recipes he's packed
into, “Pig,” from John Wiley & Sons,
starts with a good story. And most include
some Southern bit of food history, too. My
husband shooed me off of preparing the
recipe I wanted to test from this book for
you all this issue (said I'd done too many
chili type dishes already.) So I'll get
around to that one, a Bryce Cafeteria-style
Texarkana Pork and Bean Pie with Cornpone
Topping, in chilly (chili) weather. (My mom
was the womens basketball team coach at
Texarkana College in the early 50s.) But for
this month, here are some of tastiest
half-moon, Louisiana-style, fried pork pies
you've ever had. Eat some. Then buy a copy
of the book.... more
|
|
|
|
These links will take you to
sites with more vintage recipes, or,
organizations working to save old recipes
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
James
Villas' Natchitoches Pork Pies
