Dear Community Bible Study Family, I pray each of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your families. Our little family has shrunk to 3 and we are looking forward to our Thanksgiving Feast at Miller's Grocery in Christiana (our 6th annual trip to gastronomical delights!). But I know many of you are hosting large groups of relatives and will be doing a lot of cooking to get ready. Several of you asked about my mom's caramel cake, which I brought to Bible Study on Wednesday. In an effort to "have integrity in small things" I have a confession to make. That was my mother's caramel cake recipe; the icing, however, is another story and very much like an episode of "I Love Lucy." I thought about sharing my story at our Thanksgiving Luncheon but didn't want to take any of our time away from our praise and prayer time, which was so encouraging. However, I need to clear my conscience and want to explain. . . The recipe for the icing is very old, handed down for several generations in my mother's family. My grandmother is the one who made this cake until she went to a nursing home in 1992, then mother began making it. Here is her original recipe: Caramel Icing 2 1/2 c. sugar 1 stick margarine 1/2 pt. whipping cream pinch salt 1 Tablespoon vanilla Place 2 cups sugar, salt, cream in boiler on low heart. Caramelize 1/2 c. sugar in separate boiler until golden brown, then add to other mixture and cook to soft ball stage. Remove from heat and add vanilla and margarine. Beat until creamy and cool. As I got mom's recipe out and looked at it, I realized I had made a BIG mistake by not watching her make this icing and ask her questions about it. "What does 'caramelize sugar' mean? What does 'soft ball stage' mean? I looked both of these terms up on the internet and thought I understood, so I assembled all the ingredients and began. First thing I noticed was how much sugar this icing had in it -- 2 1/2 cups of pure white sugar (or the white death as some of you health conscious girls call it!). I began to have doubts as to whether my Type II Diabetic body could actually enjoy this. But I pressed on in the name of "family heritage." I put the ingredients on low heat and began the task of caramelizing sugar. What a nightmare! I couldn't decide which of the numbers on my stove top was medium heat (on a scale of 1-9 is 5 medium heat??) It did nothing on 4, 5, 6 so I decided to turn it up to 7 and before my very eyes as I was stirring and stirring and stirring, the entire contents of the boiler came together as if it had been magnetized and began to look like peanut brittle. I quickly turned down the heat and marveled as the mass began to crinkle and crack (I could hear it!) and look like a golden brown glacier with fissures and cracks. I could no longer stir anything. It just sat in the boiler and got harder and harder as I watched in horror. I thought about crying, but I was alone in the house and decided the post-cry headache was not something I wanted to contend with, so I just took a deep breath and determined to get something on that cake if it killed me! But determination was sidetracked by emotion and deep regret. Now comes the hardest part of this story. Why, oh why, did I NOT stand over mother's shoulders and watch her make this. Why didn't I ask her for tips and clarification of those terms which were such mystery to me. Let this be a lesson for each of you. If you have any special family recipes, do not depend on your own wits, ask questions, make sure you understand the recipe, and watch it being made so you will know what you are dealing with BEFORE your relatives leave earth! I could hear my mother saying to me many times, "You'd better get over here to the stove and watch me make this; it will be your turn to make this cake one day!" Alas, why didn't I quickly obey? Back to the story -- well, I had NO white sugar left. I had used all I had. But I began thinking. I believe this recipe was made up BEFORE dark brown sugar was available. That was what my grandmother was doing "caramelizing sugar" so I immediately went to the computer and began looking up caramel icing recipes made with dark brown sugar, which I did have in my cupboard. Fortunately, I found Paula Deen's son, Bobby Deen's Caramel Frosting recipe and I had the ingredients in the pantry. I whipped it up and to my great delight it tasted very much like my mothers/grandmothers -- only healthier because it didn't have as much sugar. So, this is what you actually ate on the cake on Wednesday: Bobby Deen's Caramel Frosting 1 stick of butter 1 c. dark brown sugar (packed) 1/3 cup heavy whipping cream Melt these ingredients together and bring to boil. Then pour into mixing bowl. Add one 16 oz. box confectioner's sugar (about 1/2 cup at a time) and 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract and using a mixer beat up the icing. If the mixture gets too dry, add more heavy whipping cream. (I ended up using the entire 1/2 pint of whipping cream). Punch holes in cake (which is just a Duncan Hines yellow butter cake mix) and top with icing. Let it set up overnight before cutting if it is runny. So there you have it. My conscience is clear. And truth be known if and when I make this cake again (and I will make it for Christmas when my sister and her family come), I will most likely use Bobby Deen's recipe. When the recipe for caramel icing gets handed down to my children, it will be Bobby Deen's. I hope my mother and grandmother are not too disappointed in me. If they could taste this icing, I think they would agree with me. It tastes very good and isn't that what all this is about anyway????? Happy cooking, happy eating and happy thanksgiving! May God be glorified in all our hearts and praised at each of our tables next Thursday. Love you all, Beckie P. S. I could not get the glacier out of the pan and ended up throwing the pan out with it! | 
No comments:
Post a Comment