top half white cake bottom half yellow cake.

A few toasted pecan bits on top

six cake pans is a time saver

30 layers
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Wilmington Island Marsh Mud Cake
 
 
Cake:
1/2 cup cocoa
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, melted, plus extra butter for greasing pan
4 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1/8 teaspoon fine salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans
 
Frosting:
1 (16-ounce) box light brown sugar
1/3 cup cocoa
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1/2 cup milk, scalded
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 (10.5 ounce) package miniature marshmallows
 
 
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
 
Grease a 13 by 9 by 2-inch pan with butter.
 
In a large mixing bowl, stir together the cocoa and the melted butter. Add
the eggs, flour, granulated sugar, salt, and vanilla. Beat well with a hand-held
electric mixer. Add nuts, stirring with a rubber spatula. Pour batter into
the prepared pan. Bake for 35 minutes.

Next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water
temperature isn’t just how you like it, think about how things used
to be. Here are some facts about the 1500s:

Houses generally had the bare ground for a floor. Only the wealthy
had something other than dirt, hence the saying “dirt poor.” The
wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when
wet, so they spread thresh [ed. note: wheat stalks after the wheat
had been beaten out] on the floor to help keep their footing. As the
winter wore on, they kept adding more thresh until when you opened
the door it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was
placed in the entry way-hence, a “thresh holder (threshold)”.

A big kettle hung in the fireplace in the kitchen. Every day they
lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables
and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner,
leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start
over the next day. Sometimes the stew had food in it that had been
there for quite a while-hence the rhyme, “peas porridge hot, peas
porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old”.

Only occasionaly did average folks obtain meat, usually pork, which
made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would
hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a
man “could bring home the bacon,” They would cut off a little to
share with guests and would all sit around and “chew the fat”.

Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with a high acid
content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead
poisoning and death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for
the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.

Most people did not have pewter plates, but had trenchers, a piece
of wood with the middle scooped out like a bowl. Often trenchers
were made from stale paysan bread which was so old and hard that
they could use them for quite some time. Trenchers were never washed
and a lot of times worms and mold got into the wood or old bread.
After eating off wormy moldy trenchers, one would get “trench
mouth,”

Bread was divided according to status. Workers and servants got the
burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got
the top, or “upper crust,”

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whiskey. The lead poisoning and
alcohol combination would sometimes knock one out suddenly and for a
couple of days. Someone else walking along the road would take them
for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the
kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather
around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up-
hence the custom of “holding a “wake”.

.

————————————–

Sangkhaya Fakthong

(Custard Pumpkin)

Cut a slice off the top of the pumpkin, remove the seeds and most of the soft pulp. In a mixing bowl, light whisk the eggs, add the sugar, salt and coconut cream and stir until well blended. Pour the mixture into the pumpkin and cook in a steamer (for approximately 20 minutes) until the custard is set. Make 4 serving.

small pumpkin

5 chicken eggs

1/3 cup palm sugar

pinch of salt

1 cup coconut cream

==========================

Fak Thong Sang-Ka-Ya (Pumpkin Custard)

Ingredients

1 small pumpkin

5 duck eggs

1 cup coconut cream

1/2 sugar

1. Beat the eggs wih coconut cream and sugar until the mixture is frothy.

2. Cut the top of the pumpkin in square shape to make cover , look like a bowl with a cover.

3. Pour in the coconut cream mixture. Cook in the steamer for about 30 minutes.

4. Leave to cool or keep in refrigerator to make the custard firm

===========================

PEACH CHEESECAKE WITH GINGERSNAP CRUST

Crust

25 gingersnap cookies (about 6 ounces), coarsely broken

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted

Filling

4 small peaches (about 1 1/4 pounds), peeled, pitted, sliced 1/4 inch thick

2 tablespoons plus 1 1/4 cups sugar

1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

4 8-ounce packages cream cheese, room temperature

4 large eggs

1/2 cup sour cream

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Glaze

1/2 cup peach preserves

1 1/2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

1/2 large peach, peeled, pitted, very thinly sliced



For crust:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grind gingersnaps in processor to coarse crumbs. Add butter and blend until evenly moistened. Press crumbs over bottom and 1 inch up sides of 9-inch-diameter springform pan with 2 3/4-inch-high sides. Bake crust until beginning to brown, about 8 minutes. Cool on rack. Reduce oven temperature to 325°F.

For filling:

Combine peaches, 2 tablespoons sugar, and lemon juice in heavy large saucepan. Cover and cook over medium-high heat until sugar dissolves and peaches are juicy, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. Uncover and cook until peaches are tender and juices thicken, about 5 minutes. Cool compote.

Using electric mixer, beat cream cheese in large bowl until fluffy. Gradually add 1 1/4 cups sugar and beat until smooth. Beat in eggs 1 at a time. Mix in sour cream and vanilla. Spoon half of cheese mixture (about 3 cups) into crust. Spoon peach compote over by tablespoonfuls, spacing apart. Top with remaining cheese mixture.

Place large piece of foil on oven rack. Place pan with cheesecake on foil. Bake until puffed, set in center, and beginning to brown, about 1 hour. Place hot cheesecake on rack; cool 5 minutes. Run small sharp knife around pan sides to loosen. Place cheesecake, uncovered, on rack in refrigerator and chill overnight. (Can be made 2 days ahead. Cover; keep chilled.)

For glaze:

Combine preserves and lemon juice in heavy small saucepan. Stir over medium heat until glaze comes to simmer. Strain into small bowl. Release pan sides; place cheesecake on platter. Spread glaze over top of cheesecake to within 1/4 inch of edge. Chill cheesecake until glaze sets, at least 30 minutes and up to 8 hours. Arrange peach slices in center of cake and serve.

Makes 12 servings.

Bon Appétit

June 2002