Yum - Jam Cake

What’s that? A cake with Jam in it you say!

 

By

Neil Waring

Revered Wyoming Chef, outdoor cooking expert, admired woodsmen and honored citizen.

I do not often post recipes for baked goods, I am a BBQ and smoker type of guy, but today am making an exception. This one is old school, really old school, could have been made by my great-grandmother back in the 1870s. A Jam Cake and you saw it here first, well maybe not, since it has been around forever. Wow a cake made with Jam, bet you can hardly wait for this one. Lots of calories, but great taste, so many calories maybe the previous sentence should have said, “Bet you can hardly weight for this one. Sorry, couldn’t help myself.

It’s not even hard to make, letting this old cowboy cooker make it in only about, well forget that, it is easy to make, but not quick, no sir, not quick at all.

 Here is what you need

Ø  1 1/2 cup butter  (You can use margarine but they didn’t have it in the old days)

Ø  2 cups sugar

Ø  6 eggs

Ø  3 1/2 cups flour – double sifted (Today you can use cake flour if you have it)

Ø  2 teaspoons baking soda (Baking soda, not drinking soda, no Pepsi in this cake)

Ø  2 teaspoons ground allspice

Ø  2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Ø  6 tablespoons buttermilk (Or make your own with milk and a bit of vinegar)

Ø  2 cups raspberry or strawberry jam (I used raspberries as we have a great and productive patch out back, hey we also have strawberries out back, still producing. Trouble is I eat them as I pick, they never)

Put It Together

Ø  Stir-up soft butter. Add sugar, not too fast, I like to pour it in all at the same time but it doesn’t work to well here. Keep stirring and beating until creamy. Toss in the eggs. Then add, slowly stirring the already mixed up dry stuff. Forgot to tell you to mix up dry stuff up above. As you are doing this keep adding the buttermilk. Do this all very slowly, it took me 15 minutes to get it right. When you have it all mixed add the jam, I used frozen berries instead. Thaw them in fridge overnight then add. I chop them up soom first so the pieces will not be too large.

Ø 
  Pour into paper cupcake holders
 

Ø  Bake at 350-375 about 15 min – or until they look done to you.

Ø  These are great with your favorite muffin or cupcake frosting

Note to You Bakers

There is a secret to these little cakes. Age them some – don’t eat it until tomorrow or the next day. I did eat one as soon as it was cool. Okay two – three.

Gratuitous sunset photo from my favorite place, Guernsey State Park, Guernsey, Wyoming.

The Lost Art of Home Cooking

Americans are eating their weight and more  every year in genetically engineered food, a new Environmental Working Group analysis shows. "On average, people eat an estimated 193 pounds of genetically engineered food in a 12-month period. The typical American adult weighs 179 pounds."

Maybe it’s because old time home cooking is becoming a lost art. Traditional cooking skills are dying out; so many modern cooks use boxes and cans as a basis for everything they do in the kitchen. Making gravy, custard, biscuits, pastries and stews seem to be a lost art. Even slow roasted meat, pot roast and homemade noodles seem like, “old people food,” to a lot of modern cooks. Too bad!

When we eat out I can’t wait for my next meal at home – so I can eat something good. Seems like in today’s world most people eating at home can’t wait to eat out. Not this old pot slinger.

-And a word on snacks – In Japan they say everybody is either in the Sweets Party or the Spicy Party. Divided as to whether they would rather have a sweet snack or a salty/spicy snack.

Ol Time Macaroni Soup

Remember those cold days growing up when grandma would bring us in after a day of building snowmen and sledding? We were so cold and she would set us down and bring in piping hot bowls of Macaroni Soup—NO—I don’t remember those days either, but this soup sure would have been good. Here it is.

 

Old Time Macaroni Soup

Ingredients:

ü 2 chicken breast fillets (chopped into approximately 1/2 inch squares)

ü 2 tablespoons oil

ü 1 med sized onion (chunked into medium piece)

ü 1 garlic clove or 1/2 teaspoon of granulated garlic

ü 3 medium sized carrots (chopped about same size as onion chunks)

ü 2 celery stalks (chopped); leaves (finely chopped) – I don’t like the texture of celery but I do like the taste, I substitute celery seed about a ¼ teaspoon

ü 1 small can evaporated milk

ü 2 chicken bouillon cubes (don’t forget to take the little yellow wrappers off)

ü 2 quarts of water

ü 1 cup elbow macaroni (cooked according to package instructions I really hope no one has to still read these)

ü Salt and pepper (heavy on the pepper and very light on the salt – I do not use salt as the bouillon seems to have enough salt)

ü Splash of oregano, and thyme (to taste)

ü Grated cheese-medium cheddar or fresh parmesan sprinkled on top –don’t overdo it

Directions:

·         In a Large pot, heat oil and toss in the garlic and onions until golden.  (Please- do not do this step if you are using granulated garlic)

·          Add chopped chicken to the oil, stirring and flipping all the time until browned nicely

·          Add the carrots and chopped celery to the mix chicken.

·         Boil the macaroni to a firm – al dente state.

·         Add  milk, and sautéed chicken cube mixture to the pot

·         Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer for an hour (low heat)

·         Add your seasonings

·         Serve in bowls with grated cheese – can add celery leaves or parsley for color

·         At Christmas time we like to sprinkle the soup with a bit of paprika and parsley-fun and extremely festive for this ol’ Wyoming boy.

 

Journey Bread and Donuts

Going on a Trip – Old Time Journey Bread

 

Also called fry bread or Indian fry bread (depended on who was cooking)

 

3 1/2 cups flour

2 tsp salt

2 tsp Baking powder

1 cup milk

 

Knead until soft but not sticky. Roll thin as you can get it.

 

Fry in cast iron (the big ol’ black one) frying pan in light coating of grease, no need for deep fry depth of grease

 

Easy to make while traveling thus – Journey bread

Sometimes on the trail this bread was placed on a greased board near the fire, but more often a piece of tin or iron was used

 

-Take the same dough –

Deep fat fry in an inch or so of grease, flip once with a fork

 Put it in a paper bag or cloth sack while still very warm (right out of the grease) pour in a 1/3 of a cup of regular sugar and shake like mad

Donuts, just like great-great grandma made!