Fredelle And Nina's Poppy Seed Cake
Ingredients
1 Cup Poppy Seed
1 Cup Milk (Whole Or Lowfat)
3 Eggs, Separated
1 Cup Unsalted Butter (2 Sticks)
1 Cup White Sugar
1 Cup Brown Sugar, Packed (Or A Little Less,
If You Are Adding Some Maple Syrup)
1-3 Tbsp. Real Maple Syrup, Not Aunt Jemima (Optional)
2 Cups Sifted Flour
2 Tsp Real Vanilla Extract
2 Add 1/2 Tsp. Baking Powder
1/2 Tsp Salt
2 Tbsp. Sour Cream
Method:
- Preheat oven to 350
- Grease and lightly flour one bundt pan, or two loaf pans
- Combine seeds with milk in a saucepan. Bring to a boil. Turn off
heat. Cover, and let sit till seeds absorb the milk. (The milk will
not be completely absorbed).
- Cream butter and sugars till fluffy. Add vanilla, egg yolks and seeds
with milk mixture. Add maple syrup if using. Add sour cream.
- Sift flour with baking powder and salt and stir into batter till just
incorporated. Do not overbeat.
- Beat egg whites till stiff but not dry. Fold gently into batter. Pour
batter into pan.
- Bake 45-50 min., till cake tester or knife stuck in cake comes out
clean.
- Cool. serve with whipped cream and strawberries, or just plain.
(this cake freezes great).
Note:
Your Reward For Registering At Joyce Maynard's Website
What follows is a truly great recipe. It was given to me twenty one
years ago by a woman I met in New York City named Nina. I had never met
her before, or seen her since. But we hit it off that night, and at the
end of the evening she took my hand and said "I like you so much I'm
going to send you a very special recipe." I gave her my address, never
thinking she'd follow through (because people seldom do in these
situations). But three days later, the recipe arrived for Nina's Poppy
Seed Cake, and I've been making it ever since. I have added a few
things (like the sour cream and optional maple syrup) , but it's
basically hers. I have gone out of my way to try other poppy seed cakes
over the years, but I've never tasted one to equal Nina's.
I've probably baked about a thousand of these cakes. I also sent them to
the musicians on the Where Love Goes CD, and they liked the cake well
enough they let me use their songs for free. Except for Steve Earle,
who said he wished he could eat the cake, but he was being subjected to
random drug testing on account of a little problem in his past.
This recipe also has an emotional component for me. I'll explain. For
as long as I can remember, my mother -- an astonishingly vibrant and
healthy woman, and a lifelong dieter -- used to say, jokingly, "If I ever
get a brain tumor, I'm not counting calories any more."
Well, she got a brain tumor when she was 66 -- and truly, in her prime.
And I went to Toronto, where she lived, to stay with her and help take
care of her, during that final summer of her life. One of the things I
did while I was there (knowing how she loved good food, and remembering
her statements over the years about not counting calories anymore) was
to bake this cake for her. Because she had so many friends (as you
might expect, of a woman who once threw a party for 100 men, and no
women; but she loved women too) a lot of people were coming over to see
her during those last months. So I baked a great many poppy seed cakes
that summer -- 1989. I think of her whenever I make this cake.
(Also -- even more so actually -- when I bake a pie. But that's not a
technique I can explain, on paper. You'd have to be there....)
So I now call this Fredelle and Nina's Poppy Seed Cake. Feel free to
pass this recipe on, and when you do, please invite all your friends to
visit my website. For more of my thoughts about mothers, cooking, and
food, you might want to check out some other writings of mine on my
website: A piece called "Pie Plates" (on the True Stories page) and an
audio recording of a story I call "Chutney"
Let me know how you like this cake! And be sure to have dental floss
handy when you serve it.
www.joycemaynard.com check it out!
