Honeycake with Blackberries

“In the Queen’s Ballroom they broke their fast on honeycakes baked with blackberries and nuts, gammon steaks, bacon, fingerfish crisped in breadcrumbs, autumn pears, and a Dornish dish of onions, cheese, and chopped eggs cooked up with fiery peppers.” -A Storm of Swords

Thoughts:

Valentine’s Day has always been a big deal in my family, probably second only to Christmas. Many years, it involves a big dinner, heart confetti, and assorted family and friends. This was a wonderful way to grow up, because it completely did away with the element of single/not single that can be so oppressive, especially during the dark wintery month of February. Therefore, I suggest making a batch of these for anyone in your life, whether it’s a friend, spouse, child, or what have you. After all, there are a lotta kinds of loves out there! Personally, I love how adding cornmeal to what would normally be a dessert somehow makes it suitable for breakfast. They’re small sized, letting you feel fine about scooting more than one onto your plate. They’re not too sweet, and baked with berries and nuts, not just topped with them. Honestly, they’re more like muffins, although they look as appetizing as a platter of cupcakes. The cream cheese frosting is an added layer of semi-sweet, creamy goodness. I had to curb my creativity a little with this recipe. I’d wanted to try a sort of thinly layered cake with a honey frosting in between, with nuts and berries on top. But the original says the cake is baked with berries and nuts, so I had to obey. :) This version might not be as elegant as what I had originally imagined, but it’s a delicious alternative!

Recipe for Honeycake with Blackberries and Nuts

Ingredients:

1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup honey
1 egg
1 cup milk
pinch salt
1 Tbs. baking powder
1/2 cup corn meal
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 pint blackberries
1/2 cup walnuts, roughly chopped

Cream the butter and honey, then add the egg and milk. Gradually mix in the salt and baking powder, followed by the cornmeal and flour. Stir in the nuts and blackberries, smooshing the berris with the mixing spoon to roughly break them up for easier distribution through the batter. Spoon the batter into greased muffin tins, filling halfway up. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes, or until the tops are golden.

Ingredients for Icing:

1/2 cup softened butter (1 stick)
8 oz. cream cheese (1 package)
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup honey
dash of vanilla extract

Using an electric mixer (or a lot of arm power), combine the butter and cream cheese until it’s very smooth. Add in the remaining ingredients and mix until incorporated. Spread evenly onto the completely cooled muffins.

Braised Apples with Cheese

“The last course was goat cheese served with baked apples. The scent of cinnamon filled the hall as Osney Kettleblack slipped in to kneel once more between them.” – A Clash of Kings

Thoughts:

This dish comes via reader Vinz, who suggested this recipe for the snippet from the book almost a year ago. I had always imagined them as whole baked apples, like the two recipes that went into the cookbook, and had pretty much written off the quote.

I am so glad to have tried this new version.

The apples cook until just tender, while the juices and butter combine to make that gooey, drippy, awesome sauce you see in the photo. Crunch of nuts, tang of goat cheese, bite of spices. I used walnuts, and some long pepper, which has a sharper but faster taste than ordinary black pepper.

The recipe technically makes enough for two, but I will admit to eating it all myself in a single sitting. It was awesome. I have no regrets.

Braised Apples with Goat Cheese

Time: ~20 minutes Serves: 1+

Ingredients:

2 apples, cored and sliced into eighths
2 Tbs. salted butter
1 1/2 cup cider
4 oz. goat cheese
2 Tbs. honey
currants, nuts, etc. for topping
pinch each cinnamon, ground pepper

Preheat the oven to 375F.

Melt the butter in a skillet or frying pan and saute the apple slices, flipping them so they are coated with butter. Do this for 2-3 minutes, then pour over 1 cup of the cider. Simmer gently, stopping just shy of the apples going mushy. When they still have some body to them, scoop out the slices and place on a baking sheet, preferably lined with a silicone pad or parchment paper.

Sprinkle goat cheese over top, and place in the oven until the cheese starts to melt. While the apples are cooking, add the honey, remaining cider, nuts/dried fruits, and spices to the pan. Reduce down until the sauce starts to thicken, then remove from heat. When the apples come out, arrange them in serving dishes and spoon the sauce over. Sprinkle with a dash of extra cinnamon, and devour.

Turnip Greens, Fennel, & Sweetgrass Salad

“She stared at the supper set before her: trout wrapped in bacon, salad of turnip greens and red fennel and sweetgrass, pease and onions and hot bread.” -A Clash of Kings

Catelyn’s Salad – turnip greens, fennel, apple, lemongrass, walnuts, and raisins

Thoughts:

Let me start by saying that I don’t especially care for fennel, or any of the flavors on the anise/licorice spectrum. However, when combined with the other ingredients in this salad, especially the apples, even I found it bright and refreshing. The crunch of combined fennel and apple, along with the walnuts, counters the sort of ordinary salad element of the turnip greens. Overall, it’s on the sweeter side, from the fruits and balsamic, and a really nice, unique salad for summer.

Catelyn’s Salad

Cook’s notes: as with all salads, feel free to meddle and mix to suit your tastes. Turnip greens can be difficult to find, so baby spinach is a good substitute.

Ingredients:

2 cups turnip greens
1/2 cup fennel, julienned
1 Tbs. lemongrass, sliced very thinly
1/2 apple, julienned
1/4 cup golden raisins
fennel tops
1/4 cup walnuts (candied is even better!)
balsamic for dressing
edible flowers (optional)

Combine the all ingredients except the dressing and edible flowers, and toss to combine. Drizzle with balsamic, and sprinkle with flowers, if using. Enjoy!

Salad of turnip greens, fennel, apple, lemongrass, walnuts, and raisins

closeup of Catelyn’s Salad

Vintage Vegan: Eggless, butterless, milkless cake

Thoughts:

With a hand-typed recipe and a name like that, how could I resist? This is the latest recipe from the very cool family cookbook, The Way to a Man’s Heart (link), and like the others, is a quirky look back in time. In my book, the recipe is typed onto a small piece of paper, and pasted onto the back cover. However, my Google-fu skills led me to a very similar recipe in Dr. Price’s New Cookbook, from 1921. That recipe calls for a good deal more baking powder, which I think would not go amiss.

On its own, this cake is not going to win any beauty contests. However, a good layer of icing serves to really spruce it up. The cake itself is also helped by the icing, because as you might expect, it’s a little on the dense side. The raisins and nuts are evenly distributed throughout the cake, giving each bite a little bit of interest and moistness.

Although it’s not going to be a a new staple in my kitchen, it’s a fun historical experiment that’s delicious with tea!

Recipe for Eggless, Butterless, Milkless Cake

Put into a sauce pan the following and boil together three minutes, then cool:

1 cup brown sugar
1 cup water
2 cups seeded raisins
1/3 cup lard or shortening
1/4 grated nutmeg
1 tsp. cinnamon

When cool, stir in

1 cup English walnuts
1 tsp. soda, dissolved in 1 Tbs. water
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. full of baking powder

Grease a round pan and gently spread the elastic batter in it.

Bake at 300F for 45 minutes to an hour.

If you like, ice the cake with:

1/2 cup confectioners sugar
enough water to bring it together