Time for winter deserts. Cakes, pies like lemon meringue, apple and pear, chocolate anything, bread pudding. Any desert that needs to be baked is usually great in winter. You can still eat ice cream, especially with pie – or not.

Wild Cooking Woman 1/2/26

White Velvet Cake   

from BH&G

This is the best white cake I’ve ever eaten.  I use 8-inch pans and split the layers in half, so I have a 4-layer cake. It must be refrigerated if not finished the first day. It will hold about 2-3 days, but the quality is best the first 2 days. Read through the recipe completely, and prepare your ingredients before starting. Make the frosting first, then make the cake while the frosting is chilling.

White Velvet Cake

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 2 1/4 cups sugar
• 5 egg whites (use the yolks for egg custard or something delicious)
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil (not olive oil, but some bland oil)
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract or paste (paste tastes better, but extract doesn’t darken the cake)
• 1 tsp. almond extract
• 1 1/4 cups buttermilk

Ermine Frosting

• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• Dash salt
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 cups butter, softened

Directions

White Velvet Cake

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease two 9×2-inch round cake pans. Line pan bottoms with parchment paper. Lightly flour pans. (I spray the pans with cooking spray, line them with parchment paper, then spray that with baking spray.)  In a medium bowl, stir together the 3 cups of flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt. 

2. In an extra-large bowl, beat butter with a mixer on medium 30 seconds. Gradually add sugar, 1/4 cup at a time, beating on medium until combined. Scrape bowl; beat 2 minutes more. Add egg whites, vegetable oil, vanilla, and almond extract. Beat until combined. Add flour mixture and buttermilk alternately, beating on low after each addition just until combined. Spread batter into prepared pans.

3. Bake 35 – 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks 10 minutes. Remove layers from pans; cool completely on wire racks.

4. Place one cake layer, bottom side up, on a plate. Spread with 1 1/2 cups frosting. Top with second layer, bottom side cup; spread top and sides of cake with remaining frosting.

Ermine Frosting

1. In a medium saucepan, whisk together sugar, 1/3 cup of the flour, and salt. Whisk in milk. Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened and bubbly. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla. Transfer to a large bowl. Cover surface with plastic wrap and cool to less than 80°F, about 2 to 2 1/2 hours. Meanwhile, prepare cake layers.

2. When the flour mixture has cooled, cut the 2 cups of butter in 1 Tbsp. pieces. Beat in butter, one piece at a time, with a mixer on medium-high until smooth, scraping bowl as needed. Make sure each piece of butter is incorporated before adding the next. Frosting may look curdled until all the butter is added.

Special note: If frosting looks curdled after all your butter is added, the mixture may be too cold. To warm, remove the bowl from your mixture and set the bowl over a pan of simmering water to gently warm the mixture for 1 to 2 minutes, stirring with a whisk during this time. (Note: You don’t want the bowl to come in contact with the water.) Return the bowl to the mixer and continue beating until the frosting becomes smoother while beating. If the frosting is thin, the mixture may be too warm. Chill mixture for 15 minutes in the refrigerator and continue beating. Repeat this as necessary.

Tunnel of Fudge Cake (my version)

This is like a huge lava cake, sort of, but with nuts.

Cake

• 1 3/4  cups white granulated sugar
• 1 3/4 cups butter, softened
• 6 large eggs
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa (natural or Dutch processed)
• 2 cups chopped toasted pecans (or walnuts if you are from the North)

Glaze

• 3/4 cup Confectioner’s sugar
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 4 to 6 teaspoons milk

NOTE: This is a 1966 recipe, revised and modernized. The original recipe used boxed frosting mix.  My first exposure to it was from The Helen Corbitt Collection cookbook by (of course) Helen Corbitt. When the recipe was first developed, the cocoa commonly found in American kitchens was natural cocoa, which is a lighter color than Dutch-processed cocoa. For more information about types of cocoa, go HERE. 

Ingredients for Pie

• 4 refrigerator pie crusts at room temperature
• 9 cups peeled and thinly sliced apples (I like a mixture of these: Honeycrisp, Courtland, Braeburn, and Granny Smith)
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons tapioca flour or cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla paste or vanilla extract
• tiny pinch salt 

Ingredients for Glaze

• 6 tablespoons whole milk
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1 ¼ cups powdered sugar

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 400°F.
• Place two of the pie crusts on top of each other on a lightly floured work surface. Using a rolling pin, roll it out to a rough rectangle that is 18—12 inches.
• Prepare a 10x15x1-inch jelly roll pan by either buttering and flouring the pan, spraying with baking spray (Baker’s Joy), or lining with parchment paper with the excess paper hanging over the pan a couple of inches on both short ends.
• Place the crust in the prepared pan, forming it in the pan with the excess crust overlapping the sides. Set aside.
• In a large bowl, add the apples, sugar, tapioca flour or cornstarch, lemon juice, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla or vanilla paste, and a pinch of salt. Stir together until fully combined.
• Spread the apples evenly onto the crust.
• Again, roll out the last two pie crusts into an 18″ rectangle. Place them on top of the pan.
• Tuck the top crust under the bottom and crimp the edges. Cut slits in the top crust so air can escape.
• Bake for 30-35 minutes, tenting with foil after the first 15 minutes. Bake until golden brown. If you think it needs more browning after 35 minutes, take the foil off and watch closely until your desired color is reached.
• Place on a wire rack to cool for 1 hour.
• While the pie is cooling, place milk in a small saucepan and heat until warm but not bubbling. Add butter. Let it cool to room temperature and then add powdered sugar.
• After the pie has cooled, brush it all over with the glaze with a pastry brush. Wait 30 minutes, brush another layer of glaze on. Let cool for 30 more minutes, slice, and serve.

Apple Fritters

I use 3-4 good cooking apples of different kinds, i.e. Granny Smith, Gala, Honey Crisp, and Cameo. I also use either apple cider or apple juice that I’ve cooked down by half instead of sparkling apple cider. I like a combination of cinnamon and nutmeg. Twice as much cinnamon as nutmeg is about right. I always keep vanilla paste on hand in case I don’t have a vanilla bean. Substitute 1 teaspoon of vanilla paste for the vanilla bean.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons fresh baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon grated nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla paste
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 3-4 large apples, peeled and chopped
• for the glaze: 1 cup confectioner’s sugar, 2-3 Tablespoons milk, half and half or cream, 1 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions:

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, vanilla, and melted butter.
3. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.
4. Cook the apples in the butter for about 3-5 minutes until they are partially cooked. They should be soft but now browned. Let cool and fold in the apples.
5. Heat about 2 inches of oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat until it reaches 350°F.
6. Using a cookie scoop or spoon, drop the batter into the hot oil in small batches.
7. Fry until golden brown on both sides, about 3 minutes per side.
8. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels.
9. Make the glaze and drizzle the glaze over the fritters, or dunk the fritters in the glaze and let drip over a rack sitting on waxed paper.