Day 5: Butter, Breadcrumbs, and Building Material

I was excited to make this cake. I had visions of my great-grandmother eating this cake while she was growing up Warsaw and even in Riley, Kansas where she finally settled, married and died. I had the great fortune of growing up with her as she didn't pass until I was a junior in high school. I don't ever remember her making this cake, but I knew that if I made it - it would complete a circle and it would become a new family tradition....Honey Cake for Christmas.

Time to gather the ingredients...light brown sugar; honey; 4 eggs; hazelnuts.....first hitch. I usually don't have hazelnuts hanging around and I did not want to make a special trip to Central Market so I altered the recipe and decided to use chopped nut topping. I am assuming that this should not make a huge difference. Oh yes and white breadcrumbs.......yup....I said white breadcrumbs. Should this be a red flag?!?!?! I paused and thought if it was good enough for Lydia H. Weiss Buseman - it was good enough for me. In retrospect, I might should have contemplated it a bit longer.

Ingredients gathered - now need a baking dish. And wouldn't you know I could not find my 7 1/2 cup fluted brioche tin.......(to confirm - I don't have one), but I did know that I had a bundt pan. Kinda of the same so thought it could work. Now picture this.....I know that I have a bundt pan, but I can not for love of Pete find it. I am crawling all over my kitchen floor - unloading cabinets in search of this dang bundt pan. Ok not in the bottom cabinets; up on the step stool looking in the higher cabinets - nowhere. Looked in the pantry and even looked in the laundry room - no dang bundt pan. Well crap - I was afraid to use a regular cake pan SO off to Wal-Mart I go......I made sure that this time I had no baking remnants smeared across my face before going in. Imagine that - no fluted brioche tins in the entire store. So I bought a bundt pan and a spring form pan. As I ponder which to use: bundt or spingform pan - I settled on the springform pan. Which I prepped with some butter and a 1/4 cup of bread crumbs. Double boiler in place - the honey needs go liquifies and whisk til light and frothy......hhhmmmm.....frothy honey. OK, not really even sure I got it to the frothy stage.....starting to wonder "what the hell am I doing trying to make this".......might as well see it through - I have gotten this far. Mix remaining breadcrumbs with nuts into frothy honey mixture. I need to pause here just a minute and let you know that this recipe didn't call for a few morsels of breadcrumbs - it called for a total of 2 cups of bread crumbs. I am not even sure you use that many breadcrumbs to make Thanksgiving stuffing!!! Last stage of prep - beat 4 egg whites until stiff an gently fold in. Again, enveloped in my nostalgic dream of grandma - I decided to beat the egg whites by hand. This was a bad decision....first - the bowl was too small; two - you have to have biceps and endurance of a tri-athlete to beat egg whites by hand to the stiff stage; and three - you have to have a relief partner. If was like the WWE....lets get ready to rumble......I had to tag team with Chris on these dang egg whites - I tapped out and he took over and then I came back and finished. I folded in the the egg whites and spooned the mixture into the springform pan. Into the oven 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes.

Read an article on Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis while the cake baked. The recipe indicated that the cake will rise during cooking and will sink slightly as it cooled. I looked in on my cake.....was it rising.....couldn't tell....opened the door and confirmed....cake not rising. I folded in the stiff egg whites.....did I fold them to much??? Crap, my gut is telling me that I folded too much or I wasn't gently enough with spooning in the mixture OR maybe I should have gone with the bundt pan. Pulled the cake at 42 minutes. It did not have to sink because it never rose.

I knew that I had to be the first one to taste it so I cut into it - no, I lie - I sawed into and took a bite. It is extremely dense (well of course since the dang thing never rose and has 2 cups of breadcrumbs ), it does take like honey, but I am thinking when it cools completely it will be like a brick. Hold-on.....let me go check........Holy Crap - it has turned into what my son calls "Polish Cinder Block Cake". I just took several pictures to show how "stable" cake has become an added them to facebook.

I am guessing that when Lydia H. Weiss Buseman made this -it was a great cake, but to confirm when Donna Jean Duncan Paul made it......the dog even had a hard time eating it and I think I might be able to sell this as a fragrant door stop or better yet - organic building material in third world countries.