By: Jennifer Tufano
“I guess every woman has a hobby. Mine is baking. Ever since I’ve been a youngster, I’ve loved to putter in a big, homey kitchen with a good recipe at my elbow, and all the “fixin’s” for a lovely cake or hot bread sitting on the table before me.” From Kate Smith’s Favorite Recipes, 1939.
Cake fans are taken in by looks. Pie lovers are seduced by personality. Cake is a tall preener, calling out from the center of the dining room table, but often disappointing with overly cloying frosting or a crumb that proves less than moist. Never mind. Cake knows you will come back for more. Cake wears makeup — decorative adornments, cursive writing, curlicues.
(NY Times, July 1, 2013)
Any wonder these sumptuous, often multi-layered and frosted delights were so loved by Kate?
“How do you make perfect cake? How can you be sure that every time you open your oven door a perfect dream will come out? A delicate, moist, tender cake with a crust that’s a golden brown and daintily crisp? A cake so high and beautifully light and lovely to look at even before it is frosted. A cake with such delicate temping flavor and appeal that folks will ‘o-o-o-h’ and ‘a-a-ah till the last crumb is gone?”
Kate Smith lived a big life by all accounts and shared her big voice with even bigger audiences. Many of you know she first sang Irving Berlin’s God Bless America during her 1938 radio show and continued to sing it for decades. She starred in The Kate Smith television program from 1950-1954. She became the spokesperson for companies including Studebaker, Pullman, Diamond Crystal Salt, and Jell-O.
Did you also know she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1982 and was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1999? She spent summers at her beautiful Camp Sunshine on Lake Placid Lake which afforded her quiet and comfort. Kate never married and after a full and rewarding life, Kate died in 1986 at the age of 79.
Performing was her life. What Kate needed was a hobby and she enjoyed baking, hence the cookbook with her name and favorite recipes for butter cakes, sponge cakes, cookies, and breads, using Swans Down Cake Flour and Calumet Baking Powder, companies which capitalized on Smith’s familiarity and hence hired her as their spokesperson.
Kate Smith’s Favorite Recipes
The historical society has in its collection copies of Kate Smith’s Favorite Recipes, a paper booklet filled with baking quotes and pictures of a young, smiling Kate. Cakes, if you’ve ever baked one, contain essentially the same few ingredients: flour, sugar, eggs, butter or shortening, baking powder, and milk. Flavorings such as vanilla, lemon, orange, and chocolate are often added for spunk and texture. Kate’s recipes follow this same pattern and it’s interesting to note most of the recipes highlight the number of eggs needed, whether whole, yolks or whites. I’m curious as to why but many older cookbooks include this information.
In celebration of Kate and her life, here’s a cake recipe from her booklet. It’s a little like her: over the top, sweet as can be, with big flavor and a bigger presentation. It would be best enjoyed this summer on the shores of a lake with Kate-minded company.
Butterscotch Pecan Cake (all instructions are as in the original booklet)
(3 eggs)
2 cups sifted Swans Down Cake Flour
2 teaspoons Calumet Baking Powder
½ teaspoon salt
2/3 cup butter or other shortening
1 cup sugar
3 eggs, unbeaten
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
Sift flour once, measure, add baking power and salt, and sift together three times. Cream butter thoroughly, add sugar gradually, and cream together until light and fluffy. Add flour, alternately with milk, a small amount at a time, beating after each addition until smooth. Add vanilla. Bake in two greased 9-inch later pans in moderate oven (375 degrees) 25-30 minutes. Let cool and spread Butterscotch Fudge Frosting between layers and on tops and sides of cake. Decorate sides of cake with chopped pecans.
Butterscotch Fudge Frosting:
2 cups light brown sugar, firmly packed
½ cup butter
1 ¼ cups granulated sugar
¾ cup top milk
½ cup water
Add brown sugar to butter and cook over low flame, stirring constantly, until mixture darkens slightly (about 5-6 minutes). Remove from fire and add granulated sugar, milk, and water. Return to fire and boil, without stirring, until small amount of mixture forms a very soft ball in cold water (232 degrees). Remove from fire. Cool to lukewarm (110 degrees). Beat until of right consistency to spread. If necessary, place over hot water to keep soft while spreading. Makes enough frosting to cover tops and sides of cake. If desired, add ½ cup chopped pecan meats to part of frosting and use as filling.