Aunt Jenny's Swiss Chocolate Cake: A Blogiversary Party!

One year ago today, I pressed the launch button on this blog and haven't looked back since. I've made successes and disasters, and I've loved learning some amazing lessons along the way.

It’s true. I’ve been cooking recipes from this silly, dusty, amazing, special cardboard box for one entire year. I’ve made eleven cheesecakes, dozens of cookies, about a million casseroles, and more pie crust than I care to remember.

I’ve had some wild successes as well as some abysmal failures, and for every thing that I’ve learned, at least one more question has arisen: I've become great at melting chocolate! Why don't my cakes rise the way Eleanor's recipes almost inevitably say they will? I'm an amazing crepe-flipper! Why do nearly all of my recipes cook in half the time Eleanor promised they would? My pie crust is the butteriest, flakiest pie crust in all of Scotland! Why can't any of these recipes use cocoa powder instead of melted chocolate? I like casseroles! Why can't I make a batch of icing without coating my entire kitchen in a fine dusting of powdered sugar? I can make a soufflé! Why does every recipe in this box require me to sift flour? The weirdest things taste good, even when you think they won't!

It's twelve candles for twelve months... because one candle looked lonely.

I’ve conquered a huge amount of my cooking fears: things like making crepes, soufflés, and meringues no longer elude me. I’ve discovered go-to recipes for my favourite cheesecake, cranberry sauce, and an amazing recipe for apricot cookies. My patience and willingness to try new recipes has improved, and my ability to experiment successfully is constantly getting better.

Before you ask, though, Aunt Jenny is not my Aunt Jenny... or at least she's not only my Aunt Jenny. Aunt Jenny is the WORLD'S Aunt. The 1950s equivalent to Betty Crocker, Aunt Jenny was the mascot to a company called Spry, which was a major competitor to Crisco. In grammatically questionable history, Aunt Jenny is famed for her slogan 'With Spry, we can afford to have cake oftener!' Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, Spry was a major competitor to Crisco and a staple of the New York City skyline, where they had a giant blinking sign that was visible from Brooklyn and probably viewed by Eleanor on a daily basis.* So, really, it's a miracle I only have the one recipe from Aunt Jenny, given Eleanor's love of all things cake-related.

So, when choosing a recipe to celebrate one year of successes, failures, trials, experiments, and taste-tests, what else could I possibly have chosen besides a chocolate cake? And since, in my humble opinion, homemade whipped cream will always trump almost any other ingredient,** here's a chocolate cake topped with fresh, sweetened whipped cream and bitter chocolate shavings. Perfect for enjoying like a grown-up, with a glass of red wine while you celebrate your accomplishments... and keep wondering what went wrong with the disasters.

*The other reason I know that this recipe dates to the 1950s is that the back of it includes an ad encouraging pregnant women to smoke Lucky Strikes, so... glad we've learned our lesson on that one.

**Except cheese, duh.

The verdict:

5 spoons out of five. A dense crumb due to the whipped cream sandwiched between the layers, a sweet lid with dark, bittersweet chocolate complementing the cloud of whipped cream, and double layers for added deliciousness? What else could you want out of a celebration cake?

New! One Year Ago:  Pollo Alla Verona & Greek Kourabiedes

The recipe:

Swiss Chocolate Cake

the directions:

Grease two 8” square or round cake pans and line bottom with parchment.
Preheat oven to 175C/350F.
Into a large mixing bowl, pour sifted flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
Stir gently, then add shortening or Stork, melted chocolate, evaporated milk, and 1 tsp vanilla.
Beat on very low speed until combined and smooth, approximately 45 seconds.
Add 2 eggs, then blend on low speed until combined and smooth, another 45 seconds, scraping sides of bowl.
Pour batter into prepared cake pans and bake for 20 minutes or until a pick inserted into the centre comes out clean.
Turn cakes out of pans and allow to cool thoroughly before decorating.
Once cakes have cooled, make whipped cream: blend cream, powdered sugar, and ¼ tsp vanilla at high speed until light and fluffy.
Layer half of cream between the layers of the cake, then spread the remaining whipped cream on top of the cake.
Decorate with shaved chocolate curls and chill for several hours before serving.
Once chilled, pour yourself a glass of wine, and enjoy.
​You deserve it.

the ingredients:

1 ¾ c cake flour, sifted
1 1/3 c sugar
3 ½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp baking soda
¾ tsp salt
2/3 c shortening or Stork
2 oz chocolate, melted and cooled, plus extra for shaving
1 c evaporated milk
1 tsp + ¼ tsp vanilla, divided
2 eggs
2 c double cream or whipping cream
½ c powdered sugar, sifted

Battle of the Biscuits: Classic Biscuits vs. Emergency Biscuits

Classic Biscuit in front, emergency biscuit behind!

You guys, I love American biscuits. In fact, living in a country that does not understand the Breakfast Perfection that is an (American) Bacon, Egg and Cheese Biscuit is probably the only downfall of living in Scotland. But they’re totally one of those foods I have never been able to make very well myself. The second Christmas Judson and I were dating, we decided to make ham and biscuits for a progressive dinner we were invited to.* Unsurprisingly, this turned out… poorly. So poorly, in fact, that 20 minutes before the dinner was to start, when we realised our biscuits had come out more like crackers, I had to drive to the nearest Whole Foods and buy a half dozen varieties of fancy mustards and chutneys to spread the biscuits/hard tack with to try to remedy the situation. Judson’s neighbours were nice about it, but I was pretty disappointed in us. I mean, biscuits! They have 3 ingredients! They shouldn’t be difficult!

I seem to have inherited my mom’s complete inability to make biscuits, though, (sorry, mom!), so I’ve been apprehensive (at best) to tackle these two biscuit recipes. First of all, why did Eleanor even have these? I’m pretty sure my mom didn’t taste a biscuit until she was in her 20s, and I can’t imagine Eleanor making (or eating) something as southern as biscuits… but here we are. I had a bit of luck with the ‘shortcakes’ from this strawberry shortcake recipe back in the summer, but although the flavour on that batch was great, they were still dry enough that I wouldn’t have enjoyed them by themselves, not coated in juicy strawberries and whipped cream.

So I’ve been both stoked to make this recipe (potential for biscuits!) but also nervous because what if I get my hopes up and then they go the way all my other biscuit forays have gone? I delayed making these two recipes for ages because I was nervous, but then I realised the fact that one of them is called ‘Emergency Biscuits’ was just too funny not to share. What possible emergency is there where biscuits are the only solution? You’re stuck in a flood of gravy with nothing to sop up the mess? There’s an abundance of fried eggs, crispy bacon and melty cheese in your kitchen and you need an edible thing to sandwich it all between before you chow down? As it turns out, Emergency Biscuits have basically the exact same ingredients in very nearly the exact same quantities as the regular biscuits, but instead of patting them out and cutting them with a biscuit cutter (ahem, juice glass—why would I have a biscuit cutter when I can’t make biscuits?), you just take a spoonful of dough and pat it into a small mound.

So I made these recipes back to back, baked ‘em both up, and then did the taste-testing. Judson mocked the shape and overall look of the ‘emergency biscuits,’ but then upon tasting both side by side, we came to the conclusion that the emergency variety was actually better. However, I’m going to go ahead and caveat that the only reason we liked the emergency biscuits better is because they are easier to make, and thus came out better for this experienced non-biscuit baker. If you’re good at making biscuits, I have no idea which one you’ll like better, but if you’re as bad at it as me, then start with the emergency version—they’re simple and nearly foolproof:  the perfect beginner’s biscuit!

Emergency biscuit: slightly less smooth, but also a lot fluffier!

*Whose idea was this? The year before we made shrimp dip and a plate of crackers. What hubris possessed us to think that in one year our cooking skills had progressed from ‘mix together cream cheese and shrimp’ to ‘make an entire ham and enough biscuits to feed 30 people’?

The verdict:
Emergency Biscuits:

5 spoons out of five. Easier than the regular kind, easier to clean up since you don’t have to make a mess of the countertop, and even though they’re not quite as pretty as a nice flat-topped biscuit, they have the perfect buttery crumb that makes me hungry just thinking about it.

Classic Biscuits:

3 spoons out of five. They’re tasty and still relatively easy, but my skill level is still not great and so mine came out quite a bit flatter than I wanted them to, though they were still delicious, soft, and tasted great with salted butter and a nice slick of marmalade.

the recipe:

Emergency Biscuits

the directions:

Preheat oven to 230C/450F.
Sift flour once, add baking powder and salt, then sift again.
Cut in shortening, then add milk very slowly, stirring until a soft dough is formed.
Drop from a tablespoon onto an ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake 10-12 minutes until golden brown.
Makes about 16 biscuits.

the ingredients:

2 c flour, sifted
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
4 tbsp butter or shortening
1 c milk

---

The recipe:

Classic Biscuits

the directions:

Preheat oven to 230C/450F.
Sift flour once, then measure.
Add baking powder and salt, then sift again.
Cut in shortening, then add milk very slowly, stirring until a soft dough is formed.
Turn out on lightly floured surface and knead very gently for 20 seconds, or enough for dough to take on a basic shape.
Pat or roll dough 1/2-inch thick and cut with a floured biscuit cutter or juice glass.
Bake on ungreased cookie sheet 10-12 minutes until golden brown.
Makes about 12 biscuits.

The ingredients:

2 c flour, sifted
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
4 tbsp butter or shortening
3/4 c milk

Got a Hot Date Cake, or, Valentine's Chocolate Cake with Date Filling

Valentine’s Day is one of my favourite holidays (after, in order, Halloween and New Year’s Eve) because it involves one of my favourite foods (chocolate) and one of my favourite… shapes? (Hearts, duh!). Even during the (many) years of being single on Valentine’s Day, it always seemed like a good chance to eat some sweets, remind the people that I love how much I love them, and fill myself with fresh flowers.

Being married with an anniversary less than a month after Valentine’s Day means that it’s not quite as big of a deal as it used to be, but it’s still a fun holiday to celebrate and I couldn’t let it pass without making a chocolate date cake in honour of all the dates going on this weekend. (Get it!? Dates?!) Judson and I will be celebrating elsewhere, but we'll still be out on a date on Sunday night, and with any luck, we'll be enjoying a dessert as tasty as this one-- because, seriously, this cake is amazing.

I don't know why I doubted this dessert (yes I do: I love dates but I always doubt dates in dessert), because seriously: the last date dessert I made (as part of the infamous Holiday Almanac) was one of my favourite dishes of the month of December. But seriously, this chocolate cake is amazing. The layers are fairly slim, the buttercream frosting is super easy and unbelievably tasty, and the toasty pecans add just the right amount of crunch. But the dates. The dates are the star of this cake-- the filling isn't overly fruity, but the dates add so much moisture that the whole rest of the cake is just perfectly buttery, moist and chocolate-y without being overpoweringly sweet.

And now that I’ve finished making all of the cheesecakes in the box, I've moved on to chocolate cakes (of which I also have a ton) and even though this recipe kind of involves three mini-recipes (cake, filling, frosting), I regret nothing. It was delicious, far more reliable than the cheesecakes ever were, and my co-workers ate the entire thing in record time.

The verdict:

5 spoons out of five. Make this cake and your Valentine will be très impressed.

The recipe:

Chocolate Cake with Date Filling

the directions:
cake:

Preheat oven to 175C/350F, then line three round cake pans with parchment.
Cream butter, sugar, and vanilla.
Add eggs and beat well.
Blend in chocolate.
Sift together dry ingredients, then add to chocolate mixture alternately with water.
Beat until smooth.
Pour into prepared pans and cook 20-30 minutes until a pick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Allow to cool complete before filling and frosting.

filling:

Over very low heat, heat milk and dates until very warm.
In a separate bowl, mix sugar, flour, and salt, then add the beaten egg.
Remove milk mixture from heat, then stir sugar mixture into the milk mixture very slowly while whisking constantly so the eggs don't cook.
Return to very low heat, then cook until thickened, stirring constantly.
Once mixture has thickened, stir in nuts and vanilla.
Allow to cool completely before filling cake.

frosting:

Beat butter, salt, and 1 c powdered sugar until light and fluffy.
Blend in melted chocolate, then add remaining sugar, alternating with milk and vanilla.
Mix until smooth and creamy-- do not overmix.
If frosting is too thick, add more milk; if too thin, add more powdered sugar until spreading consistency is reached.

the ingredients:
the cake:

¾ c butter, softened
2 c sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3 eggs
3 oz baking chocolate, melted and cooled
3 c cake flour, sifted
1 tsp baking soda
¼ tsp baking powder
¾ tsp salt
1 ½ c water

the filling:

1 c milk
¾ c dates, chopped
¼ c sugar
1 tbsp flour
¼ tsp salt
1 egg, beaten
½ c pecans, chopped
1 tsp vanilla

 

the frosting:

1/3 c butter
1/8 tsp salt
3 c powdered sugar, sifted
3 oz unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
¼ c milk
1 ½ tsp vanilla