Toasted Pecan Layer Cake with a Toasted Pecan Frosting

Did you ever see the movie Pollyanna with Hayley Mills? If so, do you remember the scene where she's at the church carnival sampling all the food? She comes to this one booth where the housekeeper hands her this big piece of white layer cake with chocolate frosting. She goes around that carnival eating this grand piece of cake. 

I remember watching that scene and remarking over that piece of cake. I have always wanted to be able to make a cake as big, fluffy and white as that one and with icing as whipped and creamy as that appeared to be. 

I have made many cakes and tried many different kinds of recipes but until yesterday morning I had not been able to create a cake that seemed almost as perfect as the cake in the Pollyanna movie! It seems funny that the magical recipe comes from an old fashioned Maine cook book, but on the other hand those Maine church ladies really knew what they were doing! 

Toasted Pecan Layer Cake with a Toasted Pecan Frosting. This is in the running, if not, the best white cake I have ever made. It is light and fluffy. It rises beautifully in the oven and when the layers are stacked together they make a full an beautiful layered white cake. 

The frosting is simple too. Confectioners sugar with butter, cream, and vanilla. Blended together until creamy then add the remainder of the pecans and spread on the cake. 

The only thing that separated this cake from the perfect Pollyanna cake was the nuts and the icing. Eliminate the nuts and switch the icing around a bit to be either a plain vanilla or chocolate icing and it would be a spot on perfect white layer cake. 

Blue Elephant Cafe

12 Pepperell Square 

Saco, Maine 04072

207-281-3070

www.blueelephantcatering.com

https://www.facebook.com/blueelephantevents

Poppy Seed Cake

"The next tow recipes are my favorites, neither one is iced for there is too much goodness in the cake itself."

       Marjorie Standish

I missed this little excerpt until just right now when I was rewriting it! It seems as though I "messed up" by putting icing over this cake. In my defense it still tasted delicious and it was only a thin layer. 

Typically when I make a cake from this cookbook, or any dessert from this cookbook it's fairly dense. This recipe was different. It was so light and fluffy, and probably one of the best cake recipes I've come across. I think Marjorie's statement at the beginning of the recipe rings true it does have a lot of goodness! 

Don't let this one slip you by! Grab Cooking Down East and make this recipe as soon as you can! 

Bue Elephant Cafe

12 Pepperell Square

Saco, Maine 04072

207-281-3070

www.blueelephantcatering.com

https://www.facebook.com/blueelephantevents

https://twitter.com/#!/BlueElephant3

Milk Chocolate Cake with Miracle Frosting

The Blue Elephant had a Birthday to celebrate recently! What better way to celebrate than with a cake? Even better a cake made from scratch from the great book of Marjorie Standish. It was a new recipe for me. A milk chocolate cake with miracle frosting. Sounds delicious, how could you go wrong with a name like that? 

The cake was super easy. Use the creaming method, with your sugar and fats then add sifted dry ingredients then combine all together alternately with melted chocolate. The batter was very light and airy and I could tell just from its texture that when it came out of the oven it was going to be moist and delicious. 

In my experience sometimes cake made from scratch can come out dry and crumbly. This was not the case with this recipe. It was in fact very moist. One modification I would make to the recipe if I were to make it again were to be to add more chocolate. However for the purposes of this project, I followed the recipe to a T and made it exactly the way Marjorie described. It still tasted delicious but could have used a bit more chocolate, and I think all you chocolate lovers out there would agree! 

The frosting was an interesting adventure. All of the ingredients get mixed together and then they sit for at least a half an hour. This allows the sugar time to dissolve in the liquid. After a half an hour the mixture goes on top of a double boiler and is brought to a boiling point. Following this, it is mixed either with an egg beater or by hand, your choice! 

When the frosting holds peaks you know you're done beating. If you time it correctly your cake will be cooling on the counter while you're mixing the frosting and then when you're done mixing you can move right into frosting your cake. 

My frosting never quite held stiff peaks and if I kept beating my fear was that it would have separated. I'm not quite sure why it happened this way but it still tasted fine and I was able to get it to a spreadable consistency. 

So I frosted my cake and put some candles in it for the Birthday boy and it was enjoyed by many! If you're looking for a yummy chocolate cake recipe to try then flip to this one. It's easy and delicious, more than likely you'll have all the ingredients in your cupboard. Give the frosting a whirl too, or try one of the other frostings listed in the book. 

We're nearing the end of Cooking Down East... lots more to write about. Stay tuned! 

Blue Elephant Cafe 

12 Pepperell Square 

Saco, Maine 04072

207-281-3070

www.blueelephantcatering.com

https://www.facebook.com/blueelephantevents

https://twitter.com/#!/BlueElephant3

Coffee Cake

I really like this recipe, the cake is so light and fluffy and the topping so sweet and crunchy. It reminds me of my mom's coffee cake recipe too. It is a little bit different, when she makes it it has sour cream and is much more dense. I love it but Marjorie's recipe might be strong contender! 

One thing Marjorie suggests is adding nuts, however I personally am not a fan of nuts on or in my desserts or coffee cake, not to mention the allergy factor. So I made half of the coffee cake with the nuts on top and half without. We still have plenty of squares left so head on in to give it a try for dessert or perhaps with just a cup of tea or coffee. YUM! 

Blue Elephant Cafe

12 Pepperell Square

Saco, Maine 04072

207-281-3070

www.blueelephantcatering.com

https://www.facebook.com/blueelephantevents

https://twitter.com/#!/BlueElephant3