1924 Devil's Food Cake

 It looks rather modern with the gummy worms and cookie crumb dirt.   However, this is a modern  birthday cake made with a Devil's Food Cake from 1924, called Cake Secrets.  The booklet was produced by the Carnol Tonic and Restorative company.  Alternating pages have either recipes for cakes, frostings or fillings  and the opposite pages have testimonials for the tonics.   I noticed that some of the recipes seem to be from other cookery books.  As well, some recipes have suggested fillings or frostings, but the recipes aren't in the book! 

This recipe was chosen to fulfill a challenge using ingredients which you wouldn't normally use together.  In this recipe, it's the use of chocolate and potatoes, which I'd never, ever imagined would be ingredients that I'd put together.  Because I had no leftover mashed potatoes, I had to actually boil, mash and cool the potatoes before I made the cake.   I frosted the cake with a whipped ganache.  Usually this is a simple and nearly fool proof frosting.  Unfortunately the kitchen was cool and the chocolate seemed to start setting up before it was completely incorporated into the whipping cream.   It tasted superb though and wasn't noticeable when eating it.  Only that it was a little bit rough in looks.

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I didn't add the nuts to the cake, though it would have made a nice addition.  I used one of the layers that this cake made to take to a pot luck luncheon and left the nuts out due to possible allergies.   

It says to bake in 3 layers, which I took to mean to bake in 3 separate pans.   I only had 2 the same size though and ended up overfilling the pans, which might have contributed to the denseness of the cakes.    I would definitely do  3 thinner layers next time.  Also, not having Swans Down Cake Flour, or any cake flour on hand, I just used scant cups of all purpose flour.  This may have made a difference as well

In all, it was a very rich and moist cake.    After 4 days, the cake was still moist and not showing any signs of stale crumbs at all.    In fact, when I tossed the remaining bits, they were as moist as when it was first baked.  This is definitely a good recipe to play with, plus it was very tasty.  Everyone who tried it liked the flavour and texture.

Warmed over Chicken, 1896 recipe

This is a creamed chicken recipe from the Boston School of Cookery cookbook, by Fanny Farmer.  I used the recipe from the 1896 edition, but the one from the 1918 edition of the cookbook is exactly the same, and a bit easier to read because of the print quality.

It's a basic white sauce, with added diced chicken and mushrooms. I used ground chicken because I'd forgotten I'd used up the frozen leftover chicken from the last roast chicken.   The parsley garnish is because I had some which needed using up.  

The potato border was just mashed potatoes piped onto the dish, using a pastry bag and piping tip before adding the sauce.   I'd suggest using a larger piping tip though because any tiny lump got caught in mine.   It was an easy dish to make and it looked so pretty on the plate.

The chicken in sauce was quite delicious.  The white sauce worked perfectly with the chicken and was so easy to make.   Despite this being a dish of leftovers, I think with this presentation, one could easily serve this to company or someone you wanted to impress just a little bit.