The restrictions imposed upon us during the last months, have sparked an unprecedented surge of activity in the kitchen. People who have never toasted an English muffin are now turning them out from scratch. Others are whipping up cakes and pies for the first time. In some areas, yeast is more prized than diamonds, and there’s been an exploding trend in growing sour dough starter at home. Expressing the creative impulse through the process of cookery can be a fully satisfying artistic endeavor.
This season we’re featuring the delicious and beautiful cakes of Faith Wolf, owner and president of Piece A’ Cake Confections. Faith’s imaginative touch is evident everywhere in her couture cake studio that provides made-to-order confections for all kinds of special events throughout the Baltimore-Washington corridor. A talented baker and decorating artist, she’s also a certified culinary instructor who teaches classes in gourmet kosher cuisine to adults. A member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals, she’s noted for her course “Cooking with Faith” which has been featured in numerous publications and on a variety television shows.
Born in Brooklyn, NY and raised on Long Island, she learned about kosher cooking at an early age crediting her grandmother and father for the development of her interest and skills. She earned her A.B. cum laude from Mount Holyoke College and her master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University. Her cakes have been lauded as works of art. Here are samples of the masterpieces she’s produced:
Kentucky Butter Cake
“Cooking with Faith” tm 1998
This 40th Birthday Cake is a prime illustration of her philosophy that “How good your cake tastes is just as important as how beautiful it looks.” Beneath this fabulous frosting representing news items from the year of the celebrant’s birth is Faith’s famous Kentucky Butter Cake. It emerges from an easy recipe that tases extravagantly delicious.
Ingredients:
Cake:
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 cup butter (I use pareve margarine)
2 tsp. vanilla
4 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk (I use ¾ cup of coconut or almond milk and ¼ cup white vinegar)
Butter Sauce:
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 tsp. water
1/3 cup butter (or margarine)
2 tsp. vanilla
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease a 10” tube pan or 12” fluted bundt pan.
2. Combine all the ingredients in a mixing bowl, except the buttermilk and beat well.
3. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
4. Add the buttermilk (or faux buttermilk mixture) and continue to beat approximately 3 minutes at medium speed.
Make the butter (or faux butter) sauce:
5. Heat ingredients in a saucepan until the butter melts. Do not boil.
6. Once the cake comes out of the oven, poke cake with thin skewer all over.
7. Pour the hot butter mixture over the cake.
8. Cool before removing the cake from the pan.
9. Dust with confectionary sugar before serving if desired.
If current circumstances afford you the luxury of extra time in the kitchen, you might choose to spend it assembling one of my favorite chocolate extravaganzas. It’s an elaborate recipe, but Faith virtually leads even novice cooks through the steps that result in Faith’s Chocolate Mousse Cake. You might want to reserve it for a special occasion, say your wedding anniversary’s one-couple party or your next-door neighbor’s birthday. But special times call for special measures, so live a little and offer it as an everyday treat for you and your sheltering buddies. Right now, the recipe is my gift to you. Request it by email via readers@tobydevens.com and I’ll email it back to you.
Stay safe, stay well, and stay well fed.