Tags
bake, baking soda, brandy, butter, capitalization, cinnamon, citron, cloves, crumbs for crows, currants, dash, eggs, Fame is a Fickle Food, flour, hymn, loaves, mace, meter, modern kitchen, molasses, nutmeg, pattern, pslam, punctuation, raisin, recipe black cake, sugar
So Em fans, you can be famous – just answer the question – Who are you? - by Friday, July 2.
Use punctuation, capitalization, hymns or psalms, meter or pattern – or not. We love Em’s idiosyncratic dash – write short – stun, surprise, please us.
As for crumbs the crows will inspect, try this:
Emily Dickinson’s Black Cake Recipe
(updated for modern kitchens)
Place a shallow pan of water on the bottom of the oven. Preheat oven to 225 F.
2 cups sugar
1/2 pound butter
5 eggs
1/4 cup molasses
2 cups sifted flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cloves
1 tsp mace
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 nutmeg, ground
1/4-1/2 cup brandy
1 pound raisins
2/3 pound currants
2/3 pound citron
Add sugar gradually to butter; blend until light and creamy. Add unbeaten eggs & molasses. Beat well. Resift flour with soda and spices. If you’re using unsalted butter, add 1/2 tsp salt. Beat sifted ingredients into mixture, alternately adding brandy. Stir in raisins, currants, and citron.
Pour batter into two loaf pans lined with waxed paper.
Bake at 225 F for 3 hours (this is not a typo). Remove pan of water for last 1/2 hour. Let loaves cool before removing from pans. Remove paper and wrap in fresh paper.
