It's time to bake a cake
November 1, 2016 8:39 AM   Subscribe

BBC News: As the sun rises over the Old World Levain (OWL) Bakery in Asheville, North Carolina, a heady, warm scent of spices floats through the air outside. In the kitchen, bakers Susannah Gebhart and Maia Surdam are working with sourdough culture, dried fruit, butter, sorghum syrup and generous measures of sherry and whisky to revive an American tradition. Bon Appetit: Werner opted for an earthy rye and buckwheat base, with bourbon-bolstered stone fruits, and a toothsome mix of poppy seeds, flax seeds, and cocoa nibs. Miscovich chose an egalitarian version filled with currants and spices, minus the booze, so that everyone can partake. Actual recipe and another recipe, and a related 2014 song from Eurovision.

Nourished kitchen: Families traveled from the far reaches of their region to town centers where they enjoyed a holiday – visiting neighbors homes, dancing at balls, drinking, carousing and mustering for the local militia.

What's Cooking America: Colonial women vied with each other as to who baked the best cakes as families exchanged visits and treated their guest with slices of this cake.

Cooking Channel: In our testing, we found that if you let the dough rise for much longer than the 2 hours indicated, the center of the ring sinks when baking. So put it in the oven when it's only three-quarters of the way up the pan.

NPR: "It's quite a beguiling little cake," Gebhart tells NPR's Michel Martin. She says it's "in the camp" of fruitcake and "not too sweet," but describes the sweetness that is there as "complex."
posted by Wordshore (22 comments total) 22 users marked this as a favorite
 
That Eurovision song is one of mankind's most awful crimes and I curse you for reminding me of its insufferable, smug, twee existence.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 8:47 AM on November 1, 2016 [5 favorites]


That Eurovision song is one of mankind's most awful crimes and I curse you for reminding me of its insufferable, smug, twee existence.

You're welcome.
posted by Wordshore at 8:56 AM on November 1, 2016 [1 favorite]


If we're talking about baked-good related Eurovision songs from 2014 I MUCH prefer the Belarussian entry Cheesecake because it is not an abomination.
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 9:07 AM on November 1, 2016 [2 favorites]


I love that Eurovision song - I hum it every time I "bake a cake /I've never done that before ... call your mother ... make some dough, add some love, wait for it..."
posted by jb at 9:31 AM on November 1, 2016 [2 favorites]


(ellipses because I am terrible at remembering lyrics and I didn't look that up)
posted by jb at 9:32 AM on November 1, 2016


I think this election calls for the booziest cake one can muster. A traditional English wedding cake might do, a coworker of mine brought part of hers in once and that stuff was booze held together in a cake matrix.

Could do with a slice right now, it's 5:00 somewhere.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 9:35 AM on November 1, 2016 [2 favorites]


I love me a multi-step fruitcake. And getting to fiddle with a bread starter and getting a cake at the end of it? Sounds awesome.

There's is a good chance that this is going to happen at Chez Motion this weekend (whether it makes it to the election party I'm supposed to attend Tuesday night is a whole 'nother question).
posted by sparklemotion at 9:46 AM on November 1, 2016 [2 favorites]


I don't know if I can take it
posted by farlukar at 9:54 AM on November 1, 2016 [2 favorites]


The OWL Bakery is right across town from where I sit currently, hunched over like the post-Halloween, pre-election mugwump that I am. Must go there before day is out. I like this, from one of the bakers: "Baked goods are the most primal icebreaker."
posted by Bob Regular at 10:05 AM on November 1, 2016


I have never made a sourdough starter, but maybe I should try!
posted by suelac at 10:05 AM on November 1, 2016


I don't know if I can take it

Oh no! But at least now you'll have that recipe again.
posted by trip and a half at 10:15 AM on November 1, 2016 [3 favorites]


Yeah, about that
posted by rhizome at 10:33 AM on November 1, 2016 [1 favorite]


A traditional English wedding cake might do


They probably have a common origin, considering that the election cake was traditionally meant to celebrate the symbolic marriage of the President to the state. It was for this reason that the President was originally also required to escort a young woman dressed as the Spirit of Columbia to the inaugural ball. This practice was ended in 1917, after a jealous Edith Wilson challenged Mary Pickford to a knife-fight.


I made all of that up.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 11:27 AM on November 1, 2016 [13 favorites]


As the sun rises over the Old World Levain (OWL) Bakery in Asheville, North Carolina, a heady, warm scent of spices floats through the air outside. In the kitchen, bakers Susannah Gebhart and Maia Surdam are working with sourdough culture, dried fruit, butter, sorghum syrup and generous measures of sherry and whisky to revive an American tradition.

Did anyone else read this in the exact tone and cadence of Orson Wells trying to make it through the Frozen Peas commercial? Or was that just me?
posted by radwolf76 at 12:54 PM on November 1, 2016 [4 favorites]


Well, Bob Regular, I'm just down the road (Haywood) from the bakery and haven't managed to get there yet. But I will.
posted by MovableBookLady at 2:47 PM on November 1, 2016 [1 favorite]


Why haven't there been any Asheville meetups? We should go to a bakery!
posted by 4th number at 3:04 PM on November 1, 2016


While we're on the subject of horrible cake-baking songs, I think LazyTown's Cooking by the Book deserves an honorable mention not only because it spawned an obscene and hilarious (but too crude to link, I think) mashup with a Lil Jon song, but also because it's actually kind of an interesting composition with a weird, dissonant minor chord or something in the middle of the chorus (on the words "hazy"/"crazy").
posted by Pfardentrott at 5:30 PM on November 1, 2016 [1 favorite]


I love the "Cake To Bake" song so, so much. It's right up there with "Wolves Of The Sea" to me.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 5:44 PM on November 1, 2016 [2 favorites]


We've had lots of Asheville meetups over the years. It's been a long time though. On a possibly related note I never heard of this bakery and um. . . oops, it's less than a mile from my house so clearly I am waaaay out of touch these days.
posted by mygothlaundry at 7:09 PM on November 1, 2016


Singing to my cat "just down Haywood, just down Haywood, goin' to the bak-er-y!"

My songs aren't very clever, admittedly.

OWL is great! But I have to consider anything I get there as two meals.
posted by sutt at 3:43 AM on November 2, 2016


Ha, Shepherd & I are currently in Asheville as part of our vacation. I love bread so I should check it out!
posted by Kitteh at 6:39 AM on November 2, 2016


Ha, Shepherd & I are currently in Asheville as part of our vacation. I love bread so I should check it out!

And then you should hit up Taco Billy just around the corner and down the hill... and then you should definitely hit the Hole Donut shop (it just won Best Dessert of 2016 by Bon Appetite magazine), just a block further down the hill... and then...
posted by sutt at 1:52 PM on November 2, 2016


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