Maida Heatter Cake Food

MAIDA HEATTER'S PUMPKIN LOAF

Steps:

• Butter a 10"x5" loaf pan and spritz with baking spray. Preheat oven to 350.
• Sift together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and cloves. Set aside.
• In large bowl, beat eggs just to mix. Add sugar and oil and beat lightly just to mix.
• Mix in the pumpkin puree and dates.
• Add sifted dry ingredients, and mix only until they are smoothly incorporated.
• Stir in the walnuts.
• Turn into prepared pan and smooth top. Bake 1-1/2 hours. (If you use two smaller pans, bake 65-70 minutes.).
• Cool in pan for 15 minutes. Invert pan and let cake stand until cool. Cake is best if prepared the day before serving.

MAIDA HEATTER'S BEST DARN LEMON CAKE EVER

Steps:

• Spray an 8-1/2"x5" loaf pan with baking spray.
• Grind almonds very fine and set aside.
• Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside.
• In a small heavy saucepan, melt butter. Transfer to a large bowl. With electric mixer, add sugar and beat a bit to mix.
• On low speed, beat in eggs one at a time, beating only to mix well.
• Add dry ingredients in three additions, alternating with milk in two additions, scraping bowl with a spatula and beating until mixed after each addition.
• Mix in lemon extract.
• Remove from mixer. Stir in grated rind, then stir in ground almonds.
• Turn mixture into pan. (It will be thin.) Bake at 350 for 65-75 minutes. (During baking, cake will form a large crack or two on top, and crack(s) will remain light in color.).
• A few minutes before cake is finished, prepare glaze: stir sugar and lemon juice in a small saucepan over moderate heat, only until sugar is just dissolved. (Don't boil!).
• When cake is removed from the oven, let it stand for 2-3 minutes. Then, using brush, brush the hot glaze gradually over the hot cake. Glaze should not be applied quickly; it should take about 5 minutes to apply all the glaze.
• Let cake stand until not quite completely cool. Then gently invert onto a rack and turn right side up. When cool, wrap in plastic wrap or foil and let stand 12-24 hours before serving.

MAIDA HEATTER'S EAST 62ND STREET LEMON CAKE

Steps:

• Adjust oven rack 1/3 from bottom of oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter 9x3-1/2-inch tube pan and dust it lightly with fine, dry bread crumbs.
• Sift flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside. In large bowl of electric mixer cream the butter. Add the sugar and beat for 2 to 3 minutes. Beat in the eggs individually, scraping the bowl as necessary with a rubber spatula to keep mixture smooth. On lowest speed alternately add the dry ingredients in three additions and the milk in two additions, scraping the bowl with the rubber spatula as necessary and beating only until smooth after each addition. Stir in lemon rind. Turn the batter into prepared pan. Level top by rotating pan briskly back and forth.
• Bake for 1 hour and 10 to 15 minutes until a cake tester comes out dry.
• Let cake stand in pan for about 3 minutes and then cover with a rack and invert. Remove pan, leaving the cake upside down. Place over a large piece of aluminum foil or waxed paper and prepare glaze.
• The glaze must be used immediately after it is mixed.
• Stir the lemon juice and sugar together and brush all over the hot cake until absorbed.
• Let cake cool completely. Use two wide metal pancake turners or a cookie sheet to transfer it to a cake plate.
• Do not cut for at least several hours.

FLORIDA RUM CAKE

Steps:

• Adjust a rack 1/3 up from the bottom of the oven; preheat oven to 350°.
• Butter a one-piece kugelhopf or bundt-type pan that has an 8-10 cup capacity (best to use soft butter and a pastry brush).
• Dust the pan all over with fine, dry breadcrumbs, then, over a piece of paper, tap to shake out excess crumbs; set aside.
• Into a bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
• In a large bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter until it is soft.
• Add in the sugar and beat to mix well.
• Add in the eggs, one at a time, and beat to mix after each addition.
• On low speed, add the sifted dry ingredients in three additions alternately with the buttermilk in two additions, scraping the bowl as necessary and beating only until smooth after each addition.
• Remove bowl from mixer; stir in grated rinds and then the nuts.
• Turn batter into prepared pan and smooth the top.
• Bake for 55-60 minutes, until the top springs back sharply when it is lightly pressed with a fingertip.
• Meanwhile, to prepare the glaze: add both juices and sugar to a small saucepan; set aside.
• When the cake is done, remove it from the oven and set it on a rack; immediately place the saucepan over medium or high heat and stir with a small wooden spoon until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture just comes to a low boil.
• Remove pan from heat and stir in the rum.
• Pierce all over the top of the cake with a cake tester.
• Gradually spoon the hot glaze over the hot cake (still in the pan), spooning only about 1 tablespoon at a time.
• When about half of the glaze has been added, and some of it remains around the rim of the cake pan (instead of being absorbed immediately), use a small, narrow metal spatula or a table knife and gently ease the edges of the cake (around the tube also) just a bit away from the pan, allowing the glaze to run down the sides.
• Continue adding the glaze (and releasing the sides occasionally) until it is all absorbed (toward the end you will wonder, but the cake will absorb it all).
• Let stand for about 10 minutes, until the bottom of the pan is not too hot to touch.
• Then cover the pan with a cake plate, hold the pan and plate firmly together, and turn them over.
• Remove the pan; brush away any loose crumbs on the plate.
• Let stand for a few hours and then cover airtight with plastic wrap; let stand overnight (if possible).
• Serve in thick slices-when you cut the cake you will see it has absorbed the glaze on the outer edges, not all the way through to the middle.

MAIDA HEATTER'S ZUCCHINI LOAF

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• Butter a 10 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan or any other bread loaf pan that has a 10 cup capacity.
• Dust the pan with flour or fine dry bread crumbs and tap to shake out excess crumbs over paper.
• Sift together flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon and set aside.
• Wash zucchini well under running water, and cut off both ends.
• Grate the zucchini. Do not drain. Press it firmly into a measuring cup. Set aside.
• In a large bowl, beat the eggs just to mix. Mix in the sugar oil ans vanilla.
• Add the sifted dry ingredients and stir to mix. It will be thick.
• Add the zucchini and mix thoroughly.
• If using, stir in nuts and chocolate chips.
• Turn into the prepared pan, smooth the top and bake.
• If one large pan, loaf will bake for about 1 hours and 45 minutes. If using smaller loaf pans, it will take slightly less time. Either way, bake until a cake tester comes out clean and dry.
• Cool in pan for 15 minutes, then cover with a rack, turn over the rack and cake pan, remove the pan and turn over again, leaving the cake right side up.
• ENJOY!