Brown Warren - United cakes of America : recipes celebrating every state

We the people who love cake, in order to bake a more perfect dessert, reestablish the standard that true cake is baked from scratch, ensure the use of natural ingredients, provide for the common consumption of dessert in moderation, promote comfort foods, and secure the blessings of sharing dessert with friends and foe, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United Cakes of America.

These tenets are established to maintain the highest standards of dessert, create the opportunity to choose cake that actually tastes good, dedicate time to enjoy the fruits of the kitchen, and bestow upon all with curious and ravenous appetites just cause for decadence and tranquillity. To this end, we believe desserts should be baked and shared and recipes recorded and reinvented so that theyre better understood and widely consumed. Cake belongs to us because it brightens the smiles of all persons on Earth.

Make CakeLove and prosper from the bounty of happiness that accedes to it. Ours is a labor of love destined for consumption. Scratch-made baking conceals nothing, awakens only innocent desires, and awaits judgment by those who want sweets.

This is our truth. It is right. All are invited to share.

DEDICATION: To my wife, Pam, thank you for all of your love and support.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

I hear from a lot of people about cakes they make for their families and coworkers or in their start-up businesses. Sometimes they want to compare recipes; other times theyre just swapping stories. You might think that there isnt too much to a cake, until you take a close look at the different flavors that appear in kitchens across the country. The cakes popping out of the ovens in America sound as diverse as they are delicious. After a while I started wonderingwhat do we bake, and how? Baking from scratch is one of those disappearing arts that deserve preservation. Thats when I realized I needed to get out of D.C. and learn whats baking across the United States of America.

What connects a cake with a state? Sometimes history and tradition bond the two. Sometimes a crop makes up the backbone of the recipe or is the central flavor. Other times the cake reflects one of the many cultures in a given state. In a few instances, states have passed legislation recognizing official state desserts. What gives them common ground is the simple fact that in the United States we like desserts, and we celebrate our lives and our heritage with them at every occasion.

Passive research for this book began years ago, pre-CakeLove and all the way back to family vacations when I was a boy. Casually working my way through the options for dessert has always been one of the pleasures I enjoy. Im a foodie at heartI enjoy tasting something different at every meal just for the sake of adventure. Memories of cake for dessert or after-school snacks are some of the highlights from my past.

The active research was a lot of mental notes and ideas scrawled on scraps of paper since my early days of research leading up to opening CakeLove in 2002. Owning a bakery also means that whenever I travel Im obligated to seek out local bakeries and try a few itemsits really tough work! I look for specialties and never hesitate to ask how they were made. The hints and secrets Ive learned are all here.

Finally, research for a book about what were baking in our homes wouldnt have been possible without the vast resources on the Internet. Diving into the world of Americas home kitchens has a new meaning now that there are blogs and recipes posted online. I had a lot of fun adapting and tweaking traditional recipes that everyone loves.

Each state has at least one entry, but I couldnt resist dropping in a few extras when going with just one cake would have left great recipes in the reject pile. All the recipes are inspired by baking traditions in the fifty states or the bounty of the local farms within their borders. I also included the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico for the sake of the people who ought to enjoy statehood and its benefits. Taxation without representation wasnt fair in the colonial era, and its not fair now.

Its not all cake, either. I deferred to local specialties (Utah scones) or alternative desserts (maple crme brle) that stole the show during the taste-test portion of the research. I took the liberty because the recipes are just that much more interesting.

Baking desserts from every state is like looking through an alternative lens into the heart of America. Its a course of study in heirloom recipes with tastes and flavors that families enjoy at special holidays and ceremonies. I learned about the care that bakers put into crafting their wares and enjoyed their stories of invention by accident or innovation. I was reminded over and over again that baking is an act of love and done to bring pleasure to the world.

I put the spotlight on cakes not only because I own a bakery and people like to eat them, but also because they hold a special place in our culture. Made with just a few basic elements, a little artful mixing, and some time in the oven, they reveal the range of our creativity. But the real beauty of the cake is in the spirit it evokes. Presenting one quiets a room and brings focus on the guest of honor. Eating cake is intensely personal, awakening the memories we hold dearest.

I also wrote to encourage people to get into the kitchenits one of the most underutilized resources in America. Baking a cake from scratch isnt quite as easy as a piece of cake, but I think that just about anyone with enough heart to stand in the kitchen for an hour or so will find it rewarding. (Dont let fears of calories keep you awayeat in moderation and exercise!) Seeing and touching real ingredients will arouse a basic curiosity about whats in prepackaged foods, snacks, frozen meals, and more. It gets easier to make better choices once you have the baseline knowledge gained by starting from scratch. If cake can kick-start that understanding, then Im happy.

THE BIG PICTURE

Before we begin, lets take a step back and think about what were doing. Cakes are delicate. To create them, you have to use gentle hands and nimble fingers the whole time. Something delicate cannot sprout under the weight of heavy hands running roughshod over the ingredients. Nor will a soft and moist cake emerge from unattended equipment that overworks or overbakes a batter. Focus on what youre doing when you bake and the time you put in will pleasantly reward you.