Author: Andi Cohen-Rabiner

I'm a home cook and baker taking on the recipes of old. I collect vintage cookbooks and glassware and combine my collections to cook vintage recipes plated on vintage glassware.
Maple Syrup Layer Cake

Maple Syrup Layer Cake

by Andi Cohen-Rabiner ♥ 2 Comments

A Recipe from 100 Prize Winning Recipes from Pillsbury’s 5th Grand National Recipe & Baking Contest (1954)

About the Recipe

This cake is like a fluffy, maple cloud of crumbly goodness. I was a little bit skeptical about it, as on paper it sounds like it will be very sweet. I used real maple syrup and the balance was *just right*. The frosting is like a maple marshmallow, and the walnuts are just the right crunch to balance it out. This is the perfect cake for someone who likes something a little bit different.

Oh and pro tip – when it started getting a little bit stale, I crumbled over vanilla ice cream for a treat – YUM!

For more recipes in the Pillsbury Challenge, click here!

About the book

Another one of the originals of my Pillsbury collection, I absolutely love this book. It’s published in 1954 and it feels like folks were starting to experiment a little bit more. Your standard biscuits and pies just don’t cut it for this contest, and the group of cooks gets a bit creative. Definitely one to grab if you find it.

About the glassware

I feel like a fraud again! I only have one cake stand, and this is it. I did select it for the lovely dome which keeps things fresh and delicious.

The Recipe!

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups sifted flour
2 t double-acting baking powder
3/4 t soda
1/4 t ginger
1/2 t salt
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup maple-flavored syrup
1/2 cup hot water
2 T walnuts, chopped

Fluffy Maple Frosting:
2 egg whites
1/2 cup maple-flavored syrup
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 t Cream of Tartar
1/4 t salt
1 t vanilla

Directions:

Sift together flour, baking powder, soda, ginger, and salt. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Blend in maple syrup gradually.

Add hot water alternately with the dry ingredients to creamed mixture, beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Blend thoroughly after each addition. With electric mixer use low speed.

Turn into two well-greased and lightly floured 8-inch round layer pans, at least 1 1/4 inches deep. Bake in moderate oven (350*F) for 30-35 minutes. Cool and frost. Garnish with walnuts.

Fluffy Maple Frosting:
Combine egg whites, syrup, sugar, cream of tartar, and salt in top of double boiler. Cook over boiling water, beating constantly with rotary beater or electric mixer until mixture stands in peaks. Remove from heat. Add vanilla; continue beating until thick enough to spread.

Cumberland Sauce

Cumberland Sauce

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A Recipe from Wilson’s Meat Cookery (1941)

About the Recipe

At the start of the quarantine, my husband and I were stocking up at the grocery store, and I said “I’m going to try to cook duck!” Because – why not? It was a long road ahead and duck is something that we usually only get now and then in China-town. So I grabbed two duck breasts and started getting excited.

But then I discovered – there aren’t a ton of duck recipes. Modern or vintage, there are really only a handful of ways to cook a duck, and the easiest and tastiest is just to sear it. Score the skin side of the breast, and then put it skin side down in a hot pan over medium flame. Let the fat render and drain it off as it starts to spatter. Once the fat’s rendered and the skin is crispy (5-7 minutes) flip it over and sear the other side. And that’s it! Done!

So how do we make it vintage – with the sauce! This light, citrus-y sauce is the perfect accompaniment to the seared duck. I poured it over and let it soak briefly. Perfection.

There was plenty left over, so it’s saved to try some other ways. It should make a great dressing for a spinach salad, and I’m actually betting that it’s pretty good swirled in some yogurt or over vanilla ice cream.

About the book

This book came in the mail today and it was total kismet. The duck breasts were sitting, thawing on the counter and I opened the book right to the sauce. It came as part of a box from Bonnie Slotnick’s Cookbooks, a small cookbook shop in NYC’s East Village. If you’re ever in town, I highly recommend checking it out. Bonnie is delightful and her cookbook knowledge is encyclopedic. I can’t wait to dig into this book for more meat dishes in the future!

About the glassware

I love pulling out this Butterfly Gold Corelle platter. It was a gift from a friend who would have enjoyed this duck very much. It’s not super old, but it makes me smile.

The Recipe!

Ingredients:

3 T red currant jelly
2 T port wine
2 T orange juice
1 T lemon juice
1 t mixed mustard
1 t paprika
1/2 t ground ginger
3 T orange rind, finely shredded

Directions:

Melt jelly over low fire until liquid. Cool, add port wine, orange juice, lemon juice and spices. Cover orange rind with cold water, bring to boil and drain. Add blanched orange rind to first mixture and serve. 

Down East Crabmeat Pie

Down East Crabmeat Pie

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A Recipe from 100 Prize Winning Recipes from Pillsbury’s 4th Grand National Recipe & Baking Contest (1953)

About the Recipe

What an absolutely delightful way to kickoff my Pillsbury Challenge. This recipe was a bit like eating a crab cake pie. It made me think of afternoons picking crabs and drinking beer in the Baltimore Inner Harbor – basically a perfect afternoon.

It took some looking around to find the right “chili sauce” which nowadays means any sauce made from a chili and can range from sriracha to habanero sauce to regular old Heinz. Research notes that in the ’50s this would have been a plain old jar of Heinz so that’s what I went with. Quick note here – I would definitely sub out half of the plain chili sauce for something a little bit more spicy and exciting to give it more of a kick. While this pie is far from bland, it would be served well by a little something extra.

For more recipes in the Pillsbury Challenge, click here!

About the book

Published in 1953 for Pillsbury’s 4th Grand National contest, this book was one of my first, and is still one of my favorites. The recipes are so indicative of the time – lots of “pre-bake” or “freeze for later” notes from the cooks. If you ever see one of these books in the wild, grab it. You won’t be sorry.

About the glassware

Unfortunately, this pie pan is a fraud – a modern pan to accommodate a large pie. With the pandemic, I’m separated from my vintage pie pans, but this one is still lovely and was a gift from a close friend.

The Recipe!

Ingredients:

1 cup flour
1/2 t salt
1/3 cup Homogenized Spry (Crisco)
3-4 T water
2 cups (two 6.5 oz cans) crabmeat or other seafood
2/3 cup chili sauce
1/2 cup cooked green pepper, chopped
1/2 cup cooked celery, chopped
1/4 t salt
1 1/2 t grated onion

For the Cheese Sauce:
3 T butter or margarine
3 T flour
1/4 t salt
1/2 t Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup milk
1 cup grated processed cheese

Directions:

Sift together the flour and salt. Cut in the Spry until particles are the size of small peas. Sprinkle water over mixture, tossing lightly with fork until dough is moist enough to hold together. Form into a ball.

Roll out on floured pastry cloth or board to a circle 1 1/2 inches larger than inverted 9-inch pie pan. Fit pastry loosely into pie pan. Fold edge to form standing rim; flute. Prick crust with fork. Bake in hot oven (450*F) for 10 minutes.

Combine crabmeat, chili sauce, green pepper, celery, salt, and onion. Blend well. Turn into partially-baked pie shell. Pour cheese sauce on top. Bake in moderately hot oven (400*F) for 25 to 30 minutes. Serve hot.

CHEESE SAUCE:
Melt butter or margarine in top of double boiler over boiling water. Blend in flour, salt, Worcestershire sauce, and milk. Cook until mixture begins to thicken, stirring constantly. Blend in processed cheese.

More About the Pillsbury Challenge

More About the Pillsbury Challenge

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I have the fortune of belonging to a wonderful group on Facebook called Cooking Vintage. This community of collectors and cooks proudly shares and discusses vintage recipes and books, much to the delight of us all.

One day a woman posted about how much she loved the Pillsbury Bake-Off books. I jumped into the conversation – I also loved these books and was looking for more on my regular journeys to the antique stores. I had exactly 3 of them – the 4th, 5th, and 6th versions. But oh… I definitely wanted more.

Shortly after stating as much, two women in the group reached out to me – in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, and because they had so much overflow, they were going to gift me all of their duplicates. JOY!

So there they are – my total collection in all it’s floury recipe glory.

And I’m challenging myself to bake one recipe out of each of them, in order.

One thing I’ve noticed over a few years of cooking from these books is that they’re little time capsules into our kitchens. I’m looking forward to seeing how these recipes progress and change over the years.

Stay tuned to the main challenge page for recipes and adventures as I have them!