Quince Cake: When Ugly is Better

Keats wrote:

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever: 
Its lovliness increases; it will never 
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep 
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep 
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.

And except for the lovliness aspect of his poem Endymion, I'm pretty sure he could have been talking about a quince cake.

Made for our searching: yes, in spite of all, 
Some shape of beauty moves away the pall

I'm picking up what you're throwing down, Mr. Keats.  This ugly cake is the epitome of Southern comfort food.  It's made simply using any good butter cake batter and quince preserves or jelly.  Quince preserves aren't my favorite since there's been no milk cow to supply clotted cream on a regular basis for a good many years.  Quince jelly provides the sweet tartness for a very rich dessert that takes far less time to put together than imaginable.


Of all the unhealthy and o'er-darkn'd ways 
Made for our searching: yes, in spite of all... 


Yes, sir, unhealthy in spite of all.  If it doesn't satisfy your sweet tooth there's not a thing more, except possibly chocolate, that will.  This is one of those very rich cakes.  You know the kind...half of the people you know will say, "OOOh, don't cut me but a little piece of that, it's too rich for me!"  It's a Southern dessert.  Of course it's rich.


So annnnyways... Mrs. Smith used to cook her cake on top of the stove.  Sometimes, too, she'd bake it in the cast iron skillets used stove top.  Stove top is better:  the cake has that element of buttery-ness not in the baked cake.  Stove top cooking is what makes it look like a stack of huge honkin' pancakes or crepes-on-roids.  And when slathered generously with quince jelly??  Ohhh my!


It's an easy cake to make, the most difficult part is regulating the heat of the skillets/griddles.  Since the cake batter is thicker than pancake batter the pans need to be a little cooler, but not much.  The next difficult thing is flipping the cake from one skillet to another.  It takes two hands so there's not a photo of the mess that landed on the floor the second time the process.  


It goes very quickly so be watching!

 The overhead light is out.  I had to use the flash on the camera,

which means you can't see the medium-low flame under the griddle

and skillet.

 There's a lullaby of a buttery sizzle going on in both pans.
The back burner is a little lower than the front one,
just enough to keep that skillet warm.

 It's a butter cake that's going to get pan cooked in one

cup increments.

 That's one cup of cake batter measured and put/spread

into a hot skillet.

 See?  It really is like cooking a huge pancake.  The cake batter, though

won't cook exactly like a pancake which is why you need two skillets/griddles.

 Check around the edges.  

 It's the tricky part!

 Tadadaaaaa!  Don't worry about perfection;  plenty of that in heaven.
Let the spill cook.  It's very easy to remedy  when this layer

is cooked.

 It's an old fashioned cake.  It's an old fashioned cake plate.
Flip the cooked layer right onto the plate.

 Get a second layer started cooking after wiping out the pans and

reslathering with butter.

 Spoon approximately one-third of a cup of quince jelly on the warm cake.

 Spread to the edges.  The jelly softens very quickly on the warm cake,

spreading it is very easy.

 Layer 2

 Layer 3

 Yeahhhhh... it's true:  the temps on the pans only get right for the

next-to-the-last layer.

 Layer 4
Don't you LOVE the precious pound cake/bread slicer 

I talked Mama into giving me while she was napping
Mama gave me today?

Layer 5

It never fails, the last one will be smaller than the rest.
I should've eaten it:  we eat our mistakes around here.

And that's it!  That's all there is to one of the most Southern desserts you'll ever find yourself drooling over, but don't take MY word for it.  


The quince is a large tart fruit.  Down here they're big knobby yellowish looking fruit that ripen well into the fall months.  I make it a point to eat one a year, with that year's allowance of sodium used in the consumption of it.  There's a written rule somewhere that crab apples, green plums, and raw quince mandate excess salt intake.  


Does it have to be quince jelly?  Only if making this **snicker** quince-essential Southern comfort cake. Do yourself a favor and make this for your family using your favorite jam or jelly.  They'll remember it forever, even if it isn't a thing of beauty!


An endless fountain of immortal drink, 
Pouring unto us from the heaven's brink. 


I really think he WAS talking about this cake...


Y'all enjoy!

Grandmama's Pumpkin Fat Cake aka Pumpkin Chess Pie Cake aka Paula Deen's Pumpkin Gooey Cake

Grandmama calls it Chess Pie Cake.  Paula Deen calls it Gooey Cake.  The Fellows call it Fat Cake 'cause once you've started eating it you can't stop until it's all gone;  then you feel all fat.  I've grown partial to calling it Fat Cake.

It looks unassuming, crumbly, dense, perhaps even ordinary.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.  It's rich - oh so rich - with a buttery crusty layer and a sweetened cream cheese filling with a hint of vanilla that will send blood sugar levels sky rocketing.  It's Biblically good.

For Thanksgiving, Grandmama often adds pumpkin to the filling for a holiday flair.  I called her last week to get the recipe.  We talked for a solid two hours, catching up on fambly news on either side.  We're careful not to pry where prying would be rudely invasive:  she's my son's other grandmother:  X's mom.  She's one massive blessing in my life, past and present, and I'm glad we remain friends.  She's the one that made the first Fat Cake I'd ever had the privilege of overindulging on.  It's at her house The Fellows started calling it Fat Cake.  The name and calories stuck.

I've been baking for other folks the last two weeks, continuing right through Friday evening with a groom's cake to be assembled this weekend.  One extended fambly member had ordered two cakes and something else -- whatever I wanted to bake.  I wanted Pumpkin Fat Cake.

I had baked this fambly member the best looking cream cheese pound cake ever.  It was cooling in the dining room on the table set up for cakes.

You know how I blame stuff on the dog sometimes? I caught him in the act of indulging his sweet tooth on a good chunk of that beautiful pound cake.  I seldom holler at him but I was so mad I fairly screamed at him.   He was still moping when I started assembling Fat Cake.

Annnnyways.  Fat Cake.  Pumpkin Fat Cake.

For the crust you'll need:
one box butter cake mix
one egg
one stick margarine butter

Y'all know I'm going to do this the easy way.  Break out the Cuisinart and put the crust ingredients in, pulsing until everything is mixed.  Somehow, all the butter was taken out of the refrigerator and had come to room temperature.  Actually, I know the somehow, distraction from all the do-overs this weekend (don't get me started on the chocolate sponge cake).  It's a small matter to be dealt with:  the crust mixture is sticky and gloopy.  IF you can remember to not take it out and the butter is cold, the mixture will be nice and crumbly and it can be pressed into the 9 x 13 pan very easily.

As it is, the mixture is gloopy (for lack of a better adjective)

and requires a bit of skill and finesse to spread non-stick cooking spray

generously applied to the hands

to press the gloopy crust mix evenly and into the corners of the pan.  I've pan-coated my pans but non-stick cooking spray, alone, will work fine for this recipe.

Tadadaaaaaaaa!  They multiplied!!!!

I don't clean the Cuisinart bowl.  It's not necessary.  Any small amount of the crust won't harm or alter the cream cheese filling flavor.  I'm all about saving the universe from entropy, being careful to conserve energy on every level -- even down to not expending energy on cleaning the Cuisinart when not needed!

I put all the filling ingredients in it at once.  Yep.  All of them:
three eggs
eight ounces cream cheese
16 ounces (one box) confectioners' sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
nutmeg or any other pie spices desired, to taste
one can of pumpkin

Process until well blended and smooth.  It's a bowlful of filling so you'll want to be quick about getting it poured on top of the prepared crust.

Bake at 350 degrees an hour.  Or so.  Until set. My oven is slow so it takes almost two hours to bake until the filling is set.  Let cool, cut into squares, large or small, and enjoy!

Youngest Fellow describes them as pumpkin pie fat cake.  I suppose that'll work too!

The basic recipe and instructions for Grandmama's (plain) Fat Cake are:
1 box butter cake mix                                         8 oz. cream cheese
1 egg                                                                        16 oz. confectioner's sugar
1 stick butter                                                         1/2 teaspoon vanilla

3 eggs

Preheat oven to 350.  Mix and press in bottom of 9 x 13 pan the butter cake mix, one egg, and butter.  Set aside.  Mix 3 eggs, cream cheese, sugar and vanilla.  Pour over cake mixture in pan.  Bake 50 minutes to 1 hour until top layer is set.

Thank you, Ann McCoy, for the conversation and recipe.  Love you BIG!!!