Angostura and Spice Make a Cake Quite Nice

Note: This column appeared in The Chapel Hill News and is reproduced here for blog readers because the newspaper does not maintain its links.

Thanks for coming to my first column, sit anywhere you’d like.

If I’m doing my job right, Fork & Spoon will have the same relaxed feel of your favorite restaurant or childhood kitchen. I aim to make the column many things—diverse, personal, interesting—but mostly it will be fun. After all, my cooking has never been mistaken for high cuisine.

I love to experiment in the kitchen. I’ll infuse my column with that adventurous spirit, but I probably won’t write about anything garlic-infused. I think you get the drift. On to the food!

With autumn around the corner, it’s almost birthday season. At least in my family it is. And on the Bloom side of things, what separates the special birthdays from the ho-hum ones is an Angostura spice cake.

I know, I know—a what cake? I’ll explain. Angostura is the brand-name of the bitters you’ll find behind any decent bar. Yup, the same stuff that fuels Old Fashioneds and Manhattans makes cakes sing.

Concocted in 1824 by a German scientist in Venezuela, the aromatic blend of herbs and spices found a home in Trinidad. That Caribbean country still packages the bitters in the distinctive white paper-wrapped bottle.

By the 1940’s, Angostura was quite familiar to my grandfather Samuel Bloom, manager of a wholesale liquor company. As part of their promotions, the Trinidadian company sent him something called the Angostura Cookbook. He brought it home and, flipping past recipes like Jellied Angostura Salad and Hamburgers Angostura, pointed out a certain cake that looked interesting.

My grandmother, the esteemed and now 90-years-proud Ethel Bloom, gave it whirl. I’m asking you to do the same.

Today, you can find bottles of Angostura in most supermarket’s adult beverage aisles, usually mingling with the maraschino cherries and sour mix. Alternately, you can ask your favorite bartender for two teaspoons of the reddish liquid.

When you get to baking, a ten-inch cake pan is ideal, but a bundt or rectangular pan will work fine. The recipe calls for pastry flour, but I say if Harris Teeter doesn’t have it, it can’t be that important. All-purpose flour it is, then.

If you have a sifter, dust it off and mix the dry ingredients to create a blend of spices and flour. If not, a mixing bowl and fork will do the trick.

A word of caution: don’t use whole cloves and try to crush them yourself like someone in my family once did. Unlike peanut butter, nobody likes a crunchy cake.

One other minor thing—don’t forget to add the Angostura, as I almost did the last time I made it. It’s kind of important.

When it’s baked to its autumnal perfection, the cake will have a graham cracker tint and taste like a few gingerbread men snuck into a pumpkin pie.

Cool and serve, morning, noon or night. I should mention that my family tends to enjoy an Angostura cake on birthdays and the following breakfast. Now that’s good fun.

My family has been using this recipe for more than 50 years. I’m not sure you’ll be able to perfect the Angostura spice cake like Grandma Bloom has, but it’s never too late to start a new tradition. After all, somebody’s birthday (or half-birthday) must be coming up.



Angostura Spice Cake

Ingredients:
½ cup butter
2 cups brown sugar
3 eggs (separated)
2 cups flour
1 cup sour cream
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon allspice
½ teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons Angostura bitters

Directions:
Separate the eggs, keeping both the yolks and whites. Cream the shortening and sugar until fluffy. Add the beaten egg yolks. Sift the flour with the salt, baking soda, and spices. Add the sour cream and the flour mixture alternately to the creamed shortening. Beat the egg whites until stiff (not liquidy) and add to the batter. Pour the sacred Angostura into the mix and blend until it’s smooth. Pour the batter into a greased and floured ten-inch cake pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. It may need five more minutes, depending on preferred level of gooeyness.

Frosting

Ingredients:
2 teaspoons Angostura
½ cup butter
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
dash of salt

Directions:
Blend butter, sugar, Angostura and salt until smooth. Add a touch of milk if desired. Frost away.