Memories of CAKE

A

New Year

always

conjures up

memories

of

the past

I

suppose

that

was

what

ol' Robbie Burns

had in

mind

with

Auld Lang Sine

and

why

the song is sung

on

New Year's Eve

he

wrote

that it was

a

time to remember

times gone by

I

had

a

"cake memory"

yesterday

(January 2, 2010)

the

memory

was

of a

cake

my mom

used to bake

my mom

didn't

really

bake,

or

like to bake,

but

she

often

made

this

cake

AND

I

LOVED

IT!

...

this

cake

was

fragrant

with

nutmeg,

crunchy

with

walnuts

and

oh, so moist

and

I

remember

it being

Armenian

or

middle Eastern

Gotta

love

GOOGLE

I

typed in

"nutmeg cake"

and

"Armenian cake"

and all sorts of words

hoping

to spark

the

"cake memory"

and

voila`

the memory

came

alive

in a recipe!

sweet

sweet

success!

the

"memory cake"

is

from

George Mardikian's

1944 cookbook

Dinner at Omar Khayyams

exactly!!

(I remembered the cookbook!)

My

folks

used to

enjoy

Omar Khayyam's restaurant

in

San Francisco

for

special

occasions

I think I was there once or twice

and

my mom

must

have

snagged

the

cookbook

I

found

the

recipe

"All Purpose Cake"

and then,

I

explored

and

found

an

similar

version

of

the

all-purpose

"memory cake"

****

Annie

(aka Dottie)

tweaked

with

the changes

baked

the

cake

for

Petit Soleil' s

breakfast guests

AND

the

cake

is

AS GOOD

if not better

than

the

original

Here's the recipe:

1 c. raisins

2 c. brown sugar

2 c. flour

1/2 stick cold butter, but in cubes

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 c. sour cream

1 egg, beaten

1 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg

1/4 c. chopped walnuts

Cover raisins with hot water and soak for 15 minutes to plump. Drain and pat dry.

Heat oven to 325 f. and spray spring form pan lightly with Pam.

Combine sugar, flour, butter and salt in food processor and pulse only until crumbly.

Measure 2 c. of mixture and spread evenly on the bottom of the prepared pan. Press down to form a mock crust.

Mix baking soda into sour cream.

Mix remaining flour mixture with sour cream, egg, nutmeg and raisins. Spread evenly over crust and top with chopped walnuts.

Bake for 50-60 minutes

it

was

so fun

that

Annie

(aka Dottie)

baked my

"memory cake"

..

I

do

believe

my

Scottish

mom

was

working

through

her

for

auld lang sine