Bella Bakes in a wood cook stove

A Note from big sister Abby

I have grown up in Granny’s kitchen. Some of my earliest memories are of having to pull a chair up to the counter to stand on it so that I could help her make biscuits. Even though I really doubt that I was helping that much. Now my sister Bella has taken up most of the baking, but I still really enjoy helping Granny in the kitchen when I get the chance.

With Christmas just around the corner, we thought this beautiful cake would be the perfect first bake for our new wood cook stove.

The crystalized sugar decorations of rosemary and cranberries added the perfect Christmas touch. So before we started baking, Bella headed out to the herb garden to cut a few sprigs of fresh rosemary.

Cranberry Cake with Snowy Icing

(adapted from a recipe by Seasons and Suppers)

Ingredients

• 4 eggs separated
• 1 3/4 C. sugar
• 1 T. vanilla
• 1 C. canola oil
• 2 1/2 C. all-purpose flour
• 2 t. baking powder
• 1 t. cinnamon
• 1/4 t. ginger
• 1/4 t. nutmeg
• 1/2 C. milk
• 2 C. cranberries (fresh, frozen, or dried)

Frosting

• 3 C. powdered sugar
• 2 t. vanilla
• 6 T. softened butter
• 4 T. milk

Method— 350 degrees

Before you start to mix ingredients, build up fire in the firebox. Our oven thermometer read 370 degrees. We added several sticks of firewood during the baking process to keep the heat up. We also adjusted the air admission lever to keep the oven as hot as possible.

Our wood has only been cut for 4 months and does not make as hot a fire as if we had really seasoned wood. On our J A Roby wood cook stove, we also had to adjust the lever called the deviation selector all the way to the left to allow the smoke and heat to circulate around the oven. If you have a damper on your stove, you will need to adjust that.

The original recipe called for 350 degrees with a 1 hour bake time. We kept the oven thermostat around 350-370 during the entire baking process and ended up baking for 1 hour 25 minutes. It could have stayed in the oven at least 10 more minutes to reach the perfect bake, but I was afraid to leave it in that long. A lesson learned! Trust your tired and true method of checking with a toothpick. We used a long shish kabob skewer. Bella told me it wasn’t quite done! I didn’t listen.

• While you are waiting for your oven to heat up to desired temperature, grease and flour bundt pan.
• Make crystalize rosemary and sugared cranberries and set aside. Method for this is at the bottom of this post.
• When oven has reached 350-370 degrees, start batter.

• Beat egg whites until bubbly.

• Add 1 3/4 C. sugar, 4 egg yolks, 1 C. canola oil, and 2 t. vanilla.
• Beat well and pour half the batter into bundt pan.
• Drop 3/4 of floured cranberries on top of batter, distributing them evenly across the entire surface.
• (Pappy’s gospel music kicked in at end of this clip. But hey, we’re just having some good ole country fun here!)

• Pour remaining batter over cranberries.

• Place remaining cranberries on top of batter.

• Into the oven (350-370) degrees. This recipe called for a 1 hour bake. We ended up baking 1 hour 25 minutes. It could have stayed in at least 10 more minutes to reach the perfect bake, but it was delicious! The crumb reminded me of a light fruit cake my mom baked when I was a child. Incredibly moist! Definitely test with a toothpick. If you see a lot of crumb sticking to your tester, leave it in oven a while longer.

• Let cool almost completely in pan
• After completely cool, frost and decorate

Frosting

• In a bowl combine 3 C. powdered sugar, 2 t. vanilla, 6 T. softened butter, and 4 T. milk. Beat until creamy.

• Frost cake and decorate–The fun part!

• Cutting the cake!

Crystalized Rosemary & Cranberries

• Add 1/2 C. sugar and 1/2 C. water to small saucepan.
• Bring to a boil.
• Set aside and cool
• When cool, dip rosemary sprigs and roll in sugar.
• Roll cranberries in sugar.
• Set aside until you are ready to decorate cake.

Visit us again at Cozy Kitchen Wood Stove for recipes and other tips for vintage cooking, gardening, and just good ole country living!    

Our Weekly Timeless Treasure

The cake plate we used this week belonged to Bella’s and Abby’s great- grandmother. She loved to collect pressed glass. When she and my grandmother (Nanny) finished cooking lunch for the field hands on the farm and washed up the dishes, we would load up in our old rattletrap car and ride the dirt roads all over Calhoun County. We would ask at every old house we passed if they had any antique glass they would sell. Guess we were the original “pickers.” We rarely visited an old home that didn’t sell us something!

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