Pat's Cake

Every recipe has a name. Coq au vin. Le Poisson a la Maison (queue "The Little Mermaid" Le poisson, le poisson, ha ha ha, hon hon hon).

But we all have that recipe that specifically came from someone, and that recipe now bears the name of that person:

"Have you tried Linda's Mac & Cheese?"

"Pam's Gumbo is the best around!"

Enter Pat's Cake. That simple title graces the top of a handwritten recipe card found inside Nana's recipe box. And its intriguing. For me, I don't know who this Pat is. But they must have had a really good recipe for this cake. Also, with this kind of generic name, you can only guess how its going to taste in the end based on the clues from the ingredients.

But what consistency will it be? How much is supposed to rise? How do I know that I have completed this task successfully when all I have a handwritten card and no photos?

This is something I knew from the beginning would be the difficult part of this undertaking. No handwritten recipe is the actual recipe. We all know there is that certain finesse that comes from doing the recipe over and over and the recipe card is just a guide to let you know the measurements of what you need. The rest becomes muscle memory.

Granted, you had to have done it to have that muscle memory.

So today we set out to try to do this cake justice.

Believe it or not, one of the hardest things to figure out on this thing was all of the ingredients. Most were pretty explanatory except for the last one on the list. All we could make out was it was some kind of Lemon Flavor. But what in the world is Rumor Lemon Flavor?

My first thought was this was a name brand that Nana was partial to using. I figured a Google search would allow me to find out if it was still around or if it was just a normal lemon extract or what. Nill. All I got were multiple ads for Rumor Lip Gloss - Lemon Flavored and that is definitely not what I was looking for. So then I thought maybe it was Rumon. Nope. Nothing.

Then I remembered Nana's favorite ingredient. It was not one word. It was two. You could choose either Rum or Lemon Flavor. Should have known.

The recipe was fairly simple to follow: cream sugar and butter and then add 6 eggs (one-two-three crack. New egg!) one-at-a-time to be beat together with the rest of the batter in between additions of flour. I was smart this time and just used the hand mixer instead of the KitchenAid since that failed me last time.

Pour it all into the bundt pan and then bake at 300F for an hour, or until done. The serious face is crucial here. Its the only way to pour batter.

I did have quite the hitch though. I stuck the cake in the oven and then went to clean my space and then I saw it...

The salt. THE SALT! The handwritten notes didn't say where to add the salt and I completely forgot to put in!

So I had to quickly pull it out of the oven (thankfully only in there for a few minutes) and scrape it all out of the pan, add the salt, remix it, re-grease and flour the pan and pour it all back in there and pretend like nothing ever happened.

The wait was on. At the temperature stated, it took just a bit longer than the recipe called for. So right at about 1 hour and 10 minutes, the cake was ready to cool. But it needed something. Now I know that the rule is not to alter the recipes in any way. But I knew I could find some kind of icing to use on this cake. We were thinking some kind of royal icing would do the trick. So I went into Nana's old cookbook and found a recipe for a lemon butter icing that I thought would do the trick just fine. I do not consider this cheating since both recipes are out of the recipe box.

So after a good cool down, I quickly whipped up the icing and spread it across the top of the cake while it was just a tad bit warm still so that it would drip down the sides. And I have to say that it did quite nicely.

So enough with all the talk about the cooking. How did it turn out? Did it live up? Did I accomplish the task of recreating Nana's recipe? There is only one way to find out. Feed a slice to Jenna and see what she says.

So I cut a big slice and handed it over to her. The first words out?

"Oh, this brings back memories!" 

There could not have been a better reaction. That was the goal. And so I would say that this is a success (and a mighty delicious recipe that will be added to my recipe book going forward!).

Jenna began to recount her time back in a house with an island in the kitchen and everyone huddled around eating a slice of this cake. Even the just-barely-tangy after taste was exactly the way she remembered it. She also told me who Pat is: Nana's brother-in-law.

He has a very good taste in cakes.

So here it is if you want to try it out too:

• 2 cups sugar
• 2 cups flour
• 2 sticks butter
• 6 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon rum or lemon flavor

All ingredients should be room temperature. Grease and flour a bundt pan. Cream the sugar and butter. Add 1 egg at a time for 3 eggs. Add 1/2 the flour. Add 3 eggs 1 at a time. Add the rest of the flour (and salt!), beat, add the flavor, beat. Pour into the bundt pan and bake at 300F for 1 hour or until done.

And for the Icing:

• 1/3 cup soft butter
• 3 cups confectioners sugar
• 1.5 tablespoon grated lemon peel
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice

Blend all ingredients together until smooth. 

Enjoy!