Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Today's Special - - Barbara Samuel


It's our pleasure to welcome Barbara Samuel to The Romance Dish today!  Barbara has visited us before in one of her other personae (Barbara O'Neal) so those of you who visited with her then know you're in for a treat today.  A winner of multiple RITA® awards, Barbara has published more than 38 books.  Regardless of sub-genre or pseudonym, Barbara's books regularly win rave reviews and new readers alike.  Please give Barbara a warm welcome!


Decadent and Delectable Southern Cooking

I was raised by Southern cooks who fed us things like rich, cheesy baked macaroni and cheese, biscuits smothered with sausage gravy, green beans cooked with bacon fat, pecan pie.  My grandpa had a restaurant for awhile, and he was the short-order cook. When I married, my ex and I joked that we were first-generation Northerners, and one of our common grounds was food.  He was (is!) an excellent cook who specialized in fried pork chops, a super-secret barbeque sauce that he guarded like it was a pound of select sapphires.

So it is no surprise that my Southern-set novel, The Sleeping Night, is permeated with food.  It is about two deeply lonely souls who connect through letters during World War II, and fall in love, then have to grapple with their forbidden love with Isaiah returns home for what he thinks is only a brief visit. When he finds his old childhood friend in dire need of assistance, he can’t turn his back on her—and that’s where the trouble starts, of course. 

During the war, both Angel and Isaiah are hungry. A lot.  He’s dealing with soldier’s rations and the extreme rationing in England, then the ever-dwindling resources as the Army advanced across Europe.  He asks her for a cake story. This is what she writes:

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March 3, 1944

Dear Isaiah,

A Cake Story

      First, I have to put on an apron. It’s my favorite, white with a bib to keep my top from getting all splattered, and little cherries embroidered all over it. I tie it and turn on the radio because I like to dance along as I measure things. I’m flipping through my best recipes, trying to decide what you’d like best. I consider chocolate, but as I recall, you’re a pineapple upside down cake man, so that’s the receipt I pull out. 

      They just had some fresh pineapples at the market downtown, and I picked up a beauty—I can smell it right now, all sweet and juicy. When I slice off the outside, juice pools on the counter, and I’ve just got to have a little slice to test it, so I cut off a nice juicy sliver, all yellow and glistening, and pop it in my mouth, and it’s like an explosion of sunshine, all over my tongue and down my throat. It’s going to make a very good cake. I slice off rounds of it and put them in the bottom of a big cast iron skillet. I sprinkle it with brown sugar, which sticks to my fingers, and I lick that off, too, and the flavor of brown sugar with slightly tart pineapple makes the saliva glands in my mouth pinch just a tiny bit. Over the sugar and fruit goes a layer of butter. It’s my special trick that butter—I slice it real, real thin and lay it down like leaves over the sugar.

       Then I make the cake, which is a simple thing, just flour and sugar and eggs and baking powder and a tiny bit of vanilla all blending together to make a golden batter. I beat into a nice airy froth, and then pour it over the pineapple, and pop it in the oven. Of course, then, I have to lick the spoon, which has sweet, sloppy batter all over it. Some gets on my chin, but I don’t care. It’s delicious. If you were here, I’d let you have the bowl, but since you’re not, I scoop the batter out with the spoon until there’s nothing left.
 
       Meanwhile, that cake is baking, filling the air with that sugar scent, and I know the pineapple is getting all caramelized, the juice from the pineapple mixing with the sugar and the butter to make a hard, sweet crust.  When the cake is baked, I take it out and let it cool just a little bit, then I put a plate on top of the pan, and flip it. This takes some doing, because that pan is pretty heavy, and I want it to land on the plate just right.  So I wrap the handle up with a dishtowel and pick it up and turn it over and feel the cake settle.  This is the test.  Ever so easy, I pull on the pan, and there, on that crystal plate, is the pineapple upside down cake. I slice a piece for you, a big ole piece, with rings of pineapple soaking into the cake, and dark brown sugar caramelized on the edges, and the smell of heaven in every single molecule.
Enjoy it.
Angel

When he comes home and there are so many things against them, Angel wants to break down the wall of chilly civility Isaiah has erected.  She bakes him that very cake. He is fixing her roof and can’t help but smell the caramelizing sugar, smells the pineapple and the cake baking, and finds himself at the back door, asking for a glass of water.  He cannot resist. In the end, even if it might mean they both are killed for it, he cannot resist her.

The Sleeping Night is a powerful novel of forbidden love.  It is intense, dark, and ultimately triumphant, and I hope you’ll enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. 

We’re hoping to spread the word about this book, and to that end, we’re having a contest.   To win a chance at a gift basket that includes a cast iron skillet (without which no Southern cook could function properly) a vintage cookbook, and a collection of recipes from Angel’s favorites, (including her special pineapple upside down cake!) post a review or a Tweet or other social media.  For more, go here

Enjoy!


Do you have a favorite cake recipe that makes your mouth water, or has someone in your life made a cake you could die for?  What are your regional favorites?  

18 comments:

  1. I do love pineapple upside down cake. EVERYTHING thing my Mother makes gets me salivating. All from scratch & delicious!!

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    1. Marybelle, my mom was a wonderful cake baker. I love to bake but I don't have her cake touch.

      I'm with you on the Pineapple Upside Down cake. One of my all-time favorites!

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    2. My mom is a great cake baker, but my sister is the big one these days. I swear I sometimes want to faint over her inventions!

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  2. One of my former co-workers makes the most amazing Italian Creme Cake from scratch. I swear, I could eat the whole darn thing!

    Barbara, I love the sound of this book. I've always been partial to books set in the WWII era. Looking forward to picking up a copy of The Sleeping Night.

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    1. I'm partial to WWII, also, and it seems like those books are coming back into fashion! Hope you will enjoy it, PJ.

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  3. I'm always happy when there's another Barbara Samuel/Barbara O'Neal/Ruth Wind book to read. Whichever name is on the cover, I know I'll get a story with emotional power and gorgeous prose. I'll definitely be reading The Sleeping Night.

    My mother was a good Southern cook, but my maternal grandmother is the one I think of first when I think of cake recipes. One of the joys of my childhood was to be visiting when Mama, as all the grandchildren called her, baked one of her cakes. Best of all was to be there during the Christmas baking when she baked six--fresh coconut (Papa's favorite), chocolate fudge with pecans, caramel with walnuts, orange, Lady Baltimore, and pound cake. To be given the mixing spoon or batter bowl was a delight, and we all guarded our turn jealously. Her kitchen smelled wonderful, and no bakery has ever been as tempting as the sight of those cakes, all towering four layers, lined up waiting for the family to gather for Christmas Day. Cherished memories that fill my heart when I use her recipes at Christmas--although never, I confess, for six cakes. I stop at one or two.

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    1. You know, it probably wouldn't take me more than four hours to get to your house, Janga. Just sayin'. ;-)

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  4. Gorgeous list of cakes there, Janga, and beautiful paragraph about your grandmother. I want to try the caramel with walnuts....mmmm!

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  5. You hit it right on the head! Pineapple upside down cake is so decadent and reminiscent of the days when I was a little girl. My Mom made the best ones ever. The warm, buttery caramelized sugar over those glistening pineapple slices browned a bit on the edges and little red maraschino cherries inside the pineapple cores made for a sight that left me drooling.

    The description of the cake story made me so nostalgic for those times when women actually baked from scratch. I still do and enjoy it so much. My family is always worried that I'm going to too much trouble but they just don't realize how much pleasure I get from baking and doing so with love.

    The Sleeping Night sounds very good. I am especially fond of World War II stories and I know I shall enjoy this one as well. Thanks so much for sharing all of these great things today.

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    1. The description of the cake story made me so nostalgic for those times when women actually baked from scratch. I still do and enjoy it so much. My family is always worried that I'm going to too much trouble but they just don't realize how much pleasure I get from baking and doing so with love.

      Exactly! Non-bakers don't understand why I enjoy baking from scratch so much. They don't realize how much pleasure it brings me. Plus, kneading bread dough is a great way to work out frustrations! lol!

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    2. I had to laugh at the bread making comment, PJ. Although I love to bake all kinds of things, I had never had any luck with bread. I remember many years ago when I made my first and only attempt at making bread. I must have killed the yeast because it did not rise. After I baked the loaves and took them out of the pan, I had two bricks. I showed my sister and brother-in-law (hoping for sympathy) only to get a huge laugh from him. He offered to shellac them for me so I could have a couple of doorstops! The brat!! ;-)

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  6. Welcome, Barbara! This books sounds amazing!

    Hands down, my favorite cake is red velvet with cream cheese icing. The best I've ever eaten was made at Publix (our local grocery store). I've made red velvet cupcakes and cookies, but am too scared to attempt a whole cake. LOL!

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  7. I loved the excerpt, Barbara! Now that sure is one way to keep a man's attention in a long distance relationship. ;)

    I adore crumb cakes. A light cake, preferably with nutmeg or cinnamon, topped with a thick layer of buttery crumbs is cake perfection to me!

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    1. Hi Janel! Isn't that a wonderful excerpt? Makes me want to drop everything and start reading the book right now. ;-)

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  8. I have no favorite cake, but i love catatongue cookies. It taste so delicious and just like melt in your mouth.. *sigh* i think i need to bake me a batch or two..

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    1. I had to look these up, Sienny. I hadn't heard of them before. They look delicious!

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  9. Thanks for visiting with us today, Barbara and sharing more about The Sleeping Night.

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  10. Sigh! Late again! Say the words Lemons and cake or pie or cookies and you've got my attention! I thinks it must come from my Greek roots!

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