Spiders? Cake? Wait, Halloween is gone by as well as Thanksgiving so what on earth is spider cake and why would I want to eat it?
Well, ahem, I’ll let Jonathan Reynolds from the New York Times explain:
Easier to realize in your own kitchen is a creamy, corny skillet preparation from New England called spider cake, which has delighted roomfuls of people every time I've served it. So-called because of the veins created by the cream in its vortex, which separates the crumb during baking, this substantial one-skillet meal will get your kids to school happier than they've ever been, and you happy only if they've left some behind. As my recipe tester, Alice Thompson, responded: ''Spider cake rules! How has this escaped the culinary radar so far? Where has it been all my life?''
I stumbled upon this recipe a few years ago but it was only recently that I decided to try making it. It is really simple and would be a pleasant treat for a holiday breakfast or brunch. The origins of the name are often debated but I suspect the “spider” is actually a reference to the cast iron cooking pot known as a “spider”:
Some recipes claim the name comes from the spider-like veins of cooked cream that run through the finished cake, but according to Kathy and Keith Stavely, the duo behind America’s Founding Food: The Story of New England Cooking the cake, like many other cornbread cousins, was traditionally cooked in a cast iron vessel known as a spider. As the Stavelys explain, “A ‘Spider’ is an eighteenth-century name for a skillet that had three long legs so it could sit above the coals of a hearth fire.”
- www.thekitchn.com/...
So what is it like? Is it a cake? Cornbread? Well, yeah, it’s a soft light cornbread cake with this rich custard layer that forms throughout with the center getting caramelized a bit like a brulee:
New England spider cake
from NYT Cooking
INGREDIENTS:
- 2 cups milk
- 4 teaspoons white vinegar
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup yellow cornmeal
- ¾ cup sugar
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 cup heavy cream
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine milk and vinegar in a bowl and set aside to sour. In another bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking soda and salt. Whisk eggs into the soured milk. Stir into dry ingredients and set batter aside.
Melt butter in a 12-inch cast-iron skillet. You can do this either on the stovetop or let the skillet preheat in the oven then carefully add the butter and swirl it around until it’s all melted:
Pour in the batter. Pour the cream into the center then slide carefully into the oven.
Bake until golden brown on top, about 45 minutes. Slice into wedges and serve warm.
We served it with extra butter and maple syrup. The outer edges got a teensy dark and the cornbread was a tad dry but now I know it can come out a bit earlier!
I love finding interesting old recipes like this. Have you heard of Spider Cake before? I’m guessing there are many cultural variants throughout the Americas where corn was a staple. Because this is a simple recipe I think you could add a boost of flavor in the cream with vanilla extract or maybe some orange zest in the dry ingredients. Definitely something to play around with!
What’s for Dinner? is a Saturday evening get-together where friends share recipes, talk about good food and help others answer culinary questions.
We welcome you to our virtual table every Saturday evening 4:30 PT/7:30 ET. If you would like to write a post for an upcoming date just send a message to me, ninkasi23!
Not sure wfd tonight here as we are still working on massive leftovers from the ham we made for our Thanksgiving feast. I made a huge crock pot full of baked beans too so the idea of making a bean soup with the ham bone may have to wait a month or two, heh!
Here’s our upcoming WFD Schedule:
What's For Dinner Schedule
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author |
12/14 |
14.23 |
ninkasi23 |
12/21 |
14.24 |
tonyahky |
12/28 |
14.25 |
esquimaux |
01/04 |
14.26 |
OPEN |
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14.27 |
OPEN |
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14.28 |
OPEN |
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14.29 |
OPEN |