A recipe from the past

We celebrated Christmas with my hubby's family the Saturday before Christmas.  A few days after our celebration my mother-in-law told me she found a present for me and the other daughter-in-laws she had forgotten.  When she came for dinner on Christmas Eve she gave me two cookbooks. The cookbooks were reprints of a cookbook from her hometown.  The recipes were from her mother's (my hubby's grandmother's) generation.  I loved reading this cookbook- many of the recipes contained not cooking temperature or complete measuring instructions.  One recipe called for a "large tablespoon" of  sugar.  What is a "large tablespoon".  In one of the books I found a caramel icing recipe from my hubby's grandmother.  This afternoon I got this crazy idea to try it.  I'm going back to work tomorrow and I needed to have a little fun in the kitchen.  My friend Amber said "you're crazy" and I agree, but I love it anyway.

I tried found a basic white cake recipe in the other cookbook she brought me and went to work.  The caramel icing was a bit difficult, but I'm still working on it.  The first batch was the perfect color, but the second batch could brown a bit more.  Timing is important with this recipe as it turns to candy and starts to harden if you don't time it just right.  Please feel free to comment if you have good suggestions on the icing recipe.  I have emailed my friend Rebecca Lang and asked for suggestions on timing.  She has written a cookbook with many of her grandmother's recipes- including a caramel icing.  I just love Rebecca's book Southern Entertaining for a New Generation.

Basic White Cake

1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
4 eggs, separated
1/2 teaspoons soda, dissolved in 1 Tablespoon water
1 cup sweet milk (no cow in my yard so I used good ole whole milk)
3 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cream butter and sugar.  Add two of the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  You can trash the other two yolks. 

Add milk and flour, alternately; then vanilla and sodawater.  fold in well beaten egg whites (4) and bake in 3-8 inch greased and floured cake pans at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Caramel Icing

2 cups granulated sugar
2 Tablespoons butter
1/2 cup milk
Pinch of salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tablespoons sugar

Place sugar, butter, salt, milk in boiler and let boil until it forms soft ball when dropped in water.  Place 2 TBSP of sugar in small frying pan and brown to a dark color (stir constantly).  Put a couple TBSP. of boiling mixture into the frying pan and stir with browned sugar and then pour this into a boiler with other mixture- add vanilla- then beat mixture until a consistency for spreading.  Make three recipes of this if you would like to completely ice a three layer cake.  I made two (1st for between the layers) and had to let the second recipe drip from the top to the sides.