I was very close to my granny as a child, my mom’s mom. We spent a lot of time together and she taught me how to cook. I was said to be her favorite, probably because I’m a foodie:) Cooking was her love language. Family dinners, especially on holidays, are among my favorite memories. Her gift to me each birthday & holiday was a 3 layered German Chocolate Cake. I still remember my delight in going to the back closet on her rear porch which was actually a pantry that held cakes, pies, cookies, soaking/brining hams & turkeys, fudge & sugar cookies & all manner of Granny’s most delectable things.

This year for an April birthday I’m making her German Chocolate Cake. I’m sure it won’t taste the same without her. What I’d give to sit down with her at her round table on the back porch for coffee & cake & tell her how much she means to me. There are so many questions I wish I’d asked her that I never thought of till I grew up & realized what truly matters. Maybe that conversation will be held in heaven instead.

I just know there will be cake!

GERMAN CHOCOLATE CAKE

1 package German’s Sweet Chocolate from Baker’s Chocolate

1/2 cup boiling water

2 cups sugar

1 cup butter

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon baking soda

2-1/2 cups Swans Down Cake Flour

1 cup buttermilk

4 egg yolks

4 egg whites, swiftly beaten

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray three 8-inch round cake pans with nonstick cooking spray. Melt chocolate in boiling water, then cool. Cream butter & sugar together in a bowl till fluffy. Add egg yolks, one at a time, & beat well after each. Add melted chocolate & vanilla & mix well. In a separate bowl, stir together salt, baking soda, & flour. Add alternately with buttermilk to chocolate & butter mixture, beating well till smooth. Beat egg whites till soft peaks form & fold into batter. Divide mixture between cake pans & bake each at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes or till a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

COCONUT PECAN FROSTING

1 cup evaporated milk

1 cup sugar

3 egg yolks

1/4 pound margarine

1 teaspoon vanilla

1-1/2 cups coconut

1 cup pecans

DIRECTIONS:

Combine evaporated milk, sugar, egg yolks, oleo & vanilla in a saucepan & cook over medium heat till thickened. Stir frequently. Remove from heat, add coconut & pecans & beat till thick enough to spread. Frosting should make approximately 2 cups. Spread between cooled cake layers & on top of the assembled cake.

The post A birthday & a heirloom recipe! appeared first on Laura Frantz.

I haven’t been to Chicago in many years so am especially excited to attend Jocelyn Green’s A Novel-Tea at the historic Palmer House. This is an elegant event with reading friends & authors in a beautiful setting. I’ll also be joining Jocelyn & readers for her Chicago tour on Saturday before the event. Jocelyn’s novels are excellent & she’s a two-time Christy Award winner. I highly recommend her historical fiction & she has a new release this fall!

I was aware of Chicago’s deep dish pizza but the Palmer House Brownie is something I hope to try. Here’s the recipe from their site if you’d like to bake this historic treat – RECIPE. 

So, off to Chicago I go!

The post Next stop – Chicago! appeared first on Laura Frantz.

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Just follow this link to enter via Rafflecopter

I hope you win!

The post A most romantic month! appeared first on Laura Frantz.

Writing a book always puts me back in the classroom even if I think I have a good understanding of something. In my frontier novels, my heroines are so busy trying to stay alive they don’t have time for a trade or occupation though they are usually expert survivalists. So while writing A Heart Adrift set in both York and Williamsburg, Virginia, I decided Esmée Shaw should be a working woman. Women were coming into their own then and surprisingly there were even female blacksmiths and such.

While researching this particular novel I soon regretted I hadn’t become a chocolate historian! There are such folks and they’re fascinating to listen to like this podcast:

Chocolate Historian Alex Hutchinson

As you can see in this photo, my own chocolate history began young. Oddly enough, my mom didn’t like chocolate though she didn’t deny me a chocolate bunny or two:) When I went on my first trip to Europe as a teenager, I fell hard for Toblerone and Lindt then later during college in England I was smitten by Cadbury. I confess that I’m not a fan of most American chocolate as it tastes like wax in my humble opinion. American Heritage Chocolate is better and is tied to our colonial American history. I may not have been a chocolate fan in the 18th-century had I frequented Shaw’s Chocolate Shoppe as they dealt in bitter, dark cocoa though you’ll find our heroine is quite inventive & forward thinking in the novel. Alas, milk chocolate, my favorite, was not a thing till much later!

Here’s to chocolate in all its centuries and varieties!
Time for a cup of cocoa!

The post Colonial American Chocolate appeared first on Laura Frantz.