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Twenty-three chefs who cooked
for world royalty and heads of state (The Club des Chefs
des Chefs) were, during their 1987 visit to the U.S.,
wined and dined with the best our finest chefs had to
offer. What impressed them most? Lunch at an Amish farm in
Pennsylvania, where they ate homegrown new potatoes,
string beans with cream sauce and corn, charcoal-grilled
chicken, and baked ham, washed down with homemade root
beer and peppermint tea, served by the family in a barn
lined with handmade quilts.
They were stunned. Happily
so, it seems. The chef for the president of France said,
“Cooking has evolved so much. Nobody presents the true
product as it is, and all of a sudden we were presented
that.”
But the desserts impressed
them most. Especially one they couldn’t name. One they
described as a light “pain d’epices” (spice cake)
with a layer of chocolate filling. Gilles Brunner, chef to
Prince Rainier of Monaco, was so taken with the cake,
which he described as a chocolate gingerbread, that he
tried to get the recipe. His request was refused.
The Amish family did not
want their identity revealed, which refusal greatly
hampered efforts to identify the cake as well. Research by
Phyllis Richman, then food editor of the Washington Post,
seemed to show that the mystery dessert was Amish
applesauce cake with chocolate frosting, and the Post
printed a version of it contributed by Betty Groff, a
cookbook author from the Pennsylvania Dutch country.
Which applesauce cake
turned out to be pretty much what our family had been
enjoying since my father married Edith Kennedy in 1977,
and which Edith’s family had been enjoying long before
that. Her daughter, Lorenelle Doll, who gave me the
recipe, says that it was a favorite of my father and
Lorenelle’s husband Arnie. (So far as I know, Edith
didn’t actually feed any to a French chef.)
I like to think Edith’s
version is better than Betty Groff’s, because that
recipe says to “frost with vanilla or chocolate frosting
if desired.” Whereas Edith’s gives a recipe for
chocolate frosting MADE WITH BUTTER. And in my view the
humblest frosting made with butter is better than the
fanciest frosting made without. I’m not implying that
Edith’s frosting is humble. It isn’t. It’s purely
wonderful, as is her cake.
Edith Kennedy Glidewell
went to be with her Lord in March 2002, but before that
she gladdened many hearts in many ways, this applesauce
cake not the least of them.
EDITH’S APPLESAUCE CAKE
Cream together 1/2 cup room
temperature butter or shortening and 1 cup sugar. Add 1
egg and beat together. Mix in 1-1/2 cups applesauce.
Sift together 2 cups flour,
1 tsp. baking powder, 1 tsp. soda, 1 tsp. salt, 1 tsp.
cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. allspice, 1/2 tsp. nutmeg, and 1/4 tsp.
cloves. Add to applesauce mixture, along with 1 cup
raisins and 3/4 cup chopped walnuts.
Lightly oil a 9" x
12" pan and dust with flour. Add the cake mixture and
bake at 350 degrees 50 to 60 minutes, until the top of the
cake’s center springs back when touched. Frost with
chocolate frosting when cool.
Chocolate Frosting: Combine
in a heavy saucepan or double boiler 1 square baker’s
unsweetened chocolate, 1 cup sugar, 1/4 cup butter, and
1/3 cup milk. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, and
cook 1 minute. Cool and beat until the frosting has a
satin finish.
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