[Smashy the Hammer] [An Aspiring Luddite]
I carry no phone
An aspiring Luddite
In a wired world.
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[Jeff Berry]
Jeff Berry is an early adopter of the Internet and the Web, a late adopter of Twitter, and declines to adopt Facebook. With the death of Google+, he migrated to the Fediverse. He admins a medievalist Mastodon instance. He hates cell-phones.

Jeff's Holiday Cake
23 December 2010

[Sliced Cake]

Every now and then, I find myself taken with the urge to create something using a variety of odds-and-ends from my larder. Often I have bits and bobs left over from some recipe or other and, gazing at them, inspiration strikes. Such was the case with this cake.

Jeff's Holiday Cake
[The Batter]

Mix all the ingredients together into a fairly firm batter. As always you may have to adjust the amount of flour depending on humidity, time of year, price of pork-belly futures and all the other things which affect batter and dough density. Butter a loaf pan, pour in the batter, bang it once or twice to settle it, and then bake in a 375F oven for 50 minutes or until a knife poked into it comes out clean. Let cool a bit before eating. It's good as is, but a dollop of sweet whipped cream on top also goes well.

You could easily vary the fruit, if you like, either the amounts or the kinds. I'd steer clear of the glazed, sticky kind, though, and stick mostly with simple dried ones: currents would be good; candied ginger would probably mesh nicely with the coconut; and so on.

The texture is moist, thanks to the coconut and oat flour, perhaps a little on the chewy side, but much more edible (to my mind) than most fruitcakes.

[The cake cooling] Whey
I usually have whey about; it's an occupational hazard for cheesemakers. As a result, I often use it in cooking and specifically in baking. If you don't have any whey handy, I suggest you start making your own cheese. Failing that, a 50%-50% mix of water and buttermilk works fairly well, although the amount of flour may need to be adjusted.

Oat Flour
Not every one has oat flour on hand, either, I suspect. One could substitute regular wheaten flour, but the final product will be significantly different. Oat flour, unlike whey, is pretty easy to find at the grocery store, however, so I recommend hunting some up, since it makes the texture of this cake something special.


© 2010 Jeff Berry
The Aspiring Luddite