Tag Archives: Sweet Potato

Show 602, November 9, 2024: Baking in the American South with Food Historian Anne Byrn

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Cookbook Author Anne Byrn

“Experience mouthwatering Southern baking! From humble home kitchens to innovative new Southern chefs. One of the world’s richest culinary traditions comes to life through this essential cookbook, Baking in the American South – 200 Recipes and Their Untold Stories, from bestselling author, journalist, food historian, and native Southerner, Anne Byrn. With 200 recipes from 14 states and more than 150 photos, Baking in the American South has the biscuits, cornbread, cakes, and rolls that will help you bake like a Southerner, even if you aren’t.” Anne takes a break from her busy book tour to join us with pound cake in hand.

“Recipes can tell you volumes if you pay attention—the crops raised, languages spoken, family customs, old world flavors, and, often, religion. Did you know that where a mill was located affected the recipes handed down from that area? Or that baking and selling pound cakes directly impacted the Civil Rights Movement? These stories and recipes, developed from good times and bad, have been collected and perfected over years and are now accessible to us all. Anne’s expertise in assessing, modernizing, and developing well-written recipes makes this the definitive guide for bakers of all levels.”

“This fascinating dive into the history of 14 Southern states—Texas, Florida, Kentucky, and more—features stories and beautifully photographed recipes by Rinne Allen from pre-Civil War times to today’s Southern kitchens. It’s about the places, the people, the products and the culture of the moment that influenced what people baked. It’s about African-American women and the monumental contributions they have made to the art of Southern baking, about home cooks and how they’ve kept traditions alive wherever they settle by baking family recipes each year for holidays and celebrations, and about the pastry chefs who have thoughtfully reimagined how the South bakes.”

“Experience the recipes and the stories behind them that showcase the substantial contributions Southern baking has made to American baking at large. Food historians, bakers, foodies, and cookbook collectors from every corner of the country will want this cookbook in their collections.”

Anne Byrn generously shares her recipes for “George Washington Carver’s Sliced Sweet Potato Pie” and “Mrs. Collins’ Sweet Potato Cake.”

Mrs. Collins’ Sweet Potato Cake

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Mrs Collins Sweet Potato Cake recipe from Anne Byrn

Recipe excerpt from:
Baking in the American South: 200 Recipes and Their Untold Stories
by Anne Byrn

Sweet potatoes make some of the most glorious cakes because they have it all—color, flavor, and moisture to keep a cake fresh days after it’s baked. This gorgeous cake comes from the late Elizabeth Cate Collins—whom I only knew as Mrs. Collins—who raised her family in the Nashville house before us and grew sweet potatoes in the back garden. Each year after the harvest, she would bake a sweet potato cake to send to a son in Berkeley, California, for his birthday. A taste of home, the cake was shipped frozen and arrived redolent of spice and seemingly fresh from her oven. In fact, she was so adept at baking and shipping cake that in her 2023 obituary it read, “She was one of the best local customers for FedEx and UPS, whose agents viewed her as a friend.”
 
Serves: 10 to 12
Prep: 35 to 40 minutes
Bake: 50 to 55 minutes

  • 3 medium (1 to 1 1/4 pounds) unpeeled sweet potatoes
  • Vegetable shortening and flour for prepping the pan
  • 1/2 cup (2 ounces/57 grams) roughly chopped pecans
  • 2 cups (240 grams) all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
  • 1 3/4 cups (350 grams) granulated sugar
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 4 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon confectioners’ sugar for dusting (optional)
  1. Wash the sweet potatoes and pat dry. Place them in a large saucepan and nearly cover with water. Place the pan over medium-high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and let simmer until tender, about 25 minutes. Test for doneness by piercing them with a fork, which should easily slide through. Drain and, when cool enough to handle, peel the potatoes and mash. You’ll need about 2 cups mashed sweet potatoes. Set aside.
  2. Heat the oven to 325ºF, with a rack in the middle. Grease and flour a 10- to 12-cup Bundt pan
  3. Place the pecans in a small pan in the oven to toast while the oven heats, 4 to 5 minutes. When the pecans are cool enough to handle, finely chop and set aside.
  4. Place the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder, salt, cloves, and ginger in a large bowl and whisk to combine well.
  5. Place the oil and sugar in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer on medium-low speed until they are well combined, about 1 minute. Add the vanilla and eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition, a total of 2 minutes. The mixture should be thick and smooth. Stop the mixer, add the sweet potatoes, and blend to combine. Add the flour mixture and beat on low until just combined and smooth, about 1 minute. Fold in the toasted pecans.
  6. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake until the cake springs back when lightly pressed in the center, 50 to 55 minutes. Remove to a wire rack to cool in the pan for 20 minutes. Run a knife around the edges of the pan, give it a few good shakes to loosen the cake, then invert the cake onto a serving plate. If desired, spoon the confectioners’ sugar into a sieve and dust it generously over the top of the cake. Let the cake cool for 45 minutes, then slice and serve.

Baking a Beauty

I once asked Mrs. Collins how she presented this cake fresh from the oven, and she told me her simple trick of dusting powdered sugar over it while it is still warm, so it makes its own glaze. Now I bake her cake in the Nordic Ware Brilliance pan, simply because this sturdy cake releases well from fancy pans and looks absolutely stunning, with or without a dusting of sugar.

To Freeze Cakes

  • Layers, don’t let them thaw all the way. They will be easier to stack and frost if still a little froze.
  • Unfrosted, cakes freeze well, up to 6 months if well wrapped and stored in a deep chest freezer.•First, let the cake cool completely.•Wrap it first in plastic or parchment, and then in foil.
  • If possible, place in a zipper-top bag and seal.•Write the name of the cake and the date on the bag before freezing.
  • To thaw, remove the cake from the bag and open the packaging to let the cake breathe and the moisture escape.
  • If you are frosting the layers, don’t let them thaw all the way. They will be easier to stack and frost if still a little frozen.

Taken from Baking in the American South: 200 Recipes and Their Untold Stories by Anne Byrn.  Copyright © 2024 by Anne Byrn. Photographs © 2024 by Rinne Allen. Used by permission of Harper Celebrate.