Hello Friends;
I have more emails comeing into me than I could ever hope to answer! I answer as many as I can, but I might miss a few. I've had a couple of folks email me for a weddin' story, and I do have one indeed! I just apologize that I cant put in "dedications" as I was asked to do, just had too many friends askin for this kind of a ditty! Also, I have to tell ya'll that anything I post here is free to print and share, it's my whole worth of memories, and I dont try to make no money on 'em, so copy 'em as ya like, and may the love of it all go on.
This is the "Original" weddin' cake recipe from the day Tourmaline Fox was married to Jimmy Cales. Now, I am going to post the recipe first, and the story after that. One thing I just havta tell ya'll is that back in them days, the three deckered weddin' cake was just something that was seen in New York, or some other big city. In the rural south, weddin' days were just a big sharing of good food, and the weddin' cake was usually just a darned good cake baked by one of the local yokels who had a good talent with that old wood stove, it was just a cake, nothing fancy, but always, GOOD AS GOLD!
Now, Tourmalines Wedding Day Cake recipe is posted below:
Tourmalines Wedding Day Cake "White Chocolate Cake"
By: Nedra Joe Hopkins, Brooks, West Virginia, May, 1957.
CAKE:
1 Cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 Cups sugar
4 Eggs separated
1/3 Cup grated white chocolate
1/2 Cup Water
2 1/2 Cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 Cup Buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
ICING:
1/2 Cup plus 2 Tablespoons Butter
3/4 Cup Evaporated Milk
4 Tablespoons (1/2 stick) unslated butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups grated white chocolate
Prehead the oven to 350* degrees. Grease and lightly flour three 9-inch
round cake pans.
To make the cake, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat
in the egg yolks, one at a time. Set aside.
Combine the white chocolate and water in a small saucepan over low heat.
Carefully melt (be sure not to let it scorch) and beat into the butter
mixture, alternating with the butter-milk. Stir in vanilla. Beat egg
whites until stiff, then fold into the batter.
Divide batter equally among the 3 pans and bake for 20 minutes, or until
a cake test comes out clean and layers are turning golden. Let rest a few
minutes before loosening edges and inverting onto cooling racks. When
cool, brush off crumbs.
To make icing, combine sugar, evaporated milk, and butter in a saucepan
over low heat. When the butter is melted, lighly boil for 1 minute. Stir
in vanilla. Off the heat, beat in the white chocolate until it is
completley melted. Let cool to a spreadable consistency.
Now, just frost that cake up proper like anyone would, and make it little
thick in the center layers. Let is sit for a bit, and that frosting will
set up proper, and ummmmmmm, GOOD STUFF!
Now, going back to that day in '57 is a bit of a struggle for me, my goodness, it's been a spell now hasn't it? I can still see in my minds eye the farm and all those animals, and I can still see Pop Church up on the porch on that mornin of the weddin. He was kinda taken by Patsy Cline and her music, and with this thing called "Radio", he was as addicted to it as we are to the internet! My I can hear the tunes from that radio right now, "Walking After Midnight", "San Antonio Rose", the voice of Patsy just echoing over the hills.
In the background of all of Pops world was Granny Church just in a flurry of gettin things together for her last daugher (and oldest daughter), who was finally getting married! Tourmaline had probably traveled farther than any of the family, but she was a "Free Spirit" as Granny always called her, but, at long last, she'd found a fella', and he was local, and that was all that mattered!
The day was just another wonderful day in the mountains, and I know all of us younguns were sent out on orders from "Granny Church" to pick every single ladyslipper blossom we could find in the woods, along with as many fern leaves that we could find to weave into Tourmalines bouqet. We did what was asked and the bouqet was assembled, and it all was so beautiful!
The mountains were just all around us, and Granny had this pump organ where you had to pump your feet on these things to get the thing to play, and she was quite good at doing it (she played for the church), and she kept pumping those pedals and she played "Here Comes The Bride", and she never missed a single note! The preacher, Reverend Lewis, did the ceremony up proper and then, Tourmaline and her new husband did this really big "KISS", and my goodness, it almost turned into lust on the alter I thought! I think the "KISS" was rather more than Granny could take and when she started pumpin that old organ she realized that it had gotten warm in the day. She played on, but my goodness she started to perspire, but she kept a playing. Then, we had a rather unwelcomed visitor.... A black snake! That organ had been stored in the shed for a few months and apparently, this ole snake had made it his home! The rattlings of the wedding and Grannys playin' made this a nervous creature. That creature shot out of the side of that old organ and just slithered up the side of that instrument, and Granny Church nearly had a heart attack! I dont think I ever saw a human being move so fast in my life, and she was just a yellin "Snake Snake Snake"! I just remember that Harummmmmm of the organ shutting down! Total silence!
By the time we realized what was happenin' that old snake was long gone, and I then looked up and saw Pop on the porch, and his ear was as close to the radio as he could get it, and he had just tuned in to another Grand Ole' Opry, and I think Patsy was just about to go on.
The rest of the weddin' day was wonderful, I just had a ball with my gang of cousins, and we could all find something to get into.
I have this one memory that I can't forget of Tourmalines special day, and it was when I was sappose to be in bed asleep, but I got up, and I just slowly walked across the kitchen floor to the pie safe, jus to see if any of Tourmalines cake was still around, but, I never made it to the pie safe, but rather, I peeked over the windowsill to see Granny and Pop, and they were singing a song together, it was "Sweet Dreams", it was a popular tune at the time, and another of Patsy Clines, but, I fell asleep that night thinking of it, and I still today hear it in my mind when I feel I cant sleep!
Peace To All,
David In Virginia
DvdnVa40@aol.com
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