Mad About Maida

Chocolate Pumpkin Cake  (Source:  Maida Heatter's Book of Great Chocolate Desserts   (Andrews & McMeel Publishing, 2006 ed.), pg. 81. I have to confess that I'm not a big fan of pumpkin and especially pumpkin-flavored desserts. However, if I must eat it, what better way of doing so than with chocolate? It sounds like a winner and sure enough, this cake is really nice. I decided to skip the nuts in this one because I have two other desserts for Thanksgiving with nuts and I often get annoyed with Maida because 95% of her recipes call for nuts. If you haven't noticed, they are very expensive these days! The original recipe calls for a baking time of 1 1/2 hours! I started checking mine at 55 minutes and felt that one hour was enough. I usually tend to underbake my cakes slightly because they continue to bake after you remove them from the oven. So, I give a baking time of 1 hour to 1 hour fifteen minutes, but use your best judgement and keep checking. 2 3/4 cups sifted a...

Jane Freiman's Brownies  Source:  Maida Heatter's Brand-New Book of Great Cookies  (Random House, 1995 ed.) , pg. 75. These are very good brownies. I think they are best with ice cream. They are very fragile. The instructions to freeze them is a must and it requires some dexterity and patience to flip them out of the pan. Even after freezing, I had one to break as I was cutting them.  The recipe calls for walnuts but I used pecans. I was not familiar with Jane Freiman but found out she is a New York restaurant critic and food writer. In her introduction, Maida says that she is a friend and the author of "Dinner Party: The New Entertaining". The book was published in 1990. 1/4 cup sifted unbleached flour 1/4 tsp. baking powder 1/4 tsp. salt 8 oz. semisweet or bittersweet chocolate (broken into small pieces) 5 oz. walnuts (1 1/4 cup) (in medium-sized pieces) 2 large eggs 2 tsp. vanilla 1/3 cup sour cream 4 oz. (1 stick) unsalted butter 3/4 cup granulated sugar Preheat ...

Hungarian Seven-Layer Cake  (Source:  Maida Heatter's Book of Great Chocolate Desserts   (Andrews & McMeel Publishing, 2006 ed.), pg. 73. This recipe caused me to use bad language. In the end though, it turned out nice and tasted great. I made this for a friend's birthday yesterday. My major gripe is that the recipe doesn't make enough batter or icing (a major pet peeve!). First of all, seven 8" pans are needed. If you have that many, more power to you, and it will make life easier. I have four which wasn't too bad - I just had to clean them after the first go-around.  Now, the cake layers are very thin and she instructs that you use only 1 cup of batter per pan. Have you ever tried to use 1 cup of batter for a cake layer? It is not easy as the batter must touch the sides of the pan. Mine turned out haphazardly at best and the sizes ended up all over the place. Thankfully, the cake is covered with icing to hide your errors.  I made the cake layers a day ahea...