Reading about food is the truest collision of this blog’s motivations. Food memoirs, histories and stories create such a thriving, sensate world. I’ve had the pleasure of reading a few of Ruth Reichl’s memoirs, including Tender at the Bone and Comfort me with Apples. She’s a beautiful writer, and as the head of Gourmet Magazine for years before it folded, she’s clearly passionate about food. 

Delicious! is Reichl’s first foray into the world of fiction. The novel tells the story of Billie Breslin, who arrives in New York City to work as an assistant editor at a magazine that’s curiously similar to Gourmet, and it too folds just as she begins to get comfortable there. While she’s the lone employee who’s hired to see some of the transition of the takeover through, she stumbles across a hidden cache of letters between a young woman named Lulu and the indomitable James Beard. It’s clear to the reader that Billie has a lot of emotional baggage that she is trying to leave at the NYC border, but that’s proving easier said than done.

During her interview, she impresses the editor-in-chief of Delicious! with her gingerbread cake, a recipe that has been in the family for generations, and which becomes immediately clear is part and parcel of the baggage that she’s trying to shed. The EIC is so taken with this cake, that he hires her on the spot. For the rest of the book, while Reichl weaves a charming, romantic story that’s perfect for these lazy summer hours, I found myself wanting, needing, having to have that cake.

Thank goodness Reichl provides the recipe on the last page.

GINGERBREAD CAKE

Inspired by Delicious! by Ruth Reichl

Ingredients:

Whole black peppercorns
Whole cloves
Whole cardamom
1 cinnamon stick
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
1 cup sour cream
1 ½ sticks unsalted butter (room temp)
1 cup sugar
3 inches (2 large pieces) fresh ginger root (tightly packed, when finely grated)
zest from 2-3 oranges (1 ½ teaspoons finely grated)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F. Butter and flour a 6-cup Bundt pan. (Note: we didn’t have a Bundt pan and just used our springform, which turned out fine). 

Grind your peppercorns, cloves, cardamom and measure out ¼ teaspoon of each. (Note: we used double the amount and it tasted amazing)

Grind your cinnamon stick and measure out 1 teaspoon. (Note: we used the entire ground stick and it tasted amazing)

Whisk the flour with the baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl.

In another small bowl, whisk the eggs and egg yolk into the sour cream. Set aside.

Cream the butter and sugar in a stand mixer until the mixture is light, fluffy and almost white. This should take about 3 minutes.

Grate the ginger root – this is a lot of ginger – and the orange zest. Add them to the butter/sugar mixture.

Beat the flour mixture and the egg mixture, alternating between the two, into the butter, until each addition is incorporated. The batter should be as luxurious as mousse.

Spoon batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 40 minutes, until cake is golden and a wooden skewer comes out clean.

Remove to a rack and cool in the pan for 10 minutes.

SOAK

½ cup bourbon
1 ½ tablespoons sugar

While the cake cools in its pan, simmer the bourbon and the sugar in a small pot for about 4 minutes. It should reduce to about 1/3 cup.

While the cake is still in the pan, brush half the bourbon mixture onto its exposed surface (the bottom of the cake) with a pastry brush. Let the syrup soak in for a few minutes, then turn the cake out onto a rack.

Gently brush the remaining mixture all over the cake.

GLAZE

¾ cup powdered sugar, sifted or put through a strainer
5 teaspoons orange juice

Once the cake is cooled, mix the sugar with the orange juice and either drizzle the glaze randomly over the cake or put it into a squeeze bottle and do a controlled drizzle.