I just bought a *NC* ingredient that slightly terrifies me: Superior Vanilla, Butter & Nut Flavor

M

marilynfl

Moderator
Let's set the scene: I'm in my 9:00 AM water aerobics class, doggy-paddling in a pool of 100% menopausal, overweight women (myself included), the majority of whom have permed and bullet-shaped hairdo's (myself not included) and several in FULL MAKE-UP. I'm talking foundation, blush, eye shadow and lipstick. For an 45-minute deep-water AEROBIC class. A class held...you know...in WATER.

On my first day I made the mistake of splashing a permed and hairdo'd someone and have been ostracized to the Gulag deep end of the pool ever since. While treading water, I overheard one of the *church ladies* mention a fabulous cake and even though I'm persona non grata due to the splash incident, I barged into their conversation and politely begged for the secret.

Turns out it's "The Original" Superior flavoring now sitting on my counter. The list of ingredients is daunting from a naturalistic viewpoint, in that the ONLY thing natural in it is water. Then we have Propylene Glycol, Artificial Flavors (oh wait...it also included natural flavor), Xanthan Gum, FD & C Yellow #5, FD&C Red #40 and Sodium Benzoate. Produced in Charlotte, NC.

It is a Happy Reddish Yellowish Orangish 237 milligram'd bottle of chemicals. And I'm gonna make the cake listed on it for the Open Table free lunch next week.

A recipe which, not surprisingly, uses even more chemicals. Yeah!

1/2 C vegetable shortening

2 sticks margarine

3 C sugar

3 C flour

1 C milk

1/4 tsp salt

6 eggs

1 TBL This Flavor (that is what the recipe says!)

Grease & flour pan.

Cream fats with sugar.

Add eggs one at a time

Add flavoring to milk and alternate adding to batter with flour.

Bake at 325 for 1.5 hour

Makes 10" tube pan

PS: It doesn't mention it, but I suspect the finished cake will also glow in the dark.

 
Please let us know how fast this goes

in comparison to other Open Table Dessert Options. AND, most important, make sure to get a taste! Colleen

 
sorry, that won't be possible. Free lunch is provided 5 days a week & a different church

group buys and prepares the food to be given away to walk-ins. They already have the desserts plated (99.9% of the time it's pie or cake slices from Ingles or Walmart) for their planned lunch meal. I just show up and drop off 2 dozen of whatever to be given to patrons when they leave...something they can hold in their hand easily: cupcakes, banana bread, cake slices put in cupcake holders, etc. Rice pudding, bread pudding and flan weren't such good ideas. The kitchen crew has to dole that out and it had to be eaten there, so I don't do that anymore.

Basically, I just pop in the back door, say hi, move my stuff off of my half-sheet and leave. No one even knows my name because it's different volunteers every day (there are a LOT of churches in this area). The head kitchen manager calls me The Banana Bread Lady because one of the first times I showed up, they had rotten bananas outside to be tossed and I ran back inside and BEGGED for them. Showed up the next day with walnut banana bread.

I plan, however, to taste a piece when cutting it into servings and will let you know. My taste buds are already curling up in fear.

 
Okay, this was a surprise. The recipe on the bottle is a basic pound cake...and it's not half bad!

In fact, I'd have to admit it's better than one or two of the 100% butter versions I've tried over the decades,

No, let me rephrase that: it's not better, it's just solidly predicable in a good way. I baked it in two 9x5 bread pans (volume is the same as a 10" tube pan so I thought slicing it would be easier. And it did slice beautifully.)

The taste reminds me of a boxed cake mix back when they had texture and density. Since there was no real butter (but a lot of fat) the Superior flavoring (note they don't call it an extract) carries the day. Six uber-fresh eggs from spoiled rotten hens are the sole rising agent. The loaves didn't peak or develop a crack down the middle; just baked into a nice solid block of cake.

I just dropped off 20 3/4" slices and was transferring them amid the bright red faux strawberry cake from Ingles/Walmart/who knows that was today's plated dessert. The volunteer in charge of this church group walked over to thank me and looked down. And this is what she said:

"This looks homemade!"

Score one for Superior's Periodic Table of Happiness.

 
2 sticks of Imperial Margarine ($1 a box!) and 1/2 C Crisco. This cake is so solid it

...would make a very good base for...something fruity and liquidy. Maybe a shortcake? Or a pudding layer.

Sadly, I won't know how well it went over since I don't have a clue who these volunteers are and they don't know me. But this will be added to the rotation since I have an 8 oz bottle of this stuff and this only used a TBL.

Want a sample???

 
Oh...oh...Madeira cake! That's what this reminds me of! Years ago when I first started playing

around with fondant, I used British cookbooks and they would use Madeira cake because they were so solid and didn't collapse under the pressure of fondant manipulation.

 
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