Mrs. Byrd Winters’ Yellow Angel Food Cake with Bitter Sweet Icing AND Jell-O Red Velvet Cupcakes

The following “Chew This!” column has been reprinted from “The Courier-Times”, Sunday, September 20th 2015 edition. By: Blaise Doubman 

Recipe mix: Catherine Winters, Angel Food Cake and Cupcakes…
Blaise Doubman

Not that long ago, I was contacted by Patricia McDaniel, Chair of the Historic National Road Yard Sale, to let me know that two of my submitted recipes had made the upcoming cookbook the “Historic National Road Yard Sale Cookbook” – Volume 6. I expressed my excitement, and told her of my plans to write about it here for my column. We were discussing ideas and she asked if I had ever heard of Catherine Winters. I told her yes! While working at the New Castle – Henry County Public Library, I would hear questions about Catherine Winters from patrons several times a week. I always found the story fascinating. After talking about Catherine for awhile, Patricia sent me a few recipes that can be tracked down to that family and that time in history.

I’m sharing two of those recipes here with you. I am also including a recipe for my red velvet cupcakes – which will appear in Volume 6 of the “Historic National Road Yard Sale Cookbook”. Patricia told me that more of Catherine’s family recipes will be included in the cookbook, as well as my recipe for “Grandpa Max’s Stuffed Green Bell Peppers”. For more information please contact Patricia at info@oldstorefrontantiques.com.

Mrs. Byrd Winters’ Yellow Angel Food Cake with Bitter Sweet Icing

This cake is an old recipe that was originally found in “Good Things To Eat” By: The Gleaner Glass. The old, brittle and coverless book was discovered by Charlene Perry in an antique store along route 40 one summer. Since then, the book and recipe have been shared by Charlene’s daughter, Lisa. The recipes have a connection with Catherine Winters – it was Byrd Winters’ who submitted this recipe, along with some other recipes that were published and shared by her Sunday school class…

For the cake…

1 ½ cups white granulated sugar
4 egg yolks
1 tablespoon cold water
½ cup hot water
1 ½ cups white all-purpose flour
1 heaping teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon cream of tarter
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
4 egg whites, beaten until stiff

For the icing…

2 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons salted butter, melted
3 tablespoons cream
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
8 oz. dark chocolate, melted

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Beat together the white granulated sugar, egg yolks and cold water until very light in color. Next, beat in the hot water. Sift together twice, the white all-purpose flour, baking powder, cream of tarter and salt, before adding to the mixture. Beat in pure vanilla extract before gently folding in the beaten egg whites. Place mixture in a tube-pan and bake in preheated oven 60 minutes. Once baked, remove from oven and invert pan until cake has finished cooling.

To make the icing, mix together the powdered sugar, melted salted butter, cream and pure vanilla extract. Spread this on the cooled cake. Drizzle melted dark chocolate on top before serving.

Jello Red Velvet Cupcakes

This recipe was originally published on my “Blaise the Baker” blog, and went on to be one of my most popular recipes for 2014. It’s also one of the recipes that will be published in the upcoming “Historic National Road Yard Sale Cookbook” – Volume 6. For the publication of this column, I’ve changed my original recipe to include a delicious cinnamon cream cheese frosting, which is perfect for Autumn…

For the cupcakes…

1 package Red Velvet cake mix
1 3.9 oz. package of Jello Instant chocolate pudding

For the frosting…

1 stick (4 oz.) unsalted butter
8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
2 ½ – 3 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Whole milk

Start by preheating the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a cupcake pan with 24 cupcake wrappers and lightly spray each cup with non-stick cooking spray.

Whisk together the cake mix according to the package directions, being sure when adding the water, the water is hot.

Once thoroughly mixed together, add in the package of Jello instant chocolate pudding, and mix to combine.

Pour the batter evenly into the prepared cupcake pans.

Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes.

Remove and allow to cool before frosting.

To make the frosting, beat together the unsalted butter and cream cheese until soft and fluffy. Next, beat in the powdered sugar and pure vanilla extract. Add in the ground cinnamon and combine. To reach desired consistency, add a little whole milk if needed.

Frost cupcakes and serve.