A taste of culinary time travel
Sample delicacies through the decades
ADECADE-BY-DECADE bakebook that highlights the best (and a few of the worst) baking recipes from the 20th century Friends of baking, are you sick and tired of making the same recipes again and again? Then look no further than this baking blast from the past, as B Dylan Hollis highlights the most unique tasty treats of yesteryear.
Travel back in time on a delicious decade-by-decade jaunt as Dylan shows you how to bake vintage forgotten greats. With a big pinch of fun and a full cup of humour, you'll be baking everything from chocolate potato cake from the 1910s to avocado pie from the 1960s.
Dylan has baked hundreds of recipes from countless antique cookbooks and selected only the best for this bakebook, sharing the shining stars from each decade. And because some of the recipes Dylan shares on his wildly popular social media channels are spectacular failures, he's thrown in a few of the most disastrously strange recipes for you to try if you dare.
Baking Yesteryear contains 101 expertly curated recipes that will take you on a delicious journey through the past. With a larger-than-life personality and comedic puns galore, baking with Dylan never gets old. We'll leave that to the recipes.
TOMATO SOUP CAKE
You might think something has gone terribly awry in a society when condensed tomato soup finds its way into a cake. Perhaps you think of it as an indicator of the beginning of the end, and that we should put a stop to things before it all goes to the pits. I shared this sentiment as I recoiled from the sound of soup entering my batter upon making my first Tomato Soup Cake. But the truth is, tomato soup has been the secret ingredient in countless spice cakes even before the 1950s, and the Campbells company jumped on the opportunity and began promoting recipes for soup cakes on their products. The 1950s saw the height of this tomato cake craze, and when paired with a cream cheese frosting, it is unusually and uncomfortably good. Unlike other wild, wacky, and wonderful bakes, I cannot tell you why it works. It is one of the unanswered questions of life. I can only tell you that it does, and you should try it.
Cake: 9×5-inch loaf; Prep: 30 minutes; Cook: 55 minutes
Ingredients Cake
2 Tbsp butter, softened
1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
2 cups (280g) all-purpose flour
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1⁄4 tsp salt
1 (305g) can condensed tomato soup 1 tsp baking soda
Frosting
85g cream cheese, softened 3 Tbsp whole milk
3 cups (360g) powdered sugar 30g bitter chocolate, melted 1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
Method Cake
Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease a 23×13cm loaf pan.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until crumbly. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.
In a third bowl, combine the condensed soup and baking soda. Working quickly, alternate adding the flour and soup mixtures to the creamed mixture. Mix until barely combined.
Turn into the prepared pan and bake for 45 to 55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre can be removed cleanly. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Icing
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, or in a large bowl with which an electric hand mixer is to be used, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Beat in the milk.
Beat in the powdered sugar 2 tablespoons at a time, beating well. Beat in the melted chocolate, vanilla, and salt. Beat until smooth. Ice the completely cooled loaf using a spatula or a piping bag.