Are you as thrilled fall is in the air as much as K.D. Reep is? See how she was inspired to create this amazing autumnal deliciousness. Debbie
Ok, maybe not quite fall yet, but September is close enough for me, and this cake makes me think of all the good things i look forward to in Autumn.
I ran across the inspiration for this cake at the ultimate fall celebration: the Arkansas State Fair. Last year, one of the entrants made this piece of art that was a three-layer white cake with a cream cheese icing that was mixed with Arkansas-raised honey and smokey scotch whisky. On the top of this sculpture was a hunk of beeswax, and oozing from it was that golden, gorgeous honey spilling down the sides.
There is no way I could make that cake. If it’s not a sheet or bundt cake, I can’t ice it, and nothing about that cake said “easy”.
So I took it upon myself to GTS (google that stuff) and I found this, which is as good, WAY easier and will remind you of fall as well. The recipe I used is adapted from Life’s a Feast, and the only thing I amended is I dusted the bundt pan with sugar instead of flour. I like to do this to bundt cakes because it gives them a crunch, and for this cake, it adds a hint of caramel to the compliment the honey. Oh, and I used honey whiskey instead of scotch because, well, honey.
KD Reep is a writer, public relations practitioner and aspiring author in Little Rock. She owns Flywrite Communications Inc., a marketing communications agency in Mabelvale. She is a six-time recipient of the Public Relations Society of America’s Prism award and has been published statewide as well as in the Arkansas Times, Inviting Arkansas, Savvy Magazine, Bourbon & Boots, Arkansas Money & Politics, Delta Farm Press and Rice Farmer magazine, among others.
Heather Audrisch Haywood doesn’t do anything half way.
I met her last year when we worked together on public relations for Goodwill Industries of Arkansas. One morning, I walked into our suite, my dress clinging to me like child with separation issues. I kept pulling at my hem and finally asked Heather if she had any static guard. Of course, she did.
I spritzed a dainty bit, which helped not at all. Heather gave me the drollest look and said, “Girl. That will NOT cut it. Come here.”
And she yanked my skirt away from my legs and sprayed a healthy dose of static guard ALL around. “Well,” I said as she capped the bottle. “We’re friends now.”
Taking care of business isn’t the only thing Heather and I have in common. We both come from Arkansas farm families and grew up “puttin’ up” vegetables and fruits from gardens, truck patches, fields and orchards our families have. Heather’s paternal grandparent had a peach orchard in Union County, and her Grandmother Audrisch, who operated a café there, made a peach pickle with Indian peaches from her husband’s trees. She also picked blackberries, taking Heather with her, and made jam from their haul. Her maternal grandparents always had a garden, and Heather remembers having to shell peas before she could go to the pool in the summers.
“We canned everything,” she said. “After I was grown, I continued that tradition by making my own jam and preserves as gifts for neighbors and coworkers. That lead me to entering the Arkansas County Fair last year, and it was a hoot. I plan to do it again this fall.”
Heather, who lives with her husband Ken and black Labrador retriever River in Stuttgart, took home seven first place ribbons for her entries in the county fair: one each for her blueberry, cherry, blackberry and plum jam and preserves and one for best in show.
“I loved every minute of it,” she said. “I plan to go back this year to defend my title, and I’m already thinking of what I’ll enter.”
The secret to Heather’s winning recipe is freezing fresh fruit in the summer. “When I make jams and preserves in the fall, the flavor is more robust, and it doesn’t seem to foam as much when you cook it.”
She has even become somewhat of a legend among her friends and family members as they reserve her preserves for special occasions.
“I’ve had people tell me that they save my preserves for Christmas morning,” she said. “It’s become a part of their tradition, and I’m proud they think what I’ve made is special enough to save for the people they love most. That’s what I like about canning and preserving food. It brings together family and tradition, and you know exactly what’s inside and what you’re feeding your loved ones. More and more people are coming back to canning, and the process and equipment has much improved from the time I did it as a kid. I would encourage anyone to try it.”
In addition to jam and preserves, Heather makes homemade mustard and is experimenting with homemade body lotion using only organic ingredients. If that weren’t enough, Heather says that if you return her jars, she’ll refill it for you.
K.D. Reep: Heather Haywood’s Arkansas County Fair Blue Ribbon Blueberry Preserves
Ingredients
4 cups prepared blueberries (washed and crushed)
1 1.75-ounce box Sure-Jell Premium Fruit Pectin
4 cups granulated sugar
Instructions
NOTE: This recipe was adapted from the Sure-Jell fruit jam and preserves recipe.
Bring boiling-water canner, half full with water, to simmer. Wash jars and screw bands in hot soapy water; rinse with warm water. Pour boiling water over flat lids in saucepan off the heat. Let stand in hot water until ready to use. Drain well before filling.
Measure exactly 4 cups prepared fruit into 6- or 8-quart saucepot.
Stir pectin into crushed blueberries in saucepot. Bring mixture to full rolling boil (a boil that doesn't stop bubbling when stirred) on high heat, stirring constantly. Stir in sugar. Return to full rolling boil and boil exactly one minute while stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Skim off any foam with metal spoon.
Ladle immediately into prepared jars, filling to within a quarter inch of tops. Wipe jar rims and threads. Cover with two-piece lids. Screw bands tightly. Place jars on elevated rack in canner. Lower rack into canner. (Water must cover jars by one-to-two inches. Add boiling water, if needed.)
Cover; bring water to boil.
Process 10 minutes then remove jars and place upright on a towel to cool completely.
After jars are cool, check seals by pressing middle of lids with finger. (If lids spring back, lids are not sealed. However, you can refrigerate these jars to consume safely within a week.)
KD Reep is a writer, public relations practitioner and aspiring author in Little Rock. She owns Flywrite Communications Inc., a marketing communications agency in Mabelvale. She is a six-time recipient of the Public Relations Society of America’s Prism award and has been published statewide as well as in the Arkansas Times, Inviting Arkansas, Savvy Magazine, Bourbon & Boots, Arkansas Money & Politics, Delta Farm Press and Rice Farmer magazine, among others.
I love weird stuff – to a degree. In particular, I love midcentury modern weirdness, and I found this cake on Mid Century Menu, a blog about recipes and cocktails from the 1930s-1970s (sometimes beyond, but who’s counting?).
As a kid, my mama would make chocolate cake with leftover mashed potatoes. Did I care? Not a whit. And, I would not have known if she hadn’t told me. When I ran across this recipe, I knew I had to make it for a number of reasons, including:
My love of cake, first and foremost;
My love of pinto beans;
My love of weird things, particularly cheap, fast and easy weird things; and
I needed a dish for a church potluck.
Something that spoke to me about this recipe, besides being unusual, is its use of cheap, readily-available items almost everyone has in their cabinets. Pinto beans (and mashed potatoes, for that matter) sustained by family for generations, and we ate what was prepared until they were gone – no tossing anything out because we were tired of eating it. Essentially, the pinto beans in this cake serve as a filler so you don’t have to use as much flour for volume, and they are tasteless after the cake has baked, the same way the mashed potatoes are in my mother’s chocolate cake.
I like to think this recipe was born by someone who made too many beans, wanted to create some way of feeding them to her family one last time but had too few ingredients (or money with which to buy them), and made something actually delicious with what she had on hand. You can find the original recipe at MidCenturyMenu, but I simplified this even more to be as cheap, fast and easy as possible. My version is below, and the steps I took to make it are somewhat unorthodox, too.
The main thing to keep in mind with this cake is to use what you have on hand. Have some apples or pears about to go bad? Dice those up and toss 2 cups into the cake instead of the can of apple pie filling. Have leftover nuts from Christmas? Chop those and use in place of the walnuts. If you don’t have raisins, replace with canned pineapple or leave them out altogether.
If you use the cinnamon and sugar combination to prepare the bundt pan, you may notice your cake comes out dark. Rest assured, it’s not burned. You can use flour if you’d prefer, but I like to use the sugar and cinnamon to give the cake a little extra crunch and flavor.
And the original recipe called for cooked pinto beans that were fresh, dried or frozen. I used canned because it’s what I had available, they are already cooked, and I can’t taste any difference between canned and the other preparations.
As for how much time to bake the cake, I say start with 50 minutes and add or subtract time according to your oven. Everyone’s oven bakes differently so keep an eye on the cake after 50 minutes and check for doneness in 5-minute increments.
To ice or not to ice? I say a cake without icing is a great big muffin. You can make homemade frosting, dust the cooled cake with powdered sugar, ice with whipped cream or grab a cheap can of store-bought frosting, melt it to pourable consistency in the microwave and drizzle to your heart’s content. Whatever you do, this cake will stand up to it.
I hope you try this and are pleasantly surprised. If you’ll excuse me, I have cake to eat.
KD Reep is a writer, public relations practitioner and aspiring romance author in Little Rock. She owns Flywrite Communications Inc., a marketing communications agency in Mabelvale. She is a six-time recipient of the Public Relations Society of America’s Prism award and has been published statewide as well as in the Arkansas Times, Savvy Magazine, Bourbon & Boots, Arkansas Money & Politics, Delta Farm Press and Rice Farmer magazine, among others.
writer, public relations practitioner and aspiring author in Little Rock. She owns Flywrite Communications Inc., a marketing communications agency in Mabelvale. She is a six-time recipient of the Public Relations Society of America’s Prism award and has been published statewide as well as in the Arkansas Times, Inviting Arkansas, Savvy Magazine, Bourbon & Boots, Arkansas Money & Politics, Delta Farm Press and Rice Farmer magazine, among others. 
writer, public relations practitioner and aspiring author in Little Rock. She owns Flywrite Communications Inc., a marketing communications agency in Mabelvale. She is a six-time recipient of the Public Relations Society of America’s Prism award and has been published statewide as well as in the Arkansas Times, Inviting Arkansas, Savvy Magazine, Bourbon & Boots, Arkansas Money & Politics, Delta Farm Press and Rice Farmer magazine, among others. 
