Margaret Cullison: Cooking with Grandchildren Including Inauguration Cookies, Orange Julius and Chocolate Birthday Cake

Abby’s Inauguration Cookies

1 cup softened butter

¾ cup granulated sugar

¾ cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 ½ cups flour

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

3 cups old-fashioned oatmeal, uncooked

½ cup shredded coconut

½ cup dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine butter with sugars and beat well. Add eggs and vanilla, beating until fluffy. Mix in flour, salt and baking soda, then add oatmeal, coconut and cranberries, mixing thoroughly.

Drop rounded teaspoonful-size (larger, if preferred) portions of cookie dough on greased cookie sheets, about two inches apart. Bake 12 minutes or until evenly browned. Makes about 30, depending on size.

Now a sophomore in high school and a talented volleyball setter, Abby doesn't have much time for home baking. But she does volunteer several hours each week working in a community kitchen where she is learning the complexities of preparing large quantities of food for people in need.

One night when my second-oldest granddaughter, Savannah, and her family came for dinner, I served them homemade buttermilk biscuits. Savannah liked the biscuits so much that she asked me to help her make them. At our first biscuit-making session, she assured me that she knew how to measure the ingredients. So I wasn't watching her closely and didn't notice that she hadn't filled the dry-measuring cup to the brim with flour. Consequently, her first biscuits were a bit flat, but they tasted deliciously crisp and buttery.

Savannah shares her middle name, May, with my mother. Mom passed away before her namesake was born, but Savannah often asks me about her. At age twelve, she understands the value of the family recipes I've saved, many written in Mom's and my two grandmothers' hands. Savannah loves the flavor of lemons so it was a natural for her to suggest making lemon bars, using my mother's recipe. She didn't know how to grate a lemon for the zest we needed, so I demonstrated, warning her to keep fingers clear of the sharp edges of the grater. It only took a few seconds for her to scrape a knuckle — and yet another kitchen safety lesson was learned the hard way.

This past October, Savannah wanted to bake a birthday cake for her mother at my house. At first I declined, reluctant to alter my plans for the afternoon, but I quickly realized the foolishness of that decision. The cake had to be chocolate, because her mother loves that dark confection, and I searched my recipe books for an easy recipe while I waited for he to arrive. We both enjoyed the few short hours it took to create a beautiful frosted cake for Savannah to take home to surprise her mother. The recipe we used is from Marion Cunningham’s Fannie Farmer Cookbook, 1990 Edition, and is ideal for a childs first effort at making a birthday cake for someone special.

late Birthday Cake

2 ounces unsweetened chocolate

¼ pound softened butter

1½ cups sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 cups cake flour

1½ teaspoons baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup ice water

Set oven at 350 degrees. Grease and line with parchment paper two eight-inch round baking pans. Melt chocolate and let cool. Cream butter, slowly add sugar, then eggs and vanilla. Beat until fluffy; add the chocolate. Mix dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Add to wet mixture, alternately with water, beating until smooth. Divide batter between prepared pans. Bake twenty-five to thirty minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool for five minutes then invert on a rack and carefully remove cake from pans. Cool completely before frosting.

Chocolate Frosting

2 ounces unsweetened chocolate

1 tablespoon butter

1/3 cup milk, more if needed

2 cups confectioners’ sugar, more if needed

1 teaspoon vanilla

Melt first three ingredients and cool. Stir in vanilla and gradually beat in sugar until frosting reaches spreading consistency. Makes enough to frost one eight-inch two-layer cake.

Savannah takes weekly jazz and modern dance lessons and likes to break out into dancing moves during our cooking sessions. Not exactly the model of Zen concentration in the kitchen, but who can resist such exuberance!

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