Feeding a Crowd – Not

Have you ever noticed? Often times, when in situations of emotional strain, one of the first things to go is our eating sensibilities. Even those who are normally very conscious of what they put into their bodies are found carelessly quaffing can after can of sugar-loaded, fizzy drinks and munching on greasy, salt-laden food throughout the day.

Several weeks ago, during the initial phase of the chaotic emotional upheaval the family was dealing with, I found myself, on several days, completely “forgetting” to eat – for the entire day. By nightfall, I was feeling faint, dizzy and weak from the lack of nourishment and from dehydration. I even “forgot” to drink water. Then there were the couple of days when I swung to the other extreme; and ate nothing but candy bars and sugary cakes and buns all day. By the end of the day, I had so much sugar coursing through my veins that I was, well, not quite myself either.

I guess it was inevitable that proper meals would be nigh impossible – what with a zillion details to work out and get organized within a matter of days, and having at the same time to deal with the constant flow of visitors*, all very kindly and sincerely wanting to offer help and support. (It’s funny how no matter how many times one may have gone through similar preparations, one is still never ready or prepared to go through it again. It always feels like the first time; there is the same feeling of confusion and chaos that reigns – for everyone.) We fell back on catered food and/or take-out, to feed both ourselves and our stream of guests. So, day in and day out it was oily, fat-soaked food that had sat in the warmers all day, and all topped off with fizzy drinks, sugary cakes and pastries.

[* Perhaps a quick side note for those not familiar with Chinese-style wakes: these can be lengthy affairs, stretching anywhere between 3 to 7 days; with 3 or 5 days being the norm as most families find it too exhausting to do it for 7 days. It does take a lot of stamina, simply because it is customary – especially if the wake is held at home – to never leave the body “alone”. As such, there are always people up and about throughout the day and night – 24 hours a day. Guests and visitors, friends and relatives, parish priest and church friends visit throughout the day and night. And so, everyone sits around eating (a lot – to try to keep awake) and chatting. Sleep comes in the form of power naps of 1-2 hours, caught when and where possible in a crowded house. If you are lucky, you might manage to snatch some empty bed space and get some restful sleep – but only for a few hours, before having to awake and make way for the next person to catch some sleep – otherwise, most of the time, flitful rest during those few days are had slumped in the nearest empty armchair. By all counts, sleep and rest are hard to come by throughout the entire duration of the wake.]

Thankfully, after the initial frenzy and with the most important formalities over, things settled a little, and some of the women folk got organized in the kitchen; spirit-reviving fresh vegetables and soul-soothing soups started to appear on the table. I decided to make my own little contribution (plus to maybe find some brief refuge in the kitchen, far from the maddening crowd) by baking some healthier cakes for the family. After days of over-frosted, over-sugared, butter-clogged store-bought cakes, the kids were almost climbing the walls on a sugar high! It was time for something simpler, homelier and lighter.

One of my cousins had Alice Medrich’s recipe for a low-fat buttermilk pound cake which I had emailed to her some months back. She had tried it once, and liked it. I had never made the recipe, and decided to try it.

It was strange working in someone else’s kitchen. The equipment, the layout, and basically “how the whole system worked” were different. And so I had my little culinary adventure (or misadventure) with this recipe.

The cake was supposed to be baked at 160C. I was told that “number 6” on the (electric) oven dial was 160C. Simple enough. But as it turned out, it wasn’t quite. The recipe called for the cake to be baked for about 35 minutes (if using a bundt pan). At the end of 35 minutes, my cake was still very pale, although a light crust had formed on the top. I started to feel suspicious. Inserting a skewer into the cake brought the discovery that the insides were still liquid batter! Completely uncooked! Apparently, the oven needed to be turned up to at least “number 7” to be “activated”, and then turned back down to “6” after it had heated up. Ah! Critical missing bit of information. So, the heat was turned up to “7” and the cake baked, at that temperature, for another 15-20 minutes or so. And as a testament to the hardiness of Alice’s recipes, the cake seemed none the worse for the “ordeal”.

The crumb was slightly dense, as it should be for any good pound cake, and yet incredibly soft and fluffy. As with all the other Medrich recipes I’ve ever tried, the texture was wonderfully refined and smooth…

The only tell-tale sign of the cake’s “oven experience” was the slightly too thick top crust…

But you know what, the Kho family is a family of cake crust lovers. Truly. It turned out that those thick, crispy, golden brown crusts were the bits people started fighting over!

The only other thing I wasn’t overly enthusiastic about was the uneven coloring of the cake…

But that was wholly (I suspect) due to the silicone bundt mould that I was given to use. I think a traditional metal bundt pan would have worked much better, and would have given the cake an all-round golden brown tan.

Personally, I found the cake just a tad on the sweet side. But everyone else, without exception, thought the cake was just right. Maybe at that stage, I had already breached my sugar quota for the week, and my body was just a little more sensitive to sweetness. I also felt that the vanilla notes were just a touch obvious; perhaps a reduced amount of just one, or even three quarter, teaspoon would be better.

Overall, I really liked the recipe. This was one of the nicest smelling cake batters I have made; even when I was mixing it up, the smells were tantalizingly good, in a warm, fuzzy sort of way. As it baked, the aromas that wafted from the oven were nicely buttery, vanilla-y and all warm and comforting. It smelt just like a regular pound cake; but without the pound (literally) of butter that went into the traditional pound cake (and thus its name). Compared to the usual 2 cups or so of butter in the “normal” version, this one had only 5 tablespoons! And yet it had all the flavor and fragrance of buttery goodness.

This recipe was not only a doddle to make, but was also one that was highly amenable to variation… but more on that tomorrow.

Buttermilk Pound Cake
[from Alice Medrich’s Chocolate and the Art of Low Fat Desserts]

1½ cups (6 oz) all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
3/8 teaspoon salt
1 egg
2 egg whites
1¼ teaspoons vanilla extract
½ cup low fat buttermilk
5 tablespoons (75g) unsalted butter
1 cup sugar

• Have all ingredients at room temperature.

• Preheat oven to 160C or 325F.

• Whisk to combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Sift together (I do it twice). Set aside.

• In a small bowl, whisk together the egg and egg whites. Set aside.

• Combine the vanilla and buttermilk. Set aside.

• Cut the butter into chunks and place into the mixer bowl. Beat to soften – about one minute.

• Add the sugar gradually; beating constantly until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes).

• Gradually dribble in the beaten eggs, and beat at medium-high speed for about 2-3 minutes, until light and creamy. Scrape down bowl as necessary.

• Reduce mixer speed to low, and add a third of the flour mixture. Beat to combine; scraping bowl with rubber spatula as necessary.

• Dribble in half of the buttermilk. Mix well on medium-high speed.

• Add half of the remaining flour mixture. Mix on low speed.

• On medium-high speed, pour in the rest of the buttermilk.

• Finally, on low speed, add the remaining flour, and mix until well combined.

• Pour batter into either a 5-6 cup bundt or tube pan or a 5 cup loaf pan.

• Bake in the lower third of the oven for about 35-40 minutes (for the bundt pan) and 65-70 minutes for the loaf pan; or until the cake starts to pull away from the sides of the pan, the top is golden brown and a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.

• Let cool for 10-15 minutes before unmoulding.

This cake is great as is, eaten with a steaming mug of coffee, tea or hot chocolate. However, we all know how really, truly good all pound cakes are when topped with whipped cream and some fresh berries (any berries really: blueberries, strawberries, raspberries…), or it doesn’t even have to be berries; try chunks of fresh, juicy, aromatic mangoes, luscious peaches, or even succulent persimmons. Alternatively, keep it easy… just scoop a dollop of chunky preserves over the whipped cream. How about a slice of delightfully fluffy pound cake paired with a generous scoop of smooth vanilla frozen yogurt (or ice cream if you prefer), with some warm, fudgy, rich chocolate sauce drizzled on top and a handful of toasted almond slices sprinkled over? Wouldn’t that be something? Or, if you are like me, a piece of pound cake spread quite simply with a cascade of Nutella… now, that is comfort food!

The cake was gone within minutes (I barely had time to snap some pictures – yes, it even occurred to me to take photos: a definite sign that I was starting to “return to normal”). Sure, part of the quick disappearing act was because the cake was rather delicious. But another part of it was because I had “forgotten” I was feeding a crowd.

Normally, at home, I only have to cook for between 2-5 persons on any given day. Occasionally I may throw a dinner party and cook for 10-12; but I usually get a few days (sometimes even a couple of weeks) to prepare for that sort of kitchen excursion. My brain just didn’t make the rapid enough switch around to cooking (or baking) for an entire clan…

You see, my paternal grandmother had 10 children; each of those offsprings went on to have at least 2, and up to 7, kids each. Most of those kids have now gone on to have at least 2-3 children of their own. Throw spouses and partners into the mix, and that makes for a lot of people to have under one roof! Even though we did not have the FULL clan in attendance, we were still talking a full house! Everything from sofa space to just a quiet corner to collect your thoughts were at a premium.

Even my attempt to “escape” to the kitchen for a little more “peace and quiet” was in vain. It was not a very big kitchen, and at any one time there were 10-15 people crammed into the space, with just as many different culinary activities going on all at the same time! It was only the camaderie that one finds in the fold of family that stopped everything from tipping over into unbridled madness.

Anyway, silly me forgot about the numbers game. I made but one batch of the cake. Even though we managed to get about 22-23 decent slices out of the cake, it still meant that a large proportion of the family went without. Let’s just say there’s nothing quite like a freshly baked, still-warm, tantalizingly aromatic cake - and insufficient quantities of it – to trigger a mad scramble and to almost start a food fight!

So, I promised to make more pound cake the next day. And I did – tweaking the recipe for a different taste along the way. But that story is for tomorrow…

Copyright © 2004 Renee Kho. All Rights Reserved.
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