✯ Day 341 of Vintage 365 ✯
With just eighteen days left until Christmas morn, the time to start really filling in any gaps in your holiday season menu is fast approaching. Before long it will be time to shop for every last delicious ingredient you'll need to procure a winning holiday feast, be it for two or fifty-two, and that means knowing what you're going to serve is a must before venturing out to the shops.
Like many people, I tend to stick with several of the classics each Christmas, varying some of the side dishes, but generally adhering closely to my mother's home cooked Christmas meal (which, at the risk of sounding biased, was indescribably good), with the addition of various Italian culinary treats for my beloved husband, Tony.
In the dessert department I certainly have many tried-and-tree recipes as well (some of which have been handed down to me by my parents and grandparents, as well as others I've discovered or created myself over the years), but am always on the prowl for a new dish or spin on a classic to try.
Swayed, no doubt, by the immense cuteness of today's wonderfully festive Candle-Light Cake from the 1950s, I knew the moment I saw this charming vintage white cake recipe, that it would be perfect for a holiday recipe post this year.
{A timeless white cake is festively jazzed up thanks to green frosting, citron peel "leaves", and maraschino cherry "holly berries" in this terrific Christmas recipe from 1951. Image via sugarpie honeybunch on Flickr.}
Even if you're not a fan of using shortening in your cakes, or upping the kitsch factor by sticking a large glowing candle in the middle of them, I hope that you'll find Christmas dessert inspiration in the darling white, red and green icing and decorations of this lovely holiday cake (which you could always make with your favourite , butter or oil based white cake recipe).
If one large cake wasn't quite what you had in mind for your next event this season, why not opt for delicious little white cake cupcakes instead, which you could just as easily ice (frost) and decorate in much the same way, topping each with the sweet, completely edible holly leaves and berries in todays recipe.
Undoubtedly one of this cake's strongest appeals is the fact that it looks so splendidly well suited to December, yet really don't require much skill (cake decorating, after all, is an art and talent that not all of us are blessed with by any means). Indeed, this white cake is so marvellously simple to create that you could easily let your kids help out by tinting the icing (frosting) and cutting up the decorations, if they're old enough.
So cheerfully fun in this great recipe, that you might just be tempted to forego the cookies and leave out a slice of this festive cake for jolly old St. Nick come Christmas Eve. 
That cake looks divine! The last cake I made from a 60's cookbook didn't turn out how I planned, but I'm gonna try again this Christmas! I may copy that green frosting, it looks so festive :)
ReplyDeleteWell, Dexo is one of those ingredients that didn't make it to the next decade. I have never heard of it in my life, and I came along in the 60's, so if it was something my mom or grandmothers bought, I would certainly remember it.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I've told you before that my mother-in-law is full-blooded Italian. She is one of 13...and the only one of her siblings that did not marry an Italian. (Of course, you knew that, since my last name is not Italian in the least.) Anyhow, I can remember going to Christmas Eves at one of her sisters' houses...all the Italian dishes she prepared!!! So, I can quite imaginet that Tony has some favorite holiday dishes!!
Love,
Patti