Finches and Egg Yolks
Why did I choose the Shinny Cake this week? The custard filling—I had a boatload of egg yolks left over after making an angel cake a couple of weeks ago, and I hate waste. The custard used up eight of them.
I was also struck by the history behind this cake. It was modeled after the “Lane cake so loaded with shinny,” baked by Miss Maudie Atkinson when Aunt Alexandra came to live with the Finches in To Kill a Mockingbird. I’m a sucker for a good classic book. Admittedly, I’d forgotten about the cake. How did I forget a cake?
Cream Cake with a Twist
Holy heavy cream! This was a three-layer vanilla cream cake with a whole pint of cream. The fat and liquid in this batter came exclusively from cream and eggs. Silky cake flour created the tender crumb.
While the cake was a lovely, simple vanilla, the filling brought the party. The custard filling gave decadence, while generous add-ins lent texture. Julie Richardson, author of Vintage Cakes, swapped traditional pecans for toasted hazelnuts to add her own twist.
Filling Up on Flavor
So let’s talk about the filling. The custard was similar to that in the German Chocolate Roll—thick and rich. But what gave it a unique boost? Bourbon! It was boozy custard laden with toasted chopped hazelnuts, shredded coconut, and chopped dried cherries. The recipe also included golden raisins, which I left out by personal choice.
Admittedly, I’ve never had a cake like this one—truly old-fashioned and decisively Southern. It actually made me want to experiment with different liquor and add-ins—perhaps rum and tropical fruits for a tiki party?
A Southern Fruit Cake
The recipe suggested icing the cake with a meringue frosting. I opted to use only the filling, but I lightly coated the entire cake to retain moisture and cover more surface area, allowing the bourbon flavor to absorb into the cake. A fluffy frosting surely would have taken it up a notch.
The cake was very rich, moist, and dense, easily supporting the three tall layers. The filling was boozy, nutty, fruity—infusing warmth and depth. It was like a different take on a fruit cake; like a Southern fruit cake.
Embrace Your Layers and Avoid Judgment: The Transcend Moment
I love a little history as much as I love a good cake. And you know I love a good book. Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird fits several genres, including historical fiction and coming-of-age.
No, this isn’t meant to be a book report, but the lesson from the book really resonates with me. I think about it often, and I even touched on a similar theme in my own book, Of That Age.
People aren’t always as they seem. When Aunt Alexandra came to live with the Finches to turn Scout into a lady, she was stiff, highly opinionated, proud, and proper. Scout felt unseen and indignant. Maybe Miss Maudie made this cake for Aunt Alexandra to chill out.
Toward the end, Scout realizes how deeply caring Aunt Alexandra is, and sees many facets of her personality. If you haven’t read it, it’s a great book. In fact, the bigger message, tied to the book’s title and treatment of two other characters, is to understand people before judging them.
We all know people with an exterior or first impression that traps them in a category—abrasive, uncaring, loud and annoying, vacuous, ignorant, guilty—you get it. We want to leave them in that category, discounting the things we don’t know about them. But if we avert attention too quickly, we miss the other side—the good things. Sometimes it takes a long time or other circumstances to lift the veil of conviction.
I’ve been relegated to one of those categories before—stuck up. I can see it. Many things can build an outer shell that portrays a certain impression and lands someone in one of those categories. Often, burdens of expectation, insecurities, emotional walls, fear, and many other things reflect in our outward behavior. In my case, it was probably all of those. It’s more common than we think.
We all know the phrase, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” We risk missing a lot when we don’t strive to understand.
Actually, maybe consider not judging at all. It’s okay if someone is not for you, but even if they aren’t your cup of tea, it doesn’t mean they are wrong or that something is wrong with them.
You don’t have to like, agree with, or even understand others, but your beliefs don’t define another person. And likewise, you are not defined by what others think. That’s the beauty of having our own opinions.
We are free to have our own opinions, and we are free to be ourselves. We are more than the categories others place us in. As Shrek said, “Ogres are like onions. Onions have layers. Ogres have layers.”
Embrace your layers, and allow others’.