Cookbook Sundays -- April 17

This week's meal wasn't so great, but I think it was mostly my fault rather than the recipe's fault.  First, I made Basic Butter Cake for Every Day, from the "Dinner Against the Clock" cookbook (1973, pg. 309).  Rather than make a cake, I made it into cupcakes.  It's a small recipe, designed to make on layer of a layer cake; it made 8 cupcakes.  I put them in the oven, went to do some grading, and promptly forgot about them.  They sat in the oven about 10 minutes too long.  But it wasn't a total loss.  They're a little dark and crispy on the outside, but when covered with chocolate frosting it's not so bad.  I'll eat them.  Calling it butter cake is definitely a correct description.  There were 10 tablespoons of butter in this recipe!  I think I'll try it again sometime, as it seems like, properly cooked, it would be really moist and delicious.

Incidentally, I love some of these old cookbooks from the 70s and earlier.  Lots of great homey recipes and direction for the housewife on how to elegantly host a dinner party.  Fun stuff.

My entree was Tuna and Corn Fish Cakes from the cookbook "Potato" (1999, pg. 202).  It combines mashed potatoes, tuna and corn into a patty which is then covered in breadcrumbs.  Part of my problem was in reading the recipe.  To begin, it talks about preheating a grill and then cooking the fish cakes under the grill.  I didn't know if that meant it should be broiled or what.  I've never heard of cooking "under" a grill before.  So I decided to just bake them.  Second, the recipe called for 300g/11oz of mashed potatoes.  I don't have a scale and couldn't figure out how to convert that to cups, so I just guessed.  I also used instant mashed potatoes instead of homemade, which the recipe said you could do.  But I think I made the potatoes too thin and used to much of them, because the mixture was too loose to form into patties.  In the end, they tasted pretty bland, and because there were too many potatoes I couldn't really taste anything else.  I ate them because it wasn't terrible-tasting, but I threw away what was left.  It's not something I'd bother to reheat and eat again.

Better luck to me next week!