like vanity cakes without the lard

One of the celebrated food items in the "Little House" books is vanity cakes, mentioned in On the Banks of Plum Creek, Chapter 23, "Country Party" - Ma made vanity cakes. She made them with beaten eggs and white flour. She dropped them into a kettle of sizzling fat. Each one came up bobbing, and floated till it turned itself over, lifting up its honey-brown, puffy bottom. Then it swelled underneath till it was round, and Ma lifted it out with a fork.

Many old cookbooks have recipes for "vanities," and I've blogged about them before. The Little House Cookbook lists the ingredients as egg, salt, white flour. Fry in lard and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Only Laura Ingalls Wilder said that they weren't sweet, so you have to wonder why Barbara Walker included the sugar dusting.

Anyone who knows me well knows that I have eaten a lot of lunches in the tea-room at Neiman Marcus. One of their celebrated food items is the popovers they serve with every meal. I recently broke down and bought the Neiman Marcus Cookbook and a popover pan, but you can find the recipe online if you google "Neiman Marcus popovers." I just made a batch of popovers, and it occurred to me that popovers are like vanity cakes in a lot of ways.

They are a honey-brown, puffy, made of eggs and white flour. Popovers also call for milk, which is used to provide the steam which inflates them into delicious hollowness. Because you steam them instead of fry them, you can cook them so that they are soft, or you can puncture them when done and allow them to become crisper, more like vanity cakes.

Not that popovers are any less trouble to make than vanity cakes. Or any less temperamental. I just like them better. [Note: In the photo above, the image on the front of the cookbook is of monkey bread. My popovers are in front.]
- posted by pioneergirl at 10:56 PM