"And Spring arose on the garden fair,
Like the Spirit of Love felt everywhere;
And each flower and herb on Earth's dark breast
rose from the dreams of its wintry rest."
—Percy Bysshe Shelley
From the desk of Author Ann Shorey
WRITING NEWS
Where Wildflowers Bloom
2012 has been an exciting year thus far!
First of all, Where Wildflowers Bloom launched to a very favorable reception, something I prayed for when beginning the new Sisters at Heart series for Baker Publishing Group/Revell. Faith Lindberg and her friends are finding their way into the hearts of readers.
Second, I've completed the next book in the series, Where The Heart Heals, and am so excited about the characters and the story.
The oldest recipe I found for Dolly Varden cake was in a cookbook called Old Doctor Carlin's Recipes, which was published in 1881. The version I'm including below is my simplified/modernized version of the original.
I took this version to my book launch party when Where Wildflowers Bloom released and it was a definite hit. I left out the fruit because, personally, I don’t like citron or raisins all that much. However, there’s lots of room for variety with this recipe. If you make this cake, I’d love to hear what version you create. Stop by my Contact page or come find me on Facebook and tell me all about it.
Dolly Varden Cake
Ingredients
•
1 box yellow cake mix
•
1 box spice cake mix
•
1 cup of chopped raisins
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1/2 cup chopped currants
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Chopped citron to taste
•
Preserves or jelly
•
Seven-minute icing
Directions
Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour two 15x10x2 inch jelly roll pans. (I lined the bottoms with waxed paper to facilitate removing the cake when cooled.)
Prepare cake mixes according to package directions. For the spice cake, add the chopped fruit if you wish.
Pour batter into prepared pans and bake for 20 – 22 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center of the cakes.
Cool on wire racks for 15 minutes, then invert pan over the racks to remove the cake. Cool completely.
When cooled, spread generous layer of preserves (I used seedless blackberry preserves) between cake layers, then stack the layers and frost. I used Seven-Minute frosting, but you could do anything you'd like, including something fun and extra creative like the photo above (doesn't that cake look like spring?).
Serves 20 or so, depending on the size of the slices.
