BEVELYN BLAIR'S EVERYDAY CAKES
Bevelyn Blair | Author
- $22.50 hardcover
- 288 pages with over 500 recipes
- 1-892514-61-3
- Cookbook
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"Baking a cake for someone is paying them the highest compliment."—Bevelyn Blair
the book
As all children are wont to do, Bevelyn Blair wondered about and longed to engage in the very pastime most forbidden to her by her mother. Fortunately for her-and for us-the activity in question was in no way unwholesome.
Growing up as one of four children in rural Columbus, Georgia, during the Depression, Bevelyn had the usual chores to attend to including helping her mother and sisters in the kitchen at mealtime. At cake baking time, however, Bevelyn's mother shooed the girls from the kitchen, admonishing that the confections were too fragile to withstand even the delicate touch of a child's hands. Bevelyn was an excellent cook by the time she was an adult and married, but she still hadn't baked her first cake.
"I was 23 years old when I baked my first cake in 1955, for my daughter's first birthday," Bevelyn recalls. "And it turned out just perfect. I realized what a pleasure it was to bake; it seemed a calling. I started baking cakes to take everywhere, for everyone." Since, she has baked miles and miles of perfect, old-fashioned cakes, turning baking into a lifelong pursuit.
She also started collecting cake recipes, testing each one and adjusting the measurements. She particularly loved acquiring heirloom recipes, preserving a bit of family history and enjoying renewed memories in the process. Each Christmas, Bevelyn's favorite aunt arrived bearing cakes to set aside in a cool, closed room in the Blair's home for later-a cloistering that made the cakes and baking all the more mysterious and magical.
So, after 30 years of amassing and trying over 600 cakes recipes, Bevelyn and her sister self-published their first book, Country Cakes, and it quickly became known as one of the most authoritative cake cookbooks in existence. Over the years almost 100,000 fans, having learned of the book by word of mouth, bought copies.
This spring, a completely new edition of the book will be published entitled Bevelyn Blair's Everyday Cakes, including over 500 recipes, many of which are new. It is a dazzling array of baked treats from pound cakes and cream cakes to traditional layer cakes, as well as refrigerator cakes, glazes, frosting, and icings-all in all the only cake book any cook will ever need.
Bevelyn, now a grandmother who bakes regularly ("I think everyone always expects me to bring a cake now," she says with a chuckle and a bit of irony), is excited about sharing her tried-and-true desserts with a whole new audience. In fact, she's busy at work on her next two books-pies and cookies. And, she is proud to be sharing her success with an early and loyal member of her fan club-her mother, who will turn 95 soon, and who understands that sometimes a child's curiosity about "forbidden" things can actually turn out to be a blessing in the end.
Bevelyn Blair's Favorite Cakes for Special Occasions
New Year's— Lemon Cheese Cake with Lemon Filing and 7-Minute Frosting
Valentine's Day— Strawberry Cake with Strawberry Icing
Mother's Day— Coconut Cake with Coconut Frosting
Father's Day— German Chocolate Cake with Chocolate-Pecan Frosting
Memorial Day— Hummingbird Cake
4th of July— Betsy Ross Cake with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting and fresh strawberries and blueberries
Labor Day— Pound Cake with Buttermilk Icing
Halloween— Devil's Food Cake with Creole Icing
Thanksgiving— Apple Cake
Christmas— Perfect Cake with Perfect Cake Icing
Birthday— let them look through my cookbook and choose their favorite!
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