IT’S BEEN FIVE GRAND YEARS since I started this newsletter on Substack. Since then I’ve been in motion with Tuesday deadlines, writing books, visiting family, planning and tending a summer vegetable garden, battling a bit of cancer, enjoying the company of a granddaughter, and sharing recipes and stories with you.
Busy people seldom pause for reflection, but this poignant anniversary seemed like a good time.
To me the joy of writing here in this space has been getting to know you, hearing your voices, listening to your perspectives, and being able to respond to what the world throws at us in conversation and community. And with good food!
In my first newsletters back in 2021, I didn’t know where to begin so I just wrote from the heart, and once I started writing, I couldn’t stop. In one of my first columns I proposed that my mother’s beloved Chicken Tetrazzini casserole didn’t need cream of mushroom soup anymore.
Truth be told, no recipe really needs it—it’s something we add out of tradition because mama made it that way. But mama made it that way because Campbell’s told her to. And I knew I could make Chicken Tetrazzini better with a homemade béchamel—white sauce. When the comments came in, I was surprised some of you were still quite protective this mid-20th century chicken classic as it was.
Don’t we update our wardrobes, cars, hairdos?
That little black dress or navy blazer you bought a half century ago is still classic if you can fit into it and the buttons haven’t fallen off. But most of the cake recipes that came out of the sugar-saturated ‘60s need a little adjusting for our palates and health. In the recipe I share today, for example, which is a beloved cake from Maryland, I could not bear to combine 3 cups of sugar in a saucepan with 12 tablespoons butter and a can of evaporated milk, stir until thickened, and pour that goopy mess over the top of a perfectly lovely cake.
Well, I actually made that frosting, but knowing it was not something I would share, I reimagined the cake, fine-tuned it, and fired the frosting. In its place is simply whipped cream, lightly sweetened and flavored with a smidge of good vanilla.
I make every recipe I share in this newsletter at least once or twice. And you better believe I scrutinize over them and tote leftovers to others to taste, too. My trusted guinea pigs are friends and family. My husband has taken his role as chief tester and reluctant editor quite seriously, and I am grateful.
What I didn’t plan on writing in Between the Layers was how current events would come to be interlaced with cooking. I realize now it wasn’t so much what was happening around me as what was happening to me as a writer. I was becoming more familiar with the page, and for once in my life I had the freedom to express my views with the same candor I might chat with a friend on the phone before dinner.
It started with the March 2023 school shootings here in Nashville, and with everything happening since the 2024 presidential election, it has continued. Truthfully, I never planned to bring politics or my perspective on world views into food stories. They just evolved as I did.
Once I learned how recipes are artifacts of our past, I see recipes differently. My mother baked pound cake, and when she wasn’t looking, I pinched off pieces of the crusty top as it cooled on the rack. I never knew pound cake was an emblem of the Civil Rights movement. I never knew that the Black community in the South regarded pound cake as a vehicle for representation, rights, and change until I began researching the food stories of the South.
Now I look at pound cake differently.
Lessons in Chemistry Lasagna. The bomb.
The Only Ratatouille To Make, I wrote a “tomato diaries” last summer, creating a mashup recipe referencing the wisdom of Julia Child and a local organic farmer.
The modern redo of a retro cheese ball, thanks to Vivian Howard and David Lebovitz, has become a favorite holiday recipe.
His pancake he makes from not measuring is a family breakfast staple.
I met a friend for breakfast recently, and she’s a big-deal, busy lady. We’d tried for a year to get our schedules to mesh and finally had a date. I was on time, but to no surprise, she was already there and had secured our table.
Waiting for omelets, my friend Agenia told me her cake story. It happened after she had been named president of Fisk University here in Nashville, and in her honor, the school’s food service department was baking her a welcome cake.
Excited to be feted and with thoughts of childhood pound cakes coming back into memory and realizing this could be a moment to build community, she invited professors and students to join her in her office. But when the cake arrived, it was just a cupcake. And the absurdity of the moment was not lost on anyone.
Their shock turned to laughter, and they vowed to slice a really big homemade cake next time. One student offered to bake a pound cake and asked Agenia for a good recipe. She suggested Trisha Yearwood’s cold oven pound cake.
What my friend did was reimagine her role as a leader, and with the wisdom of a mother, invite everyone to her table.
Cakes can do that.
We can do that.
Five years later, I’m still happy to be here. Thanks to my friend Susan for insisting I give Substack a look, and thanks to my daughter Kathleen who set up my Substack account before I could chicken out.
I hope Tuesday is a day you look forward to when checking email. And to the moms out there…have a good day off with someone else cooking or baking for you!
- xo, Anne
P.S. Gas prices are insane but at least there’s one good deal out there—the price on my hardcover cookbook on Amazon. Take advantage of this offer for graduation gifts and Mother’s Day. Also, I made it back from Japan! Endured the long flights, and I’ve got some great stories - and recipes - to share next week with Paid subscribers. Join us!
THE RECIPE:
Nothing is better than chocolate cake with white icing, or at least, that was my favorite cake combination growing up. This Maryland cake recipe is something I am testing for my new book. I won’t tell you the original name of the recipe, but I will say, it’s a fabulous cake that I needed to tweak because you can’t always find German chocolate anymore, and the amount of soda vs buttermilk in the recipe was off, creating a soapy taste. I got that fixed, and I added the new frosting—whipped cream. This chocolate cake is perfect year round, for winter holidays but also summer, prepped ahead, and stuck in the fridge for a refrigerator cake. Its moist, dense crumb is very old-school, just the way I love cake! I’ve baked it in layers, but I am sure you could make it as cupcakes or sheet cake, too.
Makes 12 to 16 servings
Prep: 1 hour
Bake: 33 to 37 minutes for 8-inch pans, 30 to 35 minutes for 9-inch
Cake:
Vegetable oil spray, butter, or shortening, parchment rounds, and flour for prepping the pans
1 4-ounce bar semisweet chocolate (or German chocolate), chopped
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter
1/2 cup water or coffee
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups (350 grams) sugar
4 large eggs, separated
2 cups (224 grams) cake flour
2 tablespoons (10 grams) unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup whole buttermilk
Frosting:
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Preheat the oven to 350ºF with a rack in the middle. Grease the bottom and sides of two 8-inch or 9-inch round cake pans, line the bottoms with parchment, and flour the sides of the pans. Set aside. (Either size pan works. If you use the smaller 8-inch pans, you can split the layers in half and make a four-layer cake. They are a bit crumbly, but I scattered those crumbs on top of the cake as garnish.)
Place the chocolate, butter, and either water or coffee in a medium saucepan over low heat, and stir until melted, 4 to 5 minutes. Turn off the heat, and stir in the vanilla.
Place the sugar in a large bowl, pour the melted chocolate mixture over and combine with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon to bring down the temp of the chocolate mixture. Separate the eggs, and stir the yolks into the chocolate mixture with the spatula or spoon. Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Add this flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk, stirring with the spatula or spoon. Use a whisk if needed to smooth out any lumps. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form, using an electric mixer, about 2 minutes. Fold them into the batter until just combined. Turn the batter into the two prepared pans, and place in the oven.
Bake until the layers spring back in the center, about 33 to 37 minutes for 8-inch pans and about 30 to 35 minutes for 9-inch. Place on wire racks to cool down 10 minutes. Run a small spatula around the edges of the pans, give the pans a gentle shake to loosen the cake layers, and then invert them once and then again onto the racks so they rest right-side up. Let cool completely, about 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, make the frosting. Pour the cream, sugar, and vanilla into a chilled large bowl of an electric mixer and with the whisk attachment beat the cream until soft-stiff, about 1 1/2 minutes. Place in the fridge until ready to frost the cake.
If you want four layers, slice each of the 8-inch layers in half horizontally using a long serrated knife and transfer the top of each layer to a rack. Carefully remove the parchment paper from the bottom layers. Stack the layers on a cake stand, filling each layer with frosting, spreading frosting as you like it on the top, and using the rest of the frosting, spread it gently around the sides. If crumbs fall onto the counter as you stack the layers, use those to decorate the top of the cake. Place in the fridge until ready to serve. If it’s a birthday, go ahead and insert the candles, and then you can drape waxed paper over the top of the cake to partially cover it. Slice and serve with strawberry, coffee, or pistachio ice cream.
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