Nebraska 150 Recipe-Wine Cake and a Capitol Tour

Today's recipe is for a sponge cake made with sweet, Kosher wine. Having just finished Pesach, I had a bottle of Concord Grape Mogen David to use up. Honestly, other than roasting a brisket, there aren't that many things to do with the stuff other than use it as a mixer. The cookbook is from a local Jewish organisation and it was published in 1963.

Pardon the imperfect slice-I had trouble dislodging it from the pan. You'll note, the cake isn't pretty, but that's the consequence of red wine and cinnamon. If you can get past eating grey cake, the flavour is rather nice. Danny liked it, MR. ETB thought it was unremarkable. It held up well for a week covered at room temperature. I had a hell of a time getting it out of the pan. If you know what Haroset (chopped fruit and wine) smells like, this cake is exactly like that.

The original recipe was vague. I did not grease the tin. Were I to try it again, I would. I also beat the egg whites until they held soft peaks rather than the frothy stage which didn't sound right to me. Sometimes, particularly if English is a second language these things don't get translated they way we'd expect. I don't know what Helen Goldenberg's story was, but she might have been one of those, "A bit of this, a smidge of that" type cooks that never set things down in a recipe.

It is interesting to note that she isn't listed as Mrs. Joe Schmo" or whomever. In 1963, the etiquette would have been to use the husband's name unless one was single or widowed. I'm not certain which she was, but it is unlikely that she was making a feminist statement by refusing to use her husband's name. Not impossible of course, but unlikely (at least in the Bnai Brith circles). Even my mum who was well ahead of the times in her insistence on wearing trousers and smoking cigarettes publicly, would have used my dad's name. I only point this out because there's a tendency to impose our etiquette and social norms on the past, particularly when it wasn't that long ago. Anyway, if I've got it all wrong and Helen Goldenberg was the Emma Goldman of her day, I apologise. A quick Google search didn't reveal much about her. Apparently, she had a very common name.

Now, for the tour. Click here to explore our beautiful Nebraska State Capitol building in Lincoln, Nebraska. If you like Art Deco, you'll love our capitol building. The virtual tour is nice, but if you can get yourself to Nebraska, it is definitely worth a visit-ideally more than one day to give yourself time to see all the mosaics and other features. I've certainly never encountered another building quite like it.

I'll share a quick story that longtime readers might remember. When Danny was about three we took him to the Capitol to visit with some of Mr. ETB's former co-workers. I warned him as we approached the building that the Sower statue atop the dome was a bit surly and would pelt unsuspecting tourists with corn when they passed by. That got laughs from people waiting with us to cross the street. As we got closer to the building, I pointed to the door of the capitol and then up to the Sower before instructing him, "Okay, RUN!" We met up at the door and I pretended to be in pain from being hit with corn. I dramatically checked him over and congratulated him for outrunning the Sower. We still joke about it when we go to Lincoln, and I'll look forward to the day when he tells me he pulled the same stunt on his children.