Signature Recipes

Thyme and Change: Sunday Traditions
By Chef Charles Lee, Henderson Park Inn, Destin, FL

I was raised Southern Baptist through and through. My Grandmother Mattie was Superintendent of our small, very hot, or very cold Sunday-go-to-meeting place, or in “sinner language,” our church. Grandmother Mattie (as everyone in our small community referred to her) held this esteemed position for fifty years.

This position proved to be a real disadvantage for everyone inside the family household because everyone was required to attend Sunday school, church, and night services every Sunday. Unless you were in the ground, you were required to be in the church pew.

We did not have a regular minister except for the first and third Sunday of each month. The Lord’s Supper was administered on these Sundays: bread and wine, or in this case, grape juice. There were those among the congregation who felt Rev. “Money Thyme” was perhaps spiking his grape juice with Jack Daniels. The reasons were clear as he slurred his words and read from Psalms when he had instructed the congregation to read from St. John. However, the most obvious reason was when he insisted that Smokey Robinson and the Miracles were a spiritual group that toured the country healing people.

Our tradition on the first and third Sunday was that Rev. “Thyme” dined in our home. My grandmother decided to bake a chocolate cake in his honor. She called it a Tipsy “Thyme” Chocolate Covered Pear Cake. The cake batter was mixed by hand and cooked in a wood burning stove.

Tipsy “Thyme” Pear Cake

You will need a balloon whisk and two 9 inch by 2 inch cake pans lined with parchment paper and lightly flour dusted. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2 cups cake flour
1-cup extra dark cocoa powder
2-cup superfine sugar
1 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp ground nutmeg
1-cup sour cream
Four large eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
½-cup buttermilk
1-cup hot water
½ tsp Jack Daniels
1 tsp salt
1 large pear

Core pear and slice. Do not remove skin. Soak in 1/3 cup Jack Daniels. Set aside.

In a large bowl, mix dry ingredients with balloon whisk about five minutes.

In another bowl, mix liquid ingredients together. Using the balloon whisk, stir for three minutes.

Slowly add wet ingredients to the dry mixture and whisk for ten minutes. Pour equal amounts of batter into each floured pan, place in center of oven, and bake for 30 minutes or until straw insert in the middle of the cake is clear.

Remove from oven place pans on wire rack. Cool in pans for 15 minutes. Remove from pans continue cooling cakes on wire rack.

The Filling and Topping
1 cup powdered Sugar
4 oz soft cream cheese
8 oz melted butter
1 tsp Jack Daniels
¼ cup buttermilk

Mix all ingredients together until desired spreading consistency. Add more buttermilk if required or if mixture stiffens.

Remove cake from wire cooling rack, place on cake board. Use generous amount of filling to cover cake surface completely. Gently ease second layer on top of first. Gentle pressure should cause filling to bind top and bottom layer together. Cover cake completely with remaining mixture. Place cake in freezer for 15 minutes.

Chocolate
1 lb Bakers chocolate, chopped fine
2 cups heavy cream, scalded

Mix together chocolate and scalded cream until chocolate is completely melted. Remove cakes from freezer. Cover with melted chocolate return to cooler.

Prior to service remove from cooler and garnish with Jack Daniel soaked pears.