Sweet Paul Magazine - Holiday 2010

A Reflection on Flavors
A LONG JOURNEY TO FIND THE PERFECT CUPCAKE

During the early years of being a teenager, my father worked overseas which afforded my family and me the fantastic opportunity to travel widely. My first big adventure at thirteen would see me through Ireland, Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand. My mother encouraged my sister and me to keep a journal of our travels that was met with the typical enthusiasm one would expect when asking a child to take on the task of writing during a vacation. But, I endeavored to do my best and made my daily entries.

Years later, after stumbling across the journal in a box, that aged tablet was cracked open again and I couldn’t help but be astounded. You wouldn’t exactly call it “literary,” far from it, but it held a heart-warming revelation that had long been forgotten. All I had written down over the span of several weeks was the endless varieties of culinary pleasures I’d polished off—smoked kippers, strawberry cream cake, chicken shawarmas, hummus, hum bao, seaweed noodles with peanut sauce, Violet Crumble, lamingtons, Pavlova, and on and on and on. All of my memories had been cataloged by the foods I’d eaten. And, frankly, little has changed.

I never cease to be amazed and appreciative of the intensity with which food outlines the moments of our lives. While some are more deeply sentimental than others, perhaps most, if not all of us will continuously carry these sensory memories until our very end. We will acutely recall the events, the places and most of all, the people in our lives through the scents and flavors of so many times gone by.

To this day, if I make the rice and corn that my now long gone Aunt Kay used to make, the mere smell will immediately transport me back to when I was a small child sitting in her San Francisco kitchen listening to her wonderful laugh or as she would softly sing. A simple chocolate snack cake tinged with a hint of cinnamon reminds me of the one thing my sister was ever willing to cook from scratch: my mom’s yellow curry spaghetti with mushrooms. It still weakens me with its aroma. And, the warm perfume of her sherry cake wafting about recalls family holidays or the polished cocktail parties my parents would host for my father’s colleagues.

My mom’s version was to simply substitute sherry for the liquid called for on a box of yellow cake mix. And, frankly, there is nothing wrong with that shortcut based on my recollection! However, today I have adapted this sherry cake recipe to suit my own needs by creating a “scratch” version. As I am often known for my cupcakes, this interpretation includes a topping of nutmeg-laced browned butter and vanilla buttercream. But, a simple preparation of the cake in a Bundt cake pan and dusted with powdered sugar will give you an immediate sense of my childhood original. Either way, I hope you enjoy this recipe and perhaps make it a new part of your own family food memories.