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Starting on the left: flour and sugar. Middle: cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, mace (ungrated), baking powder, shortening, butter. (We forgot the allspice; also the milk. Oops.) Right: vanilla, eggs.
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Merrill packs cumulus clouds into a 1/2 cup measure. Or shortening.
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Merrill shows offer her pan-greasing trick -- use the butter wrapper!
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Amanda grinds the mace (the husk on a nutmeg) in a mortar and pestle. Isn't it cool looking? Smells great, too! Not sure why commercially ground mace is white.
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And now she grates the nutmeg. We both favor grating it yourself, rather than buying it pre-ground. The aroma is so much more intense.
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Sifting the dry ingredients.
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Merrill creamed the butter and sugar. See how fluffy it is? It's important to beat it really well, to get as much air in there as possible. Makes for super-light cakes.
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In go the eggs.
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Then the twice-sifted dry ingredients.
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Some milk.
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Vanilla.
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This batter is so gorgeous, we're not wasting any of it.
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It's as moussy as a souffle batter.
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While the cake bakes, Amanda assembles the icing. Cream, butter and dark brown sugar are cooked briefly over medium heat.
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It gets to an angry boil quickly!
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After the mixture cools, Amanda beat in the confectioner's sugar, and vanilla. It starts out worrisomely lumpy but smooths out at the end.
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See!
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We weren't sure how to go about icing it, so we started with a spidery drizzle. Sorry, ENunn, hope we haven't horrified you! (Or your mother.)
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Looks cool, but there's not enough icing on it, so we start over. Turns out it's a malleable cake and icing.
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Much better.
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Merrill adds two sticks of butter to the pot (yes, two sticks!), while Amanda opens the family-sized canister of oats.
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Londonfoodieny calls for a mix of white sugar and golden syrup.
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Everyone is excited about pioneering an ingredient new to the "test kitchen" here at food52: golden syrup.
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Merrill's attempt at a "heaping" 1/3 of a cup of syrup.
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It looks like liquid amber.
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The recipe calls for 4 1/2 cups of oats -- it makes quite a lot!
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The goal is to melt the butter and heat the mixture just until the sugar starts to dissolve.
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Pepitas!
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It may look like it's destined for a bird feeder, but never fear.
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One of the more rewarding kitchen moments.
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The butter and sugar have thickened considerably and are now smooth.
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In go the oats and seeds...
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We used a non-stick tart pan, since we didn't have a rectangular tin the right size. It worked quite well.
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We shook the pan and patted it gently to smooth the mixture before putting it in the oven.
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