Last night, Marash Girl dreamed about her mother, Jennie Bilezikian and her aunt, Zabelle Bilezikian, and their friend, Ethel Roubian. The dream wasn't exactly about them, but rather about the puzzlement over a recipe, the recipe that Ethel Roubian had given them for her most delectable Orange Cake. Here is what happened. Jennie & Zabelle had gone to visit their friend Ethel Roubian who had served them her special orange cake. . . Or perhaps Ethel had brought her cake to the Armenian Women's Educational Club meeting. Ethel's Orange Cake was so delicious that Jennie & Zabelle asked Ethel if she might share her recipe. Now this was a rare occurrence, for Jennie baked the most superb cakes, using Betty Crocker's Cook Book (NOT cake mixes) as her source. . . Jennie could out bake the best, and needn't ask anyone for anything in the area of cake recipes or instructions to bake. But here is the strange part. Ethel Roubian did agree to share her recipe, leaving Jennie (downstairs) and Zabelle (upstairs) to follow that recipe, a recipe that called for the use of freshly squeezed orange juice and freshly grated orange zest in the batter. They followed the recipe to a "T" as it were, or should I say to an "O", meticulously replicating the actions called for on the recipe card. The cake? A failure. It fell. Oh, dear, they commiserated. We must have missed an instruction or two. Once again, they attempted the cake. Once again, it failed. After the third failure, they called Ethel Roubian to ask what they might have done wrong. . . she went over the recipe with them. All was there. They tried again. The cake fell.
So this is, in a sense, another riddle. Why do you think the cake fell? And whether or not you have the answer to that question, do you have a recipe for Orange Cake that you're willing to share, a recipe that will work?
Answers to yesterday's riddles:
1) Fire
2) Your shoes
3) Your bed
4) A rope
Thanks so much! Hope some of my family's recipes that I have recorded in this blog (check to the right of this page and click recipes) are of interest to you!
ReplyDeleteHi I'm also Armenian and would love to try to make the Orange cake.. Could you post the recipe ? Thank you
ReplyDeleteHi, Cassandra, and thanks for writing. I wish I still had the recipe, but the event occurred many, many years ago, and my mother, who probably still had the recipe hidden away somewhere, passed away many years ago. I do record many recipes on this blog, however; just go to the right and scroll down to recipes; click, and there you'll have many!
ReplyDeleteHi. thanks for getting back to me. Sad though no receipe. I knew Ethel and she was the absolute best cook that I ever knew. I would love to have any receipe of hers.
ReplyDelete