Welcome to The Pioneer Woman Cookbook Club! This month, we're featuring Vallery Lomas, baker, lawyer, winner of The Great American Baking Show, and cookbook author of Life Is What You Bake It. Read on to learn her favorite baking tips, how she made the leap to change careers, and grab a delicious cake recipe just in time for potluck season.
Vallery Lomas' mother knew one thing for certain: Family recipes get lost if the one person who knows them passes before teaching someone else. Like any good mama, she recognized Vallery's early passion for baking and wisely insisted she visit her Granny Willie Mae to learn how to make her famed Million Dollar Cake—a moist, multi-layered type of cake with a fruity filling and fluffy cream cheese frosting. The dessert was quite simply, "on the money."
That's how all this baking business got started, in a little rural town, about fifteen miles east of Baton Rouge. The collection of Southern comfort food recipes in Vallery's book Life Is What You Bake It are inspired by her journey from her native Louisiana, to being a practicing attorney in New York, to her beloved food blog, Foodie in New York, and eventually following her passion on The Great American Baking Show (which she won!).
"With this cake, I had a hands-on interactive lesson with my grandma guiding each step along the way," Vallery says. "I recorded it in the recipe book my mom purchased for me when I was just seven." The handwritten note inside the front cover says: "To Vallery, Love Mom, 1992." In many ways, that was her first foray into writing a cookbook.
One of Vallery's top baking tips is "practice bakes perfect." She embraces mistakes in the kitchen as learning experiences. "I want people to be excited about baking," she says. "Baking for me has been a sanctuary. A happy place." You don't have to run out and quit your job to pursue your passion, either: "You can do your passion on the weekends or do it in the evenings. It's about taking the baby steps."
Many of the dishes in Vallery's book are family recipes that have been tweaked and adjusted over the years to become the straightforward perfection her long-time fans have come to rely on. The book showcases the ingredients Vallery grew up experimenting with: Crawfish (or shrimp when she's not down South), pecans (which grew in abundance along the road home), and the fresh fruit that her grandmother raised on her land. "All of my initial encounters with these ingredients was just experiencing them at their prime. So, in the end, it's really a matter of getting things at their best and ripest."
If you want the real secret to her "million dollar" cake recipe, Vallery has you covered: it's all about simplicity. She calls her Granny's recipe a "1-2-3-4 cake": 1 cup of butter, 2 cups of sugar, 3 cups of flour, and 4 eggs. In the process of developing the instructions for outsiders, Vallery added her own ABCs: Aromatics (1 teaspoon each vanilla and almond extract), Baking powder (1 tablespoon), and "cow's juice" (1 cup milk). If you stick to the 1-2-3-4 ABCs, eventually you won't even need a recipe to make it! The best part is that this cake, like many of Vallery's recipes, lends itself to easy substitutions. No canned pineapple? Her Granny would sometimes fill the cake with apple jelly, which also allows it to work nicely as a fall dessert.
Whether you're looking for a simple cake for a summer cookout or a stress-free dessert for your next dinner party, you can't go wrong with Granny's Million Dollar Cake. You can also check out the book for her other biscuits, cookies, and pie recipes. No matter what you choose, half of the fun is reading each delicious home-grown origin story.
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- Yields:
- 8 - 10 serving(s)
- Total Time:
- 1 hr 10 mins
Ingredients
For the Pineapple Filling:
- 1
21-oz. cancrushed pineapple in heavysyrup orpineapple in its own juice
- 1/4 c.
granulated sugar (if using pineapple in its own juice, increase to 1/3 cup)
For the Cake:
nonstick baking spray
- 3 c.
all-purpose flour
- 1 tbsp.
baking powder
- 1 tsp.
kosher salt
See AlsoOrange Cardamom Cookie Recipe - 1 c.
unsalted butter, room temperature
- 2 c.
granulated sugar
- 4
large eggs, room temperature
- 1 tsp.
vanilla extract
- 1 tsp.
almond extract
- 1 c.
whole milk
For the Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 1
8-oz.package cream cheese, room temperature
- 1/2 c.
unsalted butter, room temperature
- 4 c.
confectioners' sugar
- 1 tsp.
vanilla extract
Directions
- Step1Make the pineapple filling: In a blender or food processor, blend the pineapple on low until the consistency of applesauce, about 30 seconds. Transfer to a small saucepan, add the sugar, and heat over low until the sugar dissolves, about 5 minutes.
- Step2Make the cake: Preheat the oven to 350° and place a rack in the middle of the oven. Spray three 8-inch cake pans with baking spray.
- Step3In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
- Step4In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium-low speed until creamy, about 30 seconds. With the mixer running, pour the sugar in a steady stream. Continue to beat on medium-low speed until incorporated, about 2 minutes. Increase the speed to medium and continue to beat until light, fluffy and pale, 2 to 3 more minutes.
- Step5Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated before adding the next, about 2 minutes in total. Use a rubber spatula to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl. Add the vanilla and almond extracts.
- Step6Reduce the mixer speed to low and add one-third of the flour mixture, mixing until just a few streaks of flour remain. Add half the milk and mix until combined. If the batter appears broken, don't worry—the next bit of flour will bring it back together. Add half the remaining flour mixture and continue to mix on low speed, just until no streaks of flour remain. Add the remaining 1/2 cup milk, continuing mixing on low, then add the remaining flour mixture. Mix until the flour is integrated, using a rubber spatula to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl as needed. Divide the batter evenly among the prepared cake pans and smooth the top.
- Step7Bake until the cake layers are golden on top and a cake tester inserted in the middle comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Invert the cake onto the cooling rack to cool.
- Step8While the layers are on the cooling rack, spread half the pineapple filling on one layer and the remaining filling on a second layer. (The third layer won't get any pineapple on top.) Let cool completely.
- Step9Make the cream cheese frosting: Add the cream cheese, butter, confectioners’ sugar, and vanilla to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until the ingredients come together, then increase the speed to medium and mix until creamy, about 5 minutes.
- Step10Place one layer with pineapple filling on a cake plate, pineapple side up. Set the second layer with pineapple filling on top of the first. Then add the final plain layer, placing it upside down on top so that the bottom of the cake, the most even side, faces up (this gives you a nice, flat surface to frost). Use a spatula to frost the top and sides of the cake with the cream cheese frosting. Let the frosting set, then enjoy.
Store the cake, covered (I like using a cake dome), until ready to serve. If it won't be eaten within a couple of days, it can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Life Is What You Bake It: Recipes, Stories, and Inspiration to Bake Your Way to the Top: A Baking Book
Life Is What You Bake It: Recipes, Stories, and Inspiration to Bake Your Way to the Top: A Baking Book
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Reprinted from Life Is What You Bake It. Copyright © 2021 by Vallery Lomas. Photographs copyright © 2021 by Linda Xiao. Published by Clarkson Potter, an imprint of Random House.
