Being of the age when people start to think about marriage, I have attended several weddings of close friends in the past few years. This seems to be continuing this year, as another one of my best friends is getting married in September, and my boyfriend’s very close friend is getting married in April. I’m no newbie to the wedding scene, as I come from a close, large, Italian-Catholic family in which weddings last four days, from Thursday night – Sunday morning. However, I am learning a lot about being in weddings or being friends with, not just related to, the bride or groom. I appear in my fifth wedding as a bridesmaid this September (27 Dresses, anyone?…I’ve passed the three times a bridesmaid mark) and I have markedly noticed the importance of pre-wedding traditions in weddings of my friends from the South. One of these includes the Bridal Shower. Now, as I can make out, several factors weigh into if you get a bridal shower and how many you get. If your friends and their mothers are knowledgeable in the ways of the Southern tradition of the necessity of the bridal shower, you get one. If your friends and their mothers are knowledgeable in the ways of the Southern tradition of the necessity of the bridal shower but are in separate social circles, you get more than one. If the bridal shower is in nice weather, as a guess you should dress nice, in a sundress, and bring a gift that is from the bride’s registry. It is also custom to bring a recipe to share with the bride or send a recipe prior to the shower to the host, who then compiles all of the recipes into a book. During the shower, you eat light appetizers, often accompanied by punch and petit fours, the bride opens gifts, and you sometimes play games. In my opinion, bridal showers are a lovely reflection of the community and tradition of the South.
I recently wrote a blog for my Italian collaborator and friend at Faccio Tutto da Sola U.S.A., in which I explained Bridal Showers and gave the recipe that I inevitably bestow upon any friend who will soon be a new bride. In order to explain this phenomenon to the Italians, I looked up the history. Bridal Showers apparently began in the 1890s as a way to assure that the bride and her family, who were paying for the wedding, had enough money and goods to finance the big day. Women friends and their mothers usually hosted (host) these parties in which the bride receives gifts that she will use in her new life. I love that this tradition reflects so perfectly the strong sense of community and helping each other out that we have in the South. We might not always have the big bank rolls, but we have each other...and our food.
Today I would like to share a recipe that I always give to the new bride. It’s a recipe that has won the hearts of my students and friends from around the world - from Saudi Arabia, China, Italy, Ohio…I have yet to meet someone that does not love this recipe. Ladies and gentlemen, I give my adapted version of Southern Living’s Sour Cream Apple Coffee Cake, a different food all together than the dry Starbucks strudel version.
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| Apple Coffee Cake...the way it should be...Southern. |
½ cup butter or shortening
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ tsp salt
2 cups flour
8 oz. sour cream or Greek yogurt
1 ½ cups apples (or any fruit - blueberries or pears work well, but peaches tend to get lost and do not have great flavor)
Topping
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup chopped nuts
2 tablespoons butter
Mix first four ingredients together in one bowl. Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a separate bowl. Add flour mixture the the first bowl, alternating with sour cream (add a little bit of flour then mix, then little bit of sour cream and mix, then little bit of flour and mix, then little bit of sour cream and mix, then little bit of flour and mix). Add fruit to the batter. Pour mixture into a greased cake pan and sprinkle topping on the top. Bake at 375 degrees for 25-35 minutes or until you can put a knife in the cake and it comes out clean.
Read the Italian Coffee Cake post at: http://www.facciotuttodasola.com/2012/03/faccio-tutto-da-sola-usa-coffee-cake.html
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