< Previous60 COASTMONTHLY.COM | ApriL 2023 COUNTER CULTURE ALL THAT JAZZ Cake designer likes to infuse recipes with delicious surprises story by BARBARA CANETTI | photos by STUART VILLANUEVA E rin Young loves cakes — vanilla, chocolate, birthday, wedding, gluten-free and cheesecake, to name a few. And she loves to bake them in her 1950s-inspired kitchen. Young, owner of Jazz Bird Bakery and Fromagerie, creates all types of cakes for celebrations and parties and likes to infuse the recipe with surprises. For example, the thought of mixing basil into a white cake with lemon curds sounds odd, but Young smiles and says, “Taste it. It’s delicious.” The La Marque baker grew up in Colorado, but vacationed with her family in the Galveston area most of her life. She left home to attend the International Culinary Institute in New York, and moved to the Gulf Coast in 2021. She spent time as the cheesemonger at a local supermarket chain, learning about different cheeses and uses. She had intended to continue in that work, but the lure of cakes kept calling her, she said. She purchased industrial equipment to mix the batters and prepare the cakes. She started analyzing recipes and learned how to adapt them for vegan customers as well as the growing gluten-free market. “I like to read the recipes and alter them,” she said. “I can make substitu- tions that still make any cake good.” And while she’s cooking, baking and altering recipes, a video camera captures, in short snippets, her work, which she broadcasts on Instagram (Jazzbirdbakery) and TikTok (Jazzbird_bakery). “I like sharing my knowledge,” she said. COASTMONTHLY.COM | ApriL 2023 61 The 1950s- inspired kitchen in Erin Young’s La Marque home is the perfect place for her to create her cakes.62 COASTMONTHLY.COM | ApriL 2023 When it comes to putting together her cakes, she opts for butter cream fillings, which are smooth and tastier than some of the other fillings. One of her favorite creations is a choco- late cake with black cocoa powder, which tastes like Oreos. She mixes it with regular cocoa powder, giving it a more robust flavor. “This is a really chocolately and moist cake,” she said. “Once people taste it — usually that is all it takes. They love it.” But she can do any filling people want. “There are so many options,” she said. Young has experimented with fondant, the sugary paste used to make detailed decorations on cakes. Although it’s edible, many people don’t like its taste. It’s a useful tool for the sleeker projects because it gives cakes a slick surface. But she prefers buttercream or the edible sugar lace finishes, she said. “I like to decorate to the nines and I just want it to be beau- tiful,” she said. She eventually would like to move out of her kitchen and have a cheese and cake shop, where she can create delicious desserts, she said. “I want to serve beautiful slices of cake and petits fours,” she said. “I’m a baker, not a cook.” COUNTER CULTURE Erin Young decorates a cake in her retro-inspired kitchen where she runs her bakery business, Jazz Bird Bakery. (Below) She purchased industrial equipment to mix the batters and prepare the cakes.64 COASTMONTHLY.COM | ApriL 2023 DOWN HOME DESSERT FOR ALL SEASONS Islander serves a tried-and-true pound cake for winter and summer occasions story by SHANNON CALDWELL | photo by JENNIFER REYNOLDS A n irresistible pound cake that’s easy to make and gets better with age is the go-to holiday treat for island- er Kim Raschke. “I love making it for holidays like Christmas and Easter because it is a really pretty cake that tastes great, too,” Raschke said. “It has a yummy sugar crust on it so you don’t need to cover it with gooey frosting.” It’s a great cake for most any event, including informal summer parties, because you can make it a day or two before, she said. “It has a nice tang, and it really does get moister the longer you keep it,” Raschke said. “It’s a taller cake that looks lovely with berries and cream, and it tastes delicious. Because it’s a denser cake, you can slice it thinly so it goes a long way at a party. It is also great if you slice a little bit, warm it in the toaster and eat it with butter, just saying.” Raschke makes it in her KitchenAid so the mixer does all the work, which is im- portant because this is a true pound cake and heavy with ingredients. She uses a ring-shaped tube pan and advises to take care sugaring the pan. She also counsels patience and recommends leaving the cake in the pan for 15 minutes after bak- ing it as specified in the directions. The recipe comes from “Rare Col- lection: Superb Recipes by the Junior League of Galveston County,” that Ra- schke, like many members, sold as part of a fundraising campaign in the 1980s. “An awful lot of my friends got that cookbook when we were selling them, but this recipe has been the real gift, it is just so good,” she said. Raschke was born on Galveston Island and for many years worked in her family’s businesses, including Galves- ton Limousine Service. Since 2008, she has worked at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston where she’s now the executive assistant to the chief research officer. She’s married to attorney Fred Raschke and has two grown children. Her daughter, Jordan Raschke Elton, also is an attorney and her son, Trent, is a senior at Southwest- ern University in Georgetown. Kim Raschke doesn’t recall any bak- ers in her family, but her mother was a good cook and her father came from an Italian-American family that loved to cook, she said. “I learned from the older women in the family, but when they gave you reci- pes it was a ‘grandma recipe’ with some ingredients missing because they didn’t want you to make it as well as they did,” she jokes. She credits her mother-in-law with helping her grow in confidence when it comes to baking and cooking. “She was an amazing gourmet cook who taught me that sometimes it is better to make things from scratch with fresh ingredients rather than from a box,” she said. “She also taught me not to be intimidated by a recipe.” SOUR CREAM POUND CAKE From “Rare Collection: Superb Recipes by the Junior League of Galveston County” 1 cup butter or margarine, softened 3 cups sugar 6 eggs ¼ teaspoon baking soda 3 cups flour 1 pint sour cream Cream butter and sugar thoroughly. Add eggs one at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition. Mix flour and baking soda. Add flour mixture and sour cream alternately to creamed mixture, mixing well after each addition. Bake at 300 F for 1½ hours in a greased and sugared tube pan. Crust should be browned on top. Let stand 15 minutes before removing from pan. Freezes beautifully. The cake gets more moist the longer you keep it. COASTMONTHLY.COM | ApriL 2023 65 Kim Raschke makes her sour cream pound cake for most any event, from holidays to informal gatherings. The recipe, from “Rare Collection: Superb Recipes by the Junior League of Galveston County,” is one of her go-to recipes in the cookbook.66 COASTMONTHLY.COM | ApriL 2023 DESSERT ISLAND IMPERFECTLY PERFECT There’s plenty of room for error in this free-style pie story and recipe by PHIL NEWTON | photo by JENNIFER REYNOLDS G alette, or free-style pie, as I like to call it, is the simplest and most rustic version of pie. It has wonderfully high crust-to-filling ratio. In this recipe, we also have ingredients that pair well together. Blueberries and cornmeal are perfect partners both in flavor and texture, with the soft sweetness of the blueberries dancing a tango with the gritty goodness of the cornmeal. Galettes are an extremely versatile pastry matched well with most fresh fruits and able to take on savory fillings as well. Think chicken pot pie filling. For those new to baking, the galette pastry allows for a larger margin of error compared to regular pie. The beauty of the galette lies in its flaws. BLUEBERRY CORNMEAL GALETTE For the crust: 1½ cups all-purpose flour ½ cup cornmeal ½ teaspoons salt ½ cup cold unsalted butter, cubed 6 tablespoons ice cold water, or as needed For the filling: 1 pound fresh blueberries, rinsed and dried ½ cup granulated sugar 1 tablespoon lemon juice 2 teaspoons lemon zest 1½ teaspoons cornstarch For the glaze: 1 large egg, beaten 1 teaspoon water 1 tablespoon Demerara sugar Combine flour, cornmeal and salt in a bowl. Add butter and blend with a pastry blender until coarse crumbs form. Drizzle in the cold water a little at a time, stirring to combine with a fork until dough comes together. Turn dough onto a work surface. Bring together with your hands. press into a disk of dough. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes. preheat oven to 400 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment. Combine berries, sugar, lemon juice, zest and cornstarch in a bowl. remove dough from refrigerator. roll to a 15-inch circle, about 1 ⁄ 8 -inch thick. place on parchment. place filling into the center of the dough, leaving 2-3 inches for the bor- der. Fold and pleat dough up and around the filling. Combine egg and water. Brush the dough and sprinkle with sugar. Bake in the center of the oven until golden. About 45 minutes. Allow to cool before cut- ting. Best served with vanilla ice cream. PHIL NEWTON is a Galveston baker/cook. He’s the owner/operator of Stiglich Corner with partner Cindy Roberts. COASTMONTHLY.COM | ApriL 2023 67 market specials! Red Snapper • Grouper Shrimp • Crab Bring this ad in and save 10% off your purchase! expires 4-30-2023 409-763-8160 1902 Wharf Rd • Galveston, TX 77550 www.katiesseafoodmarket.com & T aroT C ard r eader S piriT r eadingS p aST L ife r egreSSionS C hakra B aLanCing f ind o uT W haT T he f uTure h oLdS f or Y ou ! (409) 502-6676 g aLveSTonpSYChiC . Com68 COASTMONTHLY.COM | ApriL 2023 THE GALLEY LET’S DO LUNCH Can a classic sandwich benefit from surprise ingredients? story, recipe and photo by ALICIA CAHILL I like lunch. Lunch is less of a production than dinner. And it’s perfectly acceptable, if not always practical, to linger midday over a meal. Time spent daydreaming over a plate of food shouldn’t be considered lost or squandered — it should be prized and revered. Lunch is a treasured time to retreat from the morning and reset for the remainder of your day. Who doesn’t love a good sandwich? A classic tuna on toasted wheat ranks right up there with other venerated lunch headliners like the BLT and club. Yet, we can revisit and update this familiar favorite. In this interpretation, creamy cottage cheese sneaks in to make a surprise appearance. And our toasted wheat is lavished with a schmear of rich avocado butter. It’s lunch, only better. CREAMY TUNA SALAD SANDWICH Makes: 4 open-faced sandwiches Tuna salad: 1 (8-ounce) can tuna packed in olive oil, drained ½ cup full-fat cottage cheese 3 tablespoons quality mayonnaise 1 ⁄ 3 cup red onion, finely chopped 1 large celery stalk, finely chopped 2 tablespoons capers 1½ tablespoons lemon juice 1 teaspoon fresh dill, chopped 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, minced 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard 4 slices wheat bread, lightly toasted 2 plum tomatoes, thinly sliced Freshly cracked pepper and kosher salt, to taste Avocado butter: 1 ripe avocado 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened Juice from half a lemon Freshly cracked pepper and kosher salt, to taste To make the avocado butter: in a bowl, peel and mash the avocado with a fork. Add the softened butter and lemon juice and stir to combine. Season with kosher salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste. Chill in the refrigerator until ready to assemble the sandwiches. To make the tuna salad: in a medium bowl, break up the chunks of tuna with a fork. Add the cottage cheese, mayonnaise, red onion, celery, capers, lemon juice, dill, parsley and Dijon mustard and stir until combined. Season with kosher salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste. Assemble the sandwich: Toast the bread and spread each piece with some avoca- do butter. place a layer of sliced tomato and add a scoop of tuna salad on top. Sprinkle with freshly cracked pepper. Serve immediately. COASTMONTHLY.COM | ApriL 2023 69 • Garage Door Repair • Replacement Parts • 24/7 Same Day Service $19 TUNE UP 409-206-2688 www.proliftdoors.com/pearland OF PEARLAND Professional Maintenance, Repair, & Installation Now Open www.leelandhousegtx.com © 2022 DOUGLAS ELLIMAN REAL ESTATE. EQUAL HOUSING OPPORTUNITY. 2001 KIRBY, SUITE 600, HOUSTON, TEXAS 77019. 281.652.5588 EST. 1911 4023 Bayshore Drive • Bacliff $2,250,000 Welcome to Pelican Run on the Bay! 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