Graham Cracker Cake

Serves 10 -12

Ingredients for Cake:
1/2 cup butter at room temperature
5 large eggs, separated
1 1/4 cup whole milk
33 graham crackers, (about 2 3/4 cups) finely crushed in a food processor
3 Tbsp all purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups baker's sugar or superfine
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup chopped walnuts


Directions for Cake:
1. Preheat oven to 350˚. Allow butter, eggs, and milk to come to room temp. Grease a 10x15x1” baking sheet and cut parchment paper to fit the bottom. In a large bowl stir together all the dry ingredients (except sugar).
2. Beat butter on medium-high speed in a mixer for 30 seconds. Beat in sugar until well combined. Beat in yolks one at a time.
3. Combine milk and vanilla. Alternately add flour mixture and milk mixture to butter mixture. Beat on low speed until just combined. Gently stir in the walnuts.
4. In a clean bowl, whisk egg whites on medium-high speed until stiff peaks form. Fold 1 cup of whites into the batter. Then fold the rest in. Do not over mix.
5. Pour batter into pan. Bake for 25 - 30 minutes – cake should spring back to the touch. Cool cake in pan on wire racks for about 10 minutes. Then carefully invert onto a cooling rack and remove parchment paper. Cut cake crosswise into 3 equal pieces. Cool completely before frosting.

Ingredients for White Frosting:
1/2 cup butter at room temperature
4 3/4 powdered sugar, divided
3 Tbsp whole milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt

Directions for white frosting: Beat butter on medium-high and slowly, add 2 cups of powdered sugar, milk, vanilla, and salt. Gradually beat in the rest of the powdered sugar until the frosting is a smooth consistency. Frost the cake and decorate with walnuts, candied ginger, or bits of broken graham crackers

***Historical factoid: A Dr. Graham invented the graham cracker because he feared that youngsters might become perverse if they consumed too many sugary foods. So he set out to create a recipe for a bland cracker to satisfy children's appetites for snacks without igniting their potentially fiery sexual appetites. Thank goodness for the puritanical resourcefulness of Dr. Graham. What would preschool snack time, campfires, and everyday life be like without these delightful, rectangular munchies?

Recipe adapted by Cristina Paul from a 2004 Better Homes and Gardens contest winner