Professor Butter Beard’s “Young Woman with a Water Pitcher”
What I remember most about my time in the kingdom of the Netherlands is the light. And the chocolate, but that essay of passion is for another time. I remember waking in Amsterdam to the smell of the bakery across the street and opening my eyes to a light that mesmerized me into a deep meditation. It was white and gold and blue and silver all at the same time, much like a pearl, and it shimmered with each breath of the breeze.
Johannes Vermeer understood, appreciated and captured that light. Born into a Reformed Protestant family in Amsterdam in 1632, he inherited the family art business dealing in paintings when his father died in 1652. In 1653, he married Catherina Bolnes and converted to Catholicism under the strict order of his mother-in-law before the marriage. The Vermeers moved into his mothers-in-law’s home and Vermeer lived there for the rest of his life painting in the front room of the second floor. There he produced a total of fewer than fifty paintings, of which thirty-four have survived (known to date). When he died in 1675, supposedly due to the stress of financial pressures, his wife was forced to sell several his paintings in order to raise their eleven children and pay off substantial debts. Unfortunately, his remaining works were widely dispersed, and they patiently waited for nearly two centuries to be rediscovered.
The master of the pearly light’s modern renaissance began about 1860, when German museum director Gustav Waagen saw “The Allegory of Painting” in Vienna and recognized the work as a Vermeer, though it was attributed to Pieter de Hooch at that time. More and more of Vermeer’s works were authenticated, including “Young Woman with a Water Pitcher.” Here, in a corner of a room (Vermeer’s studio room), a young woman wearing a blue and yellow dress with a large white collar and headdress opens the leaded glass window to let in the iridescent morning light. Her attitude is a simple one, recalling one of those moments when immersed in private thoughts, one forgets the limits of time and space. Vermeer proves again that he is a master of capturing the light in the way it illuminates the space and reflects off objects in the room. Look how it plays on the window glass and the silver basin and pitcher.
Vermeer’s light inspired this vanilla poundcake with it golden interior, enhanced with the blue of the berries and crowned with a headdress of white icing. One hint – although you could easily substitute fresh or frozen berries, the hydrated berries bring an even more intense flavor and won’t bleed into the batter. Until I can walk the halls of the Metropolitan Museum again and stand before this masterpiece, a bite of this cake will successfully transport me back to that morning in Amsterdam and the wonder it provided.
Vanilla Poundcake with Blueberries and a Lemon Vanilla Icing
1 bundt cake and 1 loaf cake for a friend
Cakes:
1 cup dried blueberries, soaked overnight in water and lemon juice
2 lemons
12 ounces unsalted butter, room temperature
3 cups white sugar
6 large eggs, room temperature
4 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 Tbsp kosher salt
1 tsp Chinese Five-Spice Powder
Zest of 1 lemon
1 ½ cups buttermilk
1 Tbsp vanilla paste
Lemon Vanilla Icing:
1 ½ cup confection sugar
1 tsp vanilla paste
Juice of 1 lemon
Water at needed
1) Soak the dried blueberries overnight in the juice of one lemon and enough water to cover.
2) The next day, preheat the oven to 325 degrees
3) Prep a 10-cup bundt pan by brushing it with melted butter and then sift 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour over to cover the interior and then tap to remove the excess. Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray and then insert a piece of parchment paper to cover the bottom and up and over the sides.
4) Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, five-spice powder and the zest of one of the lemons.
5) Stir the 1 Tbsp vanilla paste into the buttermilk.
6) Cream the butter and sugar in a standing mixer 1-2 minutes until butter is light and fluffy. Reduce the speed to low and add the eggs, 1 egg at a time.
7) On low, add 1/3 of the dry mix, then half of the buttermilk, 1/3 of the dry mix, remaining buttermilk and finish with the final 1/3 of the dry mix.
8) Drain the hydrated blueberries and gently hand fold into the batter with a spatula
9) Divide the batter into the pans – 2/3 into the bundt pan and 1/3 into the loaf pan.
10) Bake the cakes until a wooden skewer comes out clean – roughly 50 minutes for the loaf and 65 minutes for the bundt.
11) Cool both cakes in their pans on a wire rack. After 15 minutes, turn the bundt cake out onto a serving plate.
12) To make the icing, whisk the juice of one lemon and the vanilla into the confection sugar, adding tiny bits of water until the mix resembles wet glue. Spoon the icing over the bundt letting it drip down the sides. If desired, drizzle a bit of the icing over the loaf cake.
