Corn Bread and Ballet

Karen Kain dans Le Lac des cygnes (1980)

   

I haven't made corn bread (or Johnny Cake as we sometimes call it) for ages, but Sarah's recent post, at All Our Fingers in the Pie, reminded me about it.  

Corn bread and ballet are linked in my mind.   The recipe I use was from a newspaper article, probably from the 1980s, about a fundraising cookbook for the Hospital for Sick Children.  The article had Karen Kain's Johnny Cake recipe and I've kept it and used it all these years.   Karen Kain is probably Canada's most famous Prima Ballerina, dancing from 1969-1997 with the National Ballet.  She is much loved in Canada and has continued with the National Ballet as artistic director.   When I was a teenager, I saw Karen both on-stage dancing and occasionally across the church at Christmas Eve services as her family attended the same church we did.

KAREN KAIN'S JOHNNY CAKE

INGREDIENTS
1 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup butter or margarine, at room temperature
1 egg
1 cup milk
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt

METHOD
1.  In large bowl cream sugar and butter.
2.  Add egg and milk and mix.
3.  In a small bowl, combine cornmeal, flour, baking powder, and salt.
4.  Stir into butter mixture and beat vigorously.
5.  Pour into a greased 8-inch square baking pan.
6.  Bake in 350 oven for 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean.

Thank you Karen, for your lovely recipe that I have enjoyed all these years.

Linked to Just Something I Whipped Up at The Girl Creative