Kansas - The Sunflower State, State flower: Sunflower

1. Hazel Nut Soup
2. Swiss Steak Kansas Style
3. Skillet Cabbage
4. Monkey Bread
5. Filbert Cake

Filbert Cake - Makes 10 servings

7 eggs
1 cup vanilla sugar*
2 Tbsp flour
1/8 tsp salt
1.8 tsp ground cinnamon
Freshly grated nutmeg
1 tsp rum
½ lb filberts
¼ tsp cream of tartar
Butter
Flour
Confectioner's sugar
1 cup heavy cream, whipped (optional)

Preheat oven to 325º.

Separate eggs placing whites in a very clean copper egg whites pan or stainless bowl. In another bowl, beat yolks until lemon-colored, then add vanilla sugar gradually, beat continuously until sugar is all absorbed.

Sift in flour and salt, then, add cinnamon and a few gratings of nutmeg along with the rum.

Pulverize filberts in a blender, half at a time. Then finely ground stir small amounts into the batter by crumbling the nuts through your fingers to loosen their density; beat well into mixture.

Beat egg whites, adding a pinch of cream of tartar, until they form peaks. Mix ¼ of beaten whites into batter to lighten, then, turn batter into the remaining bowl of whites, carefully folding in to keep lightness. Butter a 10"tube pan generously; sprinkle with flour and shake out excess; pour in batter and bake for one hour.

To serve, slip onto a cake plate and sprinkle well with confectioner's sugar or heap with whipped cream and sprinkle with the extra nuts.

*In earlier times American cooks would keep a bruised vanilla bean embedded in about 1 pound of sugar in a well sealed jar. This vanilla sugar provides a fresh and delicate flavor. Y can use plain sugar with a little vanilla extract.

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