The Black Bean Cake

This recipe appeared in my first book, Jeremiah Tower’s New American Classics, and when people heard I was doing a new book, everyone said, “Make sure to include the black bean cake!” And that bit about Liz Smith. So here they are.

I think that the columnist Liz Smith’s farewell to Rock Hudson—“So long, big boy, have a good rest”—is what I would like on my tombstone, but it will probably be: “He invented the black bean cake.”

It is simple, beautiful, easy, fast, and i