Cakes That Almost Got Away

Your first birthday after the death of your last parent is weird. We're not supposed to brood about this, because Mom and Dad have died and went through whatever hell it was that got them there, and we're like, Boo hoo, who will bake my birthday cake? As adults, we're supposed to be above all that, but no. Even if Mom and Dad baked their last cake for you decades ago, something about their being now forever unable to do this anymore just f***s you up.

My friend Matt's 50th birthday last week was his first after his mom's death. A certain sadness tinged the mint juleps and barbecue. Matt's sister unveiled the cake she had baked for him. Slicing it, Matt gasped, his eyes wet and wide with wonder.

"Cherry chip," he said.

Cherry chip had been his favorite childhood cake, but it went out of fashion long ago and Mark had thought it obsolete. But cherry-chip fangroups online showed his sister how to resurrect this pink-speckled yellow marvel.

Do we all have favorite cakes-that-almost-got-away?

My friend, the expert cook and food historian, Susan Lee, fondly remembers the chocolate cake she baked to earn her Girl Scouts cooking badge:

"You stir the dry ingredients together in the pan and make three wells, then you pour each wet ingredient into one of the three wells... One well takes oil, one vinegar, and one vanilla.  I can't think of any reason why the wells should be separate other than entertainment value, but the recipes are unanimous on this. My grandmother's typed recipe calls it "Wacky Cake."

Also from her Southern grandmother's files, "Fruit Cocktail Cake is interesting because canned fruit cocktail stands in for the oil or butter that would otherwise moisten the cake. In this sense it's related to all the miracle fat-free brownies -- containing prunes, applesauce, or beans -- that are in the magazines now. Fruit cocktail is mild enough to let you do a yellow cake the same way."

As for Tomato Soup Cake, it's "seasoned with sweet spices, so the result is a rich spice cake... You might think that because it calls for a can-opener it is a child of the 50s," but it's older than that. It's no Red Velvet Cake, but it has its devotees.

Can we save these slices of our heritage from oblivion?

Those with neither the time, talent nor inclination to do it from scratch can stage easy emergency rescues with cake mix.

"Sure, I use cake mixes," Susan admits. "They're so well engineered! I used to add a couple of spoonfuls of sherry to make it seem homemade; now I use a little extra vanilla extract, or almond extract, or ground cardamom -- mysterious."

Not all cake mixes are loaded with unhealthy ingredients. Harvard MBA Nora Schultz founded Naturally Nora in 2008 after realizing that big-name boxed mixes were packed with hydrogenated oils, artificial colors and other horrors.

"As soon as your kids hit nursery school, it's a constant party. Funfetti is the kindergarten cake of choice. Kids love neon colors. You want to make them happy, but looking at the ingredients on those boxes was just scary," Schultz says. "The mixes I found in stores were so full of chemicals as to be virtually bulletproof. The big players in this industry have taken their eyes off the ball."

"What I wanted was basically a cake-from-scratch in a box, for moms like me who had been reluctantly buying boxed mixes and feeling horribly guilty about it. Looking at the best scratch-cake recipes I knew, I thought: How can I modify this and put it into boxes?"

It wasn't easy.

"Of all types of cooking, baking is the most scientific. There is the least room for error."

The result is a range of dairy- and soy-free baking and frosting mixes comprising all-natural ingredients -- and far fewer ingredients than their big-name counterparts. Schultz spent nearly two years developing the formula for Lot'a Dots, her natural version of Funfetti, using dots colored with spinach extract, elderberry juice, turmeric and paprika.

Mom's gone, and you're missing Fruit Cocktail Cake? It's never too late.

Images courtesy of A. Rufus and Kristan Lawson.

 

Comments

[homer winslow]

05:49 PM on 08/18/2011

I always had a German Chocolate Cake for my birthday growing up. My grandmother made them from scratch each year. Since she went away when I was 14, I have not had a German Chocolate cake that came anywhere near hers and have now quit asking for it.

[Anneli Rufus]

11:48 AM on 08/16/2011

OK, here's a recipe for "Wacky Cake," taken from A Dash of Spice, a compilation of recipes published circa 1967 by a women's organization at the synagogue to which my family belonged:

1 1/2 c flour
1 c sugar
3 T cocoa
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 T vinegar
6 T oil
2 tsp vanilla
1 c water

Preheat oven to 350. Sift into an ungreased 8 inch square pan the flour, sugar, cocoa, salt and soda. Make three indentations. Into one indentation pour vinegar. Into another, pour oil. Into the third, pour vanilla. Pour water over all; stir with fork until all flour is dampened. Bake 30 minutes.

[cyril10]

09:06 AM on 08/16/2011

This story is pointless without the recipes.

[mlaiuppa]

04:08 AM on 08/16/2011

My sister's favorite cake is cherry ship with cherry icing. I've always found it disgusting. She's 50 and still loves it. My Mom manages to find the box mix and icing every year, unfortunately.

I love angel food. Occasionally my Mom makes it from scratch. I can too. My sister will no more make me an angel food than I will make her a cherry chip.

I've done the cardamom or extra vanilla doctoring of cake mixes but now I make so much from scratch it's easier to just do that too. Aside from the oil and eggs, it isn't that big of a hassle to do the other ingredients too. That way, I can also use the very best ingredients rather than the cheap, probably cr@p stuff the big box maker use.

Two changes I make. One is I use lard in place of vegetable shortening. The other is I've switched from using raw egg in icing even though I get my eggs at the Farmer's Market.

[propitiousmoment]

01:47 PM on 08/15/2011

How about some recipes?

[mlaiuppa]

04:17 AM on 08/16/2011

Creamy Nut Filling and Icing

1/2 cup milk

2 1/2 TBSP flour

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup lard

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup chopped nuts

1 cup confectioner's sugar

Blend 1/2 cup milk into 2 1/2 TBSP flour and make a roue. Stir constantly over heat until thick; then cool to lukewarm. In another bowl cream1/4 cup butter and 1/4 cup lard with 1/2 cup sugar, 1/4 tsp salt. Add lukewarm flour/milk paste; beat until fluffy. Fold in 1/2 tsp vanilla, 1/2 cup chopped nuts. Use 1/3 for filling. Add up to 1 cup confectioner's sugar to the remainder and use for icing.

Kahlua Cake & Coca Cola Frosting

Bake at 350 degrees for 50 min.

Kahlua Cake

1 pkg yellow cake mix

1 pkg (4 1/2 oz) chocolate instant pudding

4 eggs

1/2 cup kahlua

1 cup oil

3/4 cup sour cream

Combine and beat 4 min. with mixer. Turn into greased and floured bundt pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 50 min. Cool 1/2 hour.

Glaze: 1/2 cup powdered sugar & TBSP cocoa. Mix with just enough kahlua to moisten and drizzle over cake.

OR USE

COCA COLA FROSTING

1 box confectioner's sugar

1 stick butter

3 TBSP cocoa

6 TBSP your favorite brand of Coke (you can also try Pepsi or Dr. Pepper)

Combine ingredients and beat but don't overbeat!