I baked with my young friend Rasmus last weekend. He is 13 and a very impressive pastry chef in the making. He has surpassed many bakers three to four times his age. One of the cakes we baked was a delicious jelly roll cake. These are the favorite cakes of my youth. Right up there with the famous “crazy cake”…no eggs! That’s just crazy!
I found the recipe for my first jelly roll cake with step-by-step pictures in my mom’s Betty Crocker cookbook when I was the same age as Rasmus. I liked to fill them with homemade pudding, so you had to eat the cake quickly, or it became mushy and soft.
The jelly roll is the perfect cake because the good stuff is on the inside of the cake. Rasmus filled his with homemade jam, and cream cheese whipped cream. (His only downfall was the half-cup of YUCKINI he added to the batter. Yes I ate it, and no I could not taste it, and yes the cake was moist and delicious but I’m still not a fan.) Nice try Rasmus!
I just read a friend’s post on Facebook about her old Betty Crocker cookbook being a scratch and sniff book. I know exactly what she means. My mom’s cookbook was filled with drops of batter and smudges of frosting of all different kinds. The dessert section was the most used and appreciated although I did try my hand at some of the quick breads and appetizer sections once in a while. Funny that years later these are still my favorite recipes to make. Is there anything better than a thick slab of banana bread with real butter to bring you back to Grandma’s kitchen?
I am old school. I still have all my cookbooks and the recipe boxes from my grandma and great-grandma. These old cards also have some scratch and sniff qualities about them too. I look at these cards in their original cursive handwriting, usually with the recipe host’s name written in the right corner, and I feel so connected to the women of my past. I see these cards lying on their kitchen tables or held in their hands and know the joy my grandmas felt in bringing delicious food to their families all those years ago. Maybe they too dreamed of one day being a pastry chef? A toast to the fulfillment of dreams!
“If baking is any labor at all, it’s a labor of love.
A love that gets passed from generation to
generation.”
~ Regina Brett
Taste of Home columnist Sandy (Anderson) Holthaus lives on a farm in South Haven, MN with her husband, Michael, and their children Zoe, Jack and Ben. Her heart remains on the North Shore where she grew up with her parents, Art and LaVonne Anderson of Schroeder. She enjoys writing about her childhood and mixes memories with delicious helpings of home-style recipes.
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