Comments on: Create: A Sweet Tradition

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 20:23:42 +0000

Oh does this bring back memories! My grandma used to make this angel food cake with this sweet frosting. Ow my aunt makes it for every occasion. We all try to replicate it, but somehow we never can! We had to make sure to be at the dessert table right away at Thanksgiving or else we it would be gone!!!

By: lhouse

lhouse — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 19:02:08 +0000

thanks for responding everyone. your shared traditions make me want to quit my day job (again), gather up recipes and spend my time making you mousse pies (kev, if you only knew the ingredients!); baking cakes from boxes; pouring chocolate batter into mickey mouse tins and perfecting grandma’s butter cream peaks. it would be like going into the joy business.

By: Adam Miller

Adam Miller — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 16:02:05 +0000

Great post, Laura. And that picture of the boy…my goodness, it’s too much.

Makes me think of the simple homemade chocolate cake w/buttercream frosting that my mom has made for my birthday since as long as I can remember. Back in the early-to-mid 70s, the cake was baked in a Mickey Mouse tin and painstakingly decorated with multiple colors of frosting out of an icing bag. By the time I was 8 or 9, it was simply a square cake with white frosting. (Can you blame her?) It’s been that way ever since. It’s always delicious and, at first bite, immediately makes me think of various birthdays celebrated in various kitchens and dining rooms at various stages of my life. Mostly, it makes me think of my mom. I’m sure my dad and brother feel the same way as I do about this cake, as they get the some one–every year.

By: Lisa Cervenka

Lisa Cervenka — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 14:19:24 +0000

Although I love to cook and bake, I must have a yellow cake and milk chocolate frosting from….a box and a can! Somehow, it reminds me of the comfort of my grandma’s Duncan Hines cakes. Tom bakes one every year for me and now all three boys request the same! They want the cool, decorated bakery cake for the party with friends but still want their fix of processed goodness for our family celebrations. Oh, and there must be an extra can of frosting around…we like to add a little extra to the pieces that don’t have enough! Definitely not sophisticated but always reliably delish!

By: kevin house

kevin house — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 21:39:33 +0000

i loved the post. my favorite sugar memory is celebrating thanksgiving at your parents’ house. the chocolate pie was one of the few things that motivated a picky eater like me to finish thanksgiving dinner so that i could eat that chocolate pie.

even to this day, my reputation with that pie remains with your mother. she often will have one ready for dessert for me when i come over.

-kevin

By: Meg

Meg — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 21:01:30 +0000

House, I love this post! It resonates with me because of the Riordan family fondness for sweets, and cake in particular. My Grandma Riordan made her famous chocolate cake frosted with white butter cream peaks, and drizzled with bittersweet chocolate; that was a favorite of my dad’s. My little brother once asked for a “camouflage” cake for a birthday party, and I still recall the collage of greenish-blue and chocolate chips that my mom assembled in order to honor the request for her little ‘soldier boy.’. Over the past years, I’ve grown fond of coconut cake (a departure from my love for chocolate), with rich coconut cream filling and flakes adorning thick frosting. Sweet Goodness.