Baking Day

Tonight the husband and I are having dinner with some friends, and I was asked to bring dessert. So I turned to my copy of the Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook, which was a gift from my mother-in-law, to find a recipe. My mother-in-law said the book is full of many of her staple recipes and every cook should have a copy. I decided on a Coconut White Cake (a basic white cake recipe with toasted coconut mixed in) with Chocolate Butter Frosting. I'm hoping it will taste similar to a Mounds candy bar - yum! What is so interesting about this is that I recently inherited my grandmother's copy of the Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook (see photos above). It just so happens that my grandmother's copy is the 1953 first edition and first printing - very cool! It is very obvious that this cookbook was used over and over and over again. It is in binder format so the pages can be taken out, and many of the punched holes in the pages are torn, suggesting that the pages have been flipped through and perused many, many times.

I also received a few other things that will aid me in my future cake baking: a cake carrier, a flour sifter, and a cake and cookie decorator. I can remember my grandmother using this cake carrier frequently, and every time I saw it I would get excited because it meant she had made dessert (I most often hoped there was a pound cake inside - delicious!). It is Decoware brand, and after a little bit of searching, I found an identical one for sale on eBay. There it is described as a vintage 40's cottage primitive tin Decoware cake carrier. I have wanted one of these to replace my plastic no frills Rubbermaid version, and this one is perfect!

I really needed a new sifter because the one I have has stuff clogged in it, and I haven't been able to figure out how to get it out. I was very excited when I was presented with this one - it even still had flour on it as though it had just been used. Finally, I got this great cake and cookie decorator with interchangeable tips. I can make my own icing for decorating, and won't have to use the store-bought kind just so I can have the decorating tips - much tastier! I have always liked the idea of homemade birthday cakes, and now I have the means to decorate them.

I am excited to celebrate my grandmother's memory through carrying on the tradition of cooking some of her best recipes. It is even better that I will be able to use some of the very same tools she did.