With easy recipes, making dessert is a piece of cake

Donald Harmon's search for a cake recipe his mother used to make resulted in a deluge of recipes - and reminiscences.

"My father, who is 78 years old and who grew up in Granite City, Ill., remembers quite fondly a cake called 'busyday,' " wrote his daughter, Debbie Harmon of Milton, Ga.

"He would love for me to find this cake recipe and bake it for him. (It's just the simple things in life that are the best.)"

The recipes began to pour in as soon as the St. Louis Post-Dispatch published Harmon's request in January.

Most of the recipes are for one-bowl yellow cakes topped with coconut, nuts or both. A few are for chocolate cakes, and a few are for cobblers.

Sources included Betty Crocker, Pillsbury and Better Homes and Gardens cookbooks. One reader unearthed a 1940 advertisement for Gold Medal flour that promoted its version of Busy Day Cake.

The names of the readers' recipes varied, but most alluded to the ease of assembly: Slapped-Together Cake, Panic Dessert and Kitchenette Cake.

Despite that, modern cooks might find some of these early recipes a bit more involved than what they usually make. As Arleen Herring of Elsberry, Mo., said: "Baking methods have really changed. Sift three times in a recipe for a busy day struck me."

Eleanor Mosser of Staunton, Ill., sent a version from "Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book."

"Found this a while back, probably on a cold, snowy day and didn't want to go out to buy a mix," she wrote. "After making it, I had to say to myself, 'Why get it in a box?' This is easier."

Some bakers have been making Busy Day Cake for decades.

"It seems I was raised on Busy Day Cakes. Those and the pies made from the fruit of our orchard were my mother's specialities," wrote Marilyn McDougall.

"My aunt lived with my mother and me when I was growing up," wrote Betty Hoppe of St. Louis. "Money was scarce, and therefore we rarely had desserts. My aunt would make this Busy Day Cake on special occasions.

"I really loved this cake, and when I had a family, I made it for them, and they thought it was great too."

Wrote Joan Elsey of Potosi, Mo., "This request brought back childhood memories to me as my mother, who lived in Shenandoah, Iowa, baked this cake quite often. My sister and I could barely wait until it was finished baking so we could consume it."

And Donna Glass of Chester, Ill., wrote, "I learned to bake in the mid-1960s with this recipe from the red-and-white plaid 'Better Homes and Gardens' cookbook that belonged to my mom.

"We topped it with a broiled topping, and it was very good."

Jean Kan of Webster Groves, Mo., contributed the published recipe for Busy Day Cake; Sandy Pilarski contributed the Busy Day Chocolate Cake recipe; and Anne Hixson of Washington, Mo., contributed the Lazy Day Cobbler recipe.

Source:http://www.leadertelegram.com/features/food/article_ef2754b6-2941-593b-a56d-6de5e82c84cf.html