The cake’s in the mail – almost- well, after school Monday

Last year or the year before, I forget which year, I didn’t get a birthday card mailed.

But this year………

since it’s my sister’s birthday Monday,

and she’s going to visit our brother and his wife in Okanogon WA on Tuesday,

I thought I’d bake a cake with our mother’s old recipe. The Happy Day Cake. I decided to cook the old fashioned penuche icing, you have to put your hand on the bottom of the pan after it sits in cool water, then add the 10x sugar and beat it, just like our mom did and frost the layers. Tomorrow after school, I’ll ship it off for them to share.

I put it in a tin, packed it up and it’s in the front hall, taped in a box, ready to mail.

It’s a Happy Day Cake recipe from Swan’s Down Cake Flour box from way back. You can see it written in my sister’s hand on a quilt square from the fiftieth anniversary quilt we made for my parents in 1989.

And I put in a pound of Zeke’s coffee beans to go with it. Happy Birthday Mary.

love,

Ruth

Happy Day Cake in a tin

A full rolling boil

Adding a 1/4 c milk

Penuche Frosting

My grandmother gave me this

The recipe for Penuche

The cake recipe on the quilt I made for our parents 50th

September 7, 2014September 7, 2014 by Ruth Categories: BakingTags: baking, birthday cake, brother, cake, family, penuche icing, photography, recipe, sister 13 Comments

13 thoughts on “The cake’s in the mail – almost- well, after school Monday”

Love the old recipe book 🙂

What a beautiful book! And a lovely gift – especially with the coffee included too 🙂

What a fun birthday gift. I think my mom used the same recipe years and years ago.

love the ole cookbook!

Happy Birthday, Mary. It’s wonderful that you will spend some time with David and his family.

Ruth- I enjoyed the story that came with all the shots detailing your loving efforts to assemble this special recipe. It looks perfect.

What a wonderful treat for you sister and brother. Who doesn’t love cake in the mail.

What a sweet (literally and figuratively) gift to send. That old cook book really takes me back.

Happy Day Cake is still my favorite birthday cake. My mom (and all of us as we grew up) always made it for birthdays. But we had fudge frosting from the Settlement Cookbook. Mmmm.