If you're a regular "Everyday Food" listener, you've heard Sandy and Betsy mention my grandmother's meatball recipe. My Grandma Chansie was one-of-a-kind, and along with being a wonderful grandmother, she was also a terrific cook. She's been gone now for almost four years, but with each passing Sunday her memory lives on in our meals.
As one of her four grandchildren, I was fortunate enough to inherit her recipe box. This past weekend, just in time for Chocolate Week, I decided to channel her baking skills and re-create her Milk Chocolate Cake.
1 My Grandma Chansie and I at a family Christening.
2 My Grandma Chansie's Recipe Box
3 A well-loved chocolate cake recipe, just waiting for me to make.
4 You can tell from this recipe, as a young child, chocolate cake was my father's favorite dessert.
5 Getting ready to blend grain sugar and shortening.
6 Sugar and shortening all blended.
7 I had never heard of malted milk before, but both Ovaltine and Carnation make it.
8 For the cocoa I used Hershey's unsweetened.
9 Along with the recipe box, I also inherited my Grandmother's sifter.
10 All ingredients well blended and poured into two cake pans.
11 After baking at 350 degrees for approximately 30 minutes, the cakes sat on cooling racks.
12 Then it was time for homemade icing!
13 Voila! Pretty good for the first time making it.
From: Joseph L. Mantineo | 2/8/11 at 10:05 pm
Lisa,
You have made your Grandmother very proud, if not a little embarrassed. Your Grandmother was bigger than life to the four of you but she was also a shy woman who never bragged about herself. Seeing her mentioned in this blog is something she never would have dreamed of. She would take out an ad on a billboard to brag about her Lisa, Katie, Joey and Mary but never about herself. You have given her the notoriety that she justly deserved. Thank you and keep on baking, the chocolate cake was just like Grandma made, only better because it was made by you. Love, Dad
From: sandy gluck | 2/9/11 at 8:45 am
I love that pic of you and your grandma and the cake sounds delicious. Now, where's my piece???
From: Nancy Boettger | 2/10/11 at 8:00 pm
So true, Aunt Chansie was one of a kind! Her love for her family was huge! My Dad always spoke about Chansie's decadent, rich, fabulous cheesecake. Keep on baking Grandma's recipes, Lisa. It's a special way to revisit memories and to bridge the past to the present to the future.