Tag: cakes

Orange Carrot Cake, Anna D. Cannon

I imagine that Anna D. Cannon had some stories. After graduating high school in 1942, she became the first female school bus driver in Montgomery County, and worked the job for 30 years.

Unfortunately, Anna is another person whose stories I may never know. I know only that she was born in 1924 in Garrett County to Gilmore and Linna DeWitt. Anna and several of her eight siblings on the family farm were listed as “unpaid family worker” in the 1940 census.

Anna married Lawrence A. Winters, who died in 1960. Her second husband, Frank Cannon, died in 1994.

Anna Cannon lived to be 93, and her 2017 obituary lists many losses in her life aside from her two husbands. Two of her children preceded her in death, as did five sisters and four brothers.

She did leave two daughters and four sons.

She was from a large family and she had a large family, most of whom dispersed from their Oakland, Maryland roots.

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Bernice Watson’s Coconut Cake

Mrs. Edward Z. Watson “disclaim[ed] any fame as a cook,” said a profile in the Afro-American in 1958. The article described the vivacious teacher, seamstress, and mother of two as a “party girl,” who “not only adore[d] going to parties but [was] not adverse to giving them either!”

They shared her cake recipe using “many of the newest methods,” including a MixMaster mixer. The title of the feature was “Mrs. Edward Watson makes the highest cake you’ve ever seen.”

Afro-American, 1958

The light and fluffy cake could be served a variety of ways. “For the chocolate frosting I use the recipe right on the Hershey can,” Watson declared. She also confessed to using ready-mix caramel icing. But Bernice Watson’s cake is no lazy feat. With egg whites beaten separately and folded into the batter, plus a seven-minute icing made over a double boiler, the cake requires plenty of attention and generates a fair amount of dirty dishes.

I just had to make it – particularly the coconut variation, which Watson would flavor with “lemon or almond” flavoring. (I used the latter.) I couldn’t find the canned style of coconut that she preferred, and I’m not skilled at cooked icings, but the recipe did indeed turn out a tall, light delightful cake.

“Sometimes I scarcely think it’s worthwhile. A big beautiful cake now. A few hours, no cake at all,” Watson sighed in 1958.

She was born Bernice Calverta Francis in Philadelphia in 1922, the granddaughter of a Sharp Street Methodist reverend, McHenry Jeremiah Naylor. After attending high school in Baltimore, and Coppin State Teacher’s College, she went into teaching at Baltimore City schools.

Along the way, she married fellow teacher Edward Z. Watson, who would serve a full career at BCPS as a teacher and later as an administrator.

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Lord Baltimore Cake, Grace E. J. Hanson

As Lady Baltimore cake ascended in popularity in the late 19th century, it was quickly joined by a lesser-known counterpart.

A 1900 cookbook, “Miss Olive Allen’s tested recipes : 200 selected from many hundreds gathered from all over the world,” touted alongside its Lady Baltimore Cake recipe that the cake is “Delicious! Not expensive when egg yolks are used for Lord Baltimore cake.” Later in the book, the recipe for the latter cake was provided. “Economical. Save egg whites for Lady Baltimore cake.” One cake is “delicious,” the other “economical.” Lord Baltimore never stood a chance.

But wait: Allen’s recipe for Lord Baltimore cake used a filling of raisins, figs, and pecans. Those are Lady Baltimore’s ingredients. The Lady Baltimore Cake, on the other hand, contained maraschino cherries, pecans, and chopped pineapple.

Fannie Farmer corrected this switcheroo and perhaps did the most to popularize Lord Baltimore Cake, which she included in several of her early 1900s cookbooks. In addition to a vanilla-flavored “Ice Cream Frosting” made from egg whites and sugar, Farmer’s cake is filled with excitement: candied cherries, Sherry, pecans, almonds, and crushed dry macaroons. (Farmer may have actually been referring to meringues.)

1953

Between the Ice Cream Frosting and the macaroons, an issue arises: the egg math on Lady & Lord Baltimore just doesn’t add up. If you make both cakes, you’re still going to have some egg yolks to spare. (Lucky you – make this egg pasta!)

This is no big loss since the two cakes don’t form any balance to one-another flavor-wise, either.

One occasionally finds Lord Baltimore on his own in a community cookbook, but such appearances are rare.

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Mayonnaise Cake, Marylee Felton

The Baltimore Sun ran a four-part series in the spring of 1988. The articles were about Baltimore City Public Schools, and they covered the usual woes we still contend with today – attendance, student performance, accountability, and standardized tests. The series was entitled “School Maze,” and was intended to “nettle defenders of the status quo.”

One family member of a student was surprised. They wrote a letter to share their positive view of Glenmount Primary School: “…when one enters the building [they notice] large well-made pictures on both walls of what the youngsters do and current events… Quietness is the order of the day. The PTA and other groups take part in the school work.” The reader, Frank J. Huebel shared anecdotes of his great-granddaughter learning math and reading and writing. “All of this tells me that Glenmount is a well-run school and that the youngsters are learning the basics, in spite of the ‘School Maze.'”

Huebel was not alone in his positive view of the school. A 1985 story about a blind student’s guide dog Lavette quoted the dog’s owner, Nancy Jaslow. “Everyone knows not to touch or play with a guide dog. My principal, Marylee Felton loves dogs and loves having Lavette around.”

A few decades after Lillian Lottier, Marylee Felton was taking the same path: serving the city and community through a career in education. Her position as a teacher and later as a principal would have her face school fires, understaffing, overcrowding, state politics, and all of the other tribulations faced by educators.

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Banana Split Cake, Hancock Elementary

My Great Grandmother was born in Hancock in 1915. I guess that’s what drew me to pick up the 1970s or 80s era “Hancock Elementary School Cookbook.”

Hancock is a small town with one main road (Main Street), but it’s an important way stop in Western Maryland and has been for centuries.

In the 1730s, hunters and trappers began settling around the area, then known as the Northbend Crossing Settlement because it is on the northernmost bend in the Potomac Rover.

The town was later named for revolutionary warfighter Edward Joseph Hancock, Jr., whose family operated a ferry nearby.

The building of the C&O Canal brought a lot of workers to town, Welsh and Irish immigrants among them. According to Mike High in “The C&O Canal Companion,” “by the time the canal made it to Hancock in 1839, the painted signs hanging over the doorways on Main Street already showed the influence of the passenger trade” from the National Road. “Early taverns and hotels included the Sign of the Cross Keys, Sign of the Ship, Sign of the Green Tree Tavern, Sign of the Seven Stars Inn, the Bee Hive, and the Union Hotel.”

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