My favorite holiday has come and gone. The 4th of July brings back terrific childhood memories. Summer days floating in black innertubes on Lake Delavan. Fireworks at the school "in town". Sparklers by the box and the parents with the familiar warnings, and the black snakes that we would light and watch shrivel over the pavement. I don't remember any specific food, but we had "lake food" all summer that we were there. Boiled hot dogs, home made bratwurst on the beach, ice cream sandwiches and drumsticks dripping all over our swimsuits. And then 2 days later...my birthday!
What I remember NOT having was coolers of water, soda and Gatorades, boxes of packaged snacks, bowls of candy laying around. How is it that we didn't die of thirst without cases of water on ice? And soda was never in the fridge. We would sometimes beg to go into the Log Cabin (a bar) and get a Coke on tap in the frosted plastic cup with the pastel striped straw. The straws would adorn our sand castles. If we were hungry throughout the day, we never complained about it. Frankly, my mom and Aunts couldn't get us out of the water.
The local grocery store was called Sentry. After a little Google, I found it is still there. New owners, and I couldn't find the Lake Delavan cake on the site. It is the cake my mom and aunts would buy, chocolate, white icing and the sides were covered in chocolate jimmies. I don't remember loving this cake, I remember it as a fixture of my summer at the lake. So, as the birthdays approached, mine and Christina's, I thought I might reproduce this cake.
Christina requests chocolate cake every year. No exception. I prefer and angel food cake, as you may know if you read about my birthday last year. So it was two cakes this year. Hers and mine. Devil and Angel. I went to my favorite website, epicurious.com and perused recipes. Why would I bother with the 500 cookbooks I own? Jeez. I am far too dependent on my Mac. So here are the results.
Chocolate Lake Delavan Cake
Angel Food
I opted for a seven minute icing on the angel food, tinted purple (Christina's request). The cakes were a hit! Delicious! Another year passed...Happy Baking!
ttHi There! Love the cakes and couldn't help notice that you were referring to Lake Delavan WI! Though I was born and raised in NYC, I lived in WI for 17 years ( met James when in med school there, he was born and bred there,and we both did our training there, and our first practices)but since all my kids were born there, it feels like my hometown too. I just loved the lakes there, and can imagine how wonderful it must have been to spend summers there growing up.I also remember shopping at Sentry stores, that and Kohls and Pik n Save.One thing I really miss about WI and NY are the butchers, seafood markets, and bakeries, though we do have some of those here. It is a completely different world there. James extended family had a farm on Green Lake WI, a bit further north than Lake Geneva, but still similar kind of area. We spent as much time as we could there, and have gone back a few times, but not since both James' parents passed away. There was only 1 little sand beach there, part of one of the resorts, but we had a pier, and for a while a boat. I don't know if it is because summers were so short there, but we really seemed to grab every moment we could to be outside, on or in the water, and cooking outside as much as possible. And, surprisingly, we had a great garden, grew everything, and the plants thrived a lot bette than the ones we've planted here. I guess it's just so hot, and either humid or dry, but not inbetween as much. Your post brought back many great memories of being at the Lake, and lots of fun summers. Thanks for reminding me!
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