There Will Be Cakes

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!

The Fourth of July

It is my favorite holiday of the year. Not because of what we are doing today, or what we did last year, but because of the memories of my lifetime. I can look back and remember so many great places I sat and watched fireworks. The picture above is one of my favorite 4th celebrations in Memphis when the country club would have a huge picnic/party and shoot off great fireworks. It was a wonderful way to spend the holiday. The picture is one of my all time favorites.

When I was a kid, there was basically 2 options for the 4th. We were most likely at Lake Delevan with my Grandma and my cousins. I can remember many fireworks displays there in town and on the lake. The station wagons would be packed with kids and blankets. We would light sparklers and snakes and run around barefoot. In the later years we didn't go to the lake any more and we would spend the 4th in Clinton, IA at Riverboat Days, a great celebration in our little river town. The carnival would come to town and set up on the river front. We would ditch our parents and ride the Tilt-a Whirl and the Swings and try our hand at the bottle toss and fishing for rubber ducks. I remember watching the fireworks one year as I rode the Swings with my bestie Barb.

In high school, we had moved to the "big city", Davenport, IA. The most memorable 4th there would be when I was in college. I was home for the summer and was with a friend and her boyfriend and they were going to a party and I tagged along. It was at a house on the Middle Park Lagoon, and the fireworks were shot off right in the park. I never met the guy who lived in that house that night, but here I am having been married to him for 24 years. Crazy. It remains a great place to see the fireworks.

After we were married, we lived in Grand Rapids, MI and spent the 4th downtown. We were young and childless and thought it would be soooo cool to bring our dog to the fireworks. Little did we know that Stoli was terrified of the noise. We were driving a loaner car and were amazed that dog could fit under the seat of a Renault!

We spent a few 4ths at St. Pete Beach in FL where we could sit on my parents porch and watch them shoot the fireworks right on the beach. And then in 1993 I was allowed 1 excursion a day during the last days of my pregnancy and watched the fireworks in the 95 degree Atlanta heat while my ankles swelled. Thankfully that child appeared 2 days later!

Many of the early Memphis holidays were at the country club. But once Nic started playing baseball, we would likely be in a ballpark watching fireworks, and really, what could be more patriotic than baseball and fireworks? We've been at Pickwick Lake, Lake Oconee, and Lake Delavan, the Mighty Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico. Parks, golf courses, in cities all over America. This will be Nic's second year watching fireworks over the chapel at the USAF Academy. Regardless of where you are, it is a holiday of fun. You don't have to buy gifts, decorate the house or prepare for weeks. The picnic can be simple or elaborate, soft drinks or cold adult beverages, family or friends or both, and always the fireworks. Fifteen minutes of wonder. What a spectacular way to end the holiday that celebrates our nation's birthday. Have a great one!