Request line

• Let’s help David Russel of Mountain View make a mess. Russel hopes you can help him find a recipe for a dessert called a mess cake. I can tell this cake is sorely missed; seldom do readers write such detailed descriptions of the dishes and recipes they seek.

“The desired recipe may be from the mid-to-late ’50s or early ’60s,” Russel says. “My mother saw the recipe, thought it looked like fun, tried it, and the entire family loved it.”

The recipe was so easy that his mother never bothered to revisit the written instructions when she wanted to bake the cake. But after the kids grew up and one of them wanted to make the cake for the next generation, Russel’s mother couldn’t remember how to make the cake. Of course, the recipe was nowhere to be found either.

“After her death, we found a stash of old recipes, but the desired one wasn’t there,” Russel says.

He remembers the cake baking in a Bundt pan. “The components for the ‘icing’ were the last ones added and with the batter in the pan went on what would be the bottom of the pan. During baking, these materials worked their way through the batter, some of it being dispersed in the dough, but much of it migrating to the bottom of the Bundt pan and being the icing on top of the cake when it was turned onto a platter,” Russel says.

The cake included brown sugar, and the directions included little or no mixing of the ingredients.

• Jennifer hopes readers can help her make Scottish baps, the soft rolls that make a regular appearance in author M.C. Beaton’s Hamish Macbeth mystery novels. Serving suggestions and variations are welcome as well.

Send recipes, tips and requests to Kim Boatman at HomePlates@bayareanewsgroup.com.

Find recent Home Plates recipes online at www.mercurynews.com/