Retro pudding cakes still delight
Home Plates readers remember those empty bowls and plates, licked clean when mothers and grandmothers weren’t looking. Chocolate pudding cakes were that good.
So when Lois Hoctor requested a chocolate version of a recent lemon pudding cake recipe, plenty of Plates readers were happy to oblige with their favorites. Recipes for a rich, fudgy cake reminiscent of hot fudge sundaes go back a while. Jackie Mattison found a version in a 1956 Betty Crocker cookbook.
“When my children were at home, I used to make it often,” she says. “It’s easy and yummy and uses ingredients most of us have on hand.”
Plates readers Donna Blundell, Claudia Hamm and Lisa Scott-Ponce sent similar versions. This cake looks fun to make. A batter is topped with sugar, brown sugar and cocoa, before you pour boiling water over the lot — and resist the urge to stir. Hamm still has her mother’s hand-written recipe for chocolate temptation cake, dating to the 1940s or ‘50s. ScottPonce acquired the recipe from a book club friend.
“I love it with vanilla ice cream or homemade whipped cream,” she says.
Judy Brooks and Jane Wallace sent even simpler versions, which rely on a doctored cake mix to achieve that warm fudgy goodness. Wallace, of Brentwood, says her grandmother made the cake with a layer of mini-marshmallows back in the 1950s.
“I remember scooping every last bit of the pudding layer off my plate and wondering how it was possible to bake something with layers like this.”
Second helpings
The recent ham salad recipe also took some Plates readers back in time to their grandmothers’ kitchens. One reader said she needed to grab a tissue, and Lynne Bonino says she learned a bit after reading how other Home Plates families prepare the salad.
“My parents were from Pennsylvania, and my grandmother apparently made this whenever they were fortunate enough to get a larger cut of meat, ham or roast beef. The recipe came west with my father, and I grew up eating this whenever we had a ham or roast beef,” Bonino says.
“My dad said it was a way to extend the meat for more meals. I learned the recipe from him, and we have carried it on to our children and grandchildren.
“I never seem to be able to get the taste I remember, but think your column remedied that. I have been using mayonnaise. I remember my family always had Miracle Whip in the house instead of mayo. We did not eat it as a salad, however, but used it for sandwich spread. Thanks for the trip down memory lane, and the correction to the recipe!”
Request line
Olivia, a reader, wants to re-create the over-sized meatballs you find at some popular chain Italian restaurants. But she wonders about the secret to holding a softball-size meatball together and any baking time or ingredient proportion tips.