Time Travel Kitchen

A Weekend Assortment

Hi everyone, and welcome!

This past Tuesday I was a guest baker and writer over on cookbook author Anne Byrn’s newsletter Anne Byrn: Between the Layers where I made the Pink Champagne Cake from her book American Cake. If you didn’t get a chance to see it yet, I’ve linked to it here. It’s a beautiful, delicious cake that I will definitely be making again anytime I want to treat guests to a showstopper of a dessert.

Thanks again, Anne! 

Link to article with recipe:

Pink Champagne Cake

Pink Champagne Cake from American Cake. Photo: Jolene

A Nostalgic Valentine’s Dessert

I also mentioned in the article my fond memories of the heart-shaped Jell-O mold my mom always made for Valentine’s Day when we were little. Jell-O was very popular during the 60’s and had been around since 1897.

Jell-O sales were a bit lackluster in the beginning until they were boosted by ads run in the Ladies’ Home Journal proclaiming it as ‘America’s Best Family Dessert’ in the early 1900’s.

This was coupled with a novel marketing campaign started in 1904 when salesmen began distributing free cookbooks with recipes for the product, a practice other food and food-related manufacturers would also enthusiastically embrace.

I have dozens of these pamphlet-style cookbooks for everything from specific brands of baking powder and flour to chocolate and cookware. They are great snapshots of their time and I’ll be writing more about them in the near future.

‘A Nice Dessert’ Getty images, Bettmann Archive

After making the elegant pink champagne cake, I decided I’d also make this simple cherry Jell-O and add some whipped cream with, of course, a cherry.

It’s nostalgia in a bowl and with these two desserts and some good boxes of chocolate, you can set a really nice Valentine’s dessert table or enjoy them any other day of the year you like!

If you’d like to read more about this iconic American dessert, here is the link: The History of Jello

Question: What or Who does Jell-O and a dessert called Adirondack Cake have in common? I’ll be connecting those historical dessert-dots next week in the newsletter.

Cherry Jell-O — Nostalgia in a Bowl Photo: Jolene

Super (Snack) Bowl Weekend

Speaking of bowls, Sunday is the Super Bowl and since it’s a non-stop snacking opportunity I thought about what desserts would bring some history and fun to watching the Los Angeles Rams and the Cincinnati Bengals championship game.

For Ohio, there was only one choice: Buckeyes. Peanut butter rounds dipped in chocolate, which on Sunday I will insist be referred to as ‘Burrow Buckeyes’. I didn’t have time to make them, so these are from the Fanny May candy company which has been around since the 1920’s. Buckeyes were first made in Ohio in the 1960’s.

For L.A. I went with the Peanut Butter Pocket Donut covered in Chocolate. These originated at the (unfortunately now closed) iconic donut shop, Stan’s Donuts in Westwood which was open for 55 years. Lucky for Chicago, Stan’s Donuts are now alive and well in this city, being brought here by a good friend of owner Stan Berman.

But this particular flavor of donut was born at the L.A. store and for this weekend please only refer to them as ‘Stafford Stans’ in my presence.

Football and Dessert are serious business.

Burrow Buckeyes vs Stafford Stans

Since they are both peanut butter and chocolate I thought it would be a good head-to-head matchup.

The first Super Bowl was in 1967, so we’ll pay homage with both of these sweet 1960’s creations.

I’ll let you know which treat won the Super Snack Bowl next week.

Whatever you are doing this weekend, enjoy! See you next Friday and thanks for being here. Jolene

And definitely have pink champagne with your cake. Photo: Jolene