Lately I’ve been craving comfort food. Along with everybody else, I’ve been making soups and stews and cheesy casseroles. That’s the sort of food I remember my mother making. Today I decided to make a cake I remember from my childhood, Velvet Lunch Cake. I have an old, stained and torn recipe card, but I decided to google it, too. There it was: sour milk, a little bit of molasses, warm spices. Shortening. I remember my mother using Crisco, but the google result suggested Spry. I opted for butter. The posted recipe omitted the flour, which could have led to disaster but somehow was not mentioned in the handful of comments.. Instead of “chopped raisins” I used dried cranberries and diced dried apricot.
The cake was just as I remembered it. Not too sweet. Sprinkled with confectioners sugary in lieu of frosting. A tea cake, a snack cake, a cake to share in the mid-afternoon because dinner seems so far away.
I like to think that fifty years from now someone will remember Velvet Lunch Cake.
All food is comfort food. Maybe I just like to chew. Lewis Black