To Eat One's Cake and Have iIt Too

What's the best cake?

Chocolate--coconut--daffodil (the name alone conjures up rhapsodies)--angel food--sponge--!
We could and can go on and on.

But here's my idea of the best cake at this time in my life, when my cake genes have been honed, have been forged in the fire--and they KNOW what's good. This cake comes in many versions, sometimes plain, sometimes with nuts, sometimes with fruits.

Here it is, from George Lang's The Cuisine of Hungary.  It is the cake his mother made. It is real. It is the best.  If you want any other cake, you really want the frosting. If you want cake, eat this one:

My Mother's Cherry Cake

1 lb pitted sweet cherries

 1 1/2 sticks sweet butter
3/4 c. granulated sugar
3 eggs, separated

Mix the butter with half the sugar, and gradually add the three egg yolks, beating well.  Add one cup of flour.

Beat the egg whites with the rest of the sugar till stiff. Fold into egg yolk batter.

Butter a baking pan 10 x 6 and sprinkle it with 1/4 c. bread crumbs.  Put the batter into the pan, and put the cherries over the top.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Bake the cake for 30 minutes. Sprinkle with vanilla sugar.

Just cut it and put it on a plate, and eat. It is more than delicious, it is perfect. It is a cake.

That's all I'll say about that cake today. Mama used to say to me, "You just want to have your cake and eat it too!"  I'd say, "You have to HAVE it before you can eat it!"  To me it made more sense if one were pointing out nonsense, to say, "You just want to eat your cake and have it too!!" That would be more difficult, Mama, wouldn't it? YAZZYBEL