Be honest: cake pops, cupcakes and donuts are all well and good. But nothing against a decent piece of Donauwelle, butter cake or cream cheese cake. When these came to the coffee table, cake was still cake and little thought was given to their calorie or beauty values. Back then, the pastry didn’t have to conquer as many hearts as possible on social media, only those of family and friends – and grandma always managed that.
There was nothing with spelled flour and agave syrup, instead butter and sugar were not saved. What came on the table should be enjoyable and not primarily healthy. In many households, coffee time was the afternoon reward, with which one did something good for oneself and one’s family, craftsmen, neighbors or whoever just stopped by.
In many families there are still regular cakes that are regularly served for birthdays. Some want the classic cheesecake, which has nothing to do with New York cheesecake, others swear by fried egg cakes and Swiss rolls, in which a good whipped cream should not be missing. These cakes are not only delicious, they usually also have a story to tell. One cake reminds us of banging on children’s birthday parties, the other of warm afternoons in grandmother’s garden. They give us a lightness that we can really use in times of a pandemic.
That’s why we want to revive grandma’s best cake recipes before they are completely forgotten. In the editorial office we find that we all have relatively similar memories of the classics of yesteryear, and yet here and there there is a secret ingredient that is hardly known today. One or two cakes from the past hold a surprise, but above all a large portion of nostalgia for us.