CLAUDIA'S 2-EGG CAKE RECIPE

The first cake I ever made by myself came from this recipe. It was my father's birthday cake. I made the icing too, and got a little (kid) crazy with the wonderful colors from the little box...every woman in the USA knows "that box", red and white, and those cute bottles with the colored caps.

So I made the icing "really" blue, and the rest of the beautiful decorations in primary colors, too.
I spread that icing so thickly that if I had put that cake away, it would have been hermetically sealed inside the icing.

But anyway, this cake in many forms - plain, as an upside down cake with pineapple, as a base for strawberry shortcake...on and on...was made for us every week. Mom wasn't much on icing, but then we didn't have boxed icing like we do now. Nevertheless, there was pie filling, and custards and all sorts of creative ideas. And it was always this cake.

So from her old handwritten recipe:

"I bought a box of Presto (cake flour) to get my old recipe for cake. Here it is:

Quick Mix Layer Cake

1/2 cup margarine
2-1/2 cups sifted Presto cake flour
1-1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup milk
2 eggs
2 tbs tbs milk
tsp vanilla

Grease two 9 in. layer cake pans, line bottoms with waxed paper. Stir margarine to soften, then Presto and sugar. Mix well. Add 3/4 cup milk until flour mixture is moist. Add eggs, 2 tbs milk and vanilla. Beat well. Pour into prepared pans and bake in 350 over for 30 to 35 min. If you want to marbleize cakes, keep aside 1/3 batter and mix with cocoa powder to taste.

And that's it.

I'm sure my mother would love you to try it.

CAJUN READERS - I NEED YOU! BECAUSE...

I NEED A RECIPE!

There was a place on I-10, red and white checkerboard building with a cajun deli in front with a few chairs and tables, and a casino in back. Just right off the interstate in full view.

My friend and I were traveling to Houston. We stopped there and got a snack...a baseball size crawfish boudain ball.

Lord have mercy! Almost every time we see each other, we talk about them and the place that made them was sold.

It was crispy and browned on the outside and a custardy on the inside. Deep fried, I believe.

PLEASE...My friend is now very ill with several maladies, but she also has lung cancer and spends a lot of time in bed.

If you have a recipe I can make and share with her, I would love you for the rest of my life.

Family Heirloom recipes - Add yours!

tp://www.rachaelray.com/heirloom_archive.php

I think I'll add my grandmother Decker's bread pudding recipe, just rescued from my cousin.

Now, if only someone in the family knows the recipe of her rice pudding. It was sublime - divine - and as simple as the one for bread pudding.