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<\/a>Here we are…the week of the 4th of July where thoughts turn to our country’s independence.\u00a0 Right about now I’m guessing most people desire some independence from our politicians, but this being an election year I think we’re stuck with four more months of campaign ads and robo calls.\u00a0 Hopefully no more debates.\u00a0 But that’s a subject for another week.\u00a0 This week I want to focus on an important part of any July 4th celebration – the dessert.\u00a0 Last week I was looking for some ideas for a 4th of July cake and found most every food site suggests a cake with fruit on it – ideally in the shape of the American flag.\u00a0 Fruit on cake???\u00a0 Pies or tarts, yes, but not cake!\u00a0 Cake and frosting should contain sufficient amounts of sugar and butter that you stay just this side of diabetes and clogged arteries.<\/strong>\u00a0 I went down a rabbit hole looking for unique dessert ideas and discovered that people are quite weird – or desperate – when coming up with a proper dessert.\u00a0 Here’s just a sampling of what I found:<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Shoofly-Pie-300x200.webp\")
<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Shoofly pie<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n The Shoofly Pie – this cake actually has a tie to the 4th of July<\/strong>.\u00a0 Shoofly pie is a molasses-based pie with a crumbly, streusel-like topping. No one knows for sure how the pie got its name, but it might be from the fact that its sweet and sticky surface tends to attract flies<\/strong>.\u00a0 Now there’s an appetizing thought.\u00a0 It might also, and more likely, be named after an early brand of molasses called Shoofly Molasses. According to some sources, the recipe for shoofly pie dates to 1876, originating with a crust-free molasses cake called centennial cake that was served to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence<\/strong> in Philadelphia. Other sources attribute the recipe to the German immigrants of Pennsylvania Dutch country in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, who may have used molasses in a variation of an older British recipe known as a treacle tart. This sweet and crumbly pie is still popular among the Amish and Mennonite communities of Pennsylvania and Ohio. Well, I say let them have it.<\/p>\n After reading about these odd alternatives to cake, I decided that fruit in a cake might not be such a bad alternative.<\/strong>\u00a0 Still, as it turns out I’ll be going to our club’s BBQ on Thursday and we have an awesome pastry chef.\u00a0 While he may get cute with a berry 4th of July cake, I can guarantee he won’t be slipping any chopped liver into the mix.<\/p>\n Happy 4th of July to everyone!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Suzanne Sparrow Watson Here we are…the week of the 4th of July where thoughts turn to our country’s independence.\u00a0 Right about now I’m guessing most people desire some independence from our politicians, but this being an election year I … read more![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Tomato-Soup-Cake-300x200.webp\")
<\/a>The Tomato Soup Cake – this is wrong on so many levels.\u00a0 The recipe dates back to 1922, and some accounts say the dessert was popular among Irish immigrants<\/strong> in New England. Personally, I think they should have stuck with Guinness. It is said that the tomato soup produces a moist red-orange cake that doesn\u2019t taste like tomatoes at all, thanks to the cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg in the mix. I’ll take their word for it.\u00a0 The cake was popular through the 1930s and 1940s, when Depression-era and wartime shortages called for culinary creativity. People sought out affordable substitutes<\/strong> that could stand in for pricier ingredients (such as tomatoes) without sacrificing flavor. In the 1940s, the Campbell Soup Company began experimenting with variations on the tomato soup cake recipe and, in 1960, printed a version on its tomato soup label \u2014 the first recipe to appear on a soup can. I don’t know who thought of putting tomatoes, fresh or in soup form, in a cake, but I would venture it was someone who never had a slice of Death by Chocolate.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Carrot-Pudding-300x200.webp\")
<\/a>Carrot Pudding – first, the word pudding is used in the British sense, loosely meaning dessert.\u00a0 Carrot cake has been around for a while and in a pinch, it isn’t bad (especially if there is pineapple rather than raisins).\u00a0 But before there was carrot cake, there was carrot pudding. A recipe in the 1591 English cookbook describes carrot pudding as a savory pudding made of chopped liver, breadcrumbs, spices, dates, and sugar<\/strong> that is then stuffed inside a hollow carrot. By the 18th century, carrot pudding had evolved into a sweet dessert baked in a pastry shell, similar to pumpkin pie. Another variation, called steamed carrot pudding, was made with shredded carrots and potatoes and steamed in a gelatin mold. In my opinion no good dessert contains the words “gelatin mold”.<\/strong> Regardless of its preparation, carrot pudding sounds like something you might serve to people you never want to come to dinner again.<\/p>\n