A family classic

Today is my father's birthday. It's proximity to Christmas means we usually celebrate when the family gathers for Christmas festivities. And his birthday means one thing - Cherry Carnival Cake. What is this you may be asking yourself? Why it is nothing more or less than a lovely yellow/white cake with cherries in it, topped with ice cream (optional, but why wouldn't you?) and a hot cherry sauce (just heated pie filling). It is quite delicious (if you like cherries). This particular cake was made by my grandmother. I've never actually made the cherry carnival cake. Maybe will try it sometime this year. But the history of the recipe is what is more interesting than even eating the cake itself. Which is good for breakfast, too, by the way.

I may have some of the details wrong, but back a very long time ago, my great-grandmother Mary (who was a saint) was a kitchen tester for Gold Medal flour. I believe that how it worked was that they sent you a recipe and gave you the ingredients. You made the recipe. They came, took a portion of the recipe, say, a quarter of a cake. You got to keep the rest of the cake or whatever the recipe was. So, especially during leaner eras, it was probably a good way to get more food on your table. I'm not sure if you got paid on top of it. But regardless, the cherry carnival cake was a recipe from Grandma Mame's (her name) Gold Medal testing days.