1940: Best-Ever Bread Pudding
Amazing bread pudding with a chewy centre and crunchy outside begins with leftover dinner rolls. My friend Kathryn Gartmann gave me the recipe for the thick brown sugar sauce. A generous drizzle of it elevates this treat to a whole new level, making it the most extraordinary bread pudding ever.
1941: Classic Pineapple Upside-Down Cake
The classic pineapple upside-down cake recipe will always be in vogue. It goes well with regular pineapple, but you can also try it with peaches or a mix of orange and cranberries.
1942: Glazed Lemon Chiffon Cake
Drizzling the sweet-tart lemon glaze over this light cake makes it a truly delightful dessert.
1943: Lemon Frosted Fruit Bars
In a 1943 Betty Crocker cookbook called Your Share: How to Prepare Appetising, Healthful Meals with Foods Available Today, I came upon the Lemon-Frosted Fruit Bars. During WWII, when the United States government instituted food rationing, the recipe book was printed. The recipe for these bars, which substituted dried fruit and molasses for sugar, is one of many sugar-saving suggestions included therein. The lack of sugar is almost unbearable!
1944: Shoofly Pie
The chocolate variant of traditional shoofly pie is even better! Whether you serve it with or without vanilla ice cream is a matter of personal preference.
1945: Moist Lazy Daisy Cake
We used to refer to this as Mama’s failsafe recipe. Since this lazy daisy cake has won me contests, I suppose the same is true for it. Delicious desserts like these always make me think of my mum.
1946: Carrot Sheet Cake
At an art event, we sold some of this absolutely delicious carrot cake. The ten cakes we had baked quickly disappeared from the shelves!