Desserts of the Atomic Age: Cake

By erika on 2/18/09 9:47am
Add Comment

I've been watching Mad Men this week. Everything about this show is wonderful, including the food. (When asked what he wants for dinner, one character replies "A ribeye steak, cooked in the pan, with butter." Butter?!) After watching an episode that revolved around a child's birthday party, I found myself surfing Allrecipes.com late one night, looking for 50s cakes.

Any 50s cake worth its snuff must begin with a box of cake mix, either white or yellow. Cake mix was invented shortly after the end of World War II, after almost ten years of intense study by the whitecoats at the Betty Crocker labs.

The world of cake mix exploded in the early 50s when the original line up of White and Yellow cake was beefed up with the introduction of Marble, Chocolate Malt, and Spice cake mix. (Interesting fact: they could make a cake mix which only required the addition of water. However, the researchers found that housewives were more accepting of cakes which required the addition of eggs and/or oil. Made it seem more homemade, and alleviated their guilt at not serving cakes from scratch.)

The fewer ingredients added to the cake mix, the better. (The 50s mom was busy, don't you know?) Ideally, the 50s cake will include some or all of the following:

  • A Jello Brand product (either gelatin or pudding).
  • Fruit from a can or a jar.
  • Evaporated milk, or sweetened condensed milk.
  • Soda.

    • Evaporated milk and its close cousin condensed milk were the miracle ingredients of their time. It's milk! In a can! (Of course, later on, scientists discovered that feeding kids canned milk gave them rickets from lack of vitamin D. But such surly discoveries are still far in the future.)

    By these metrics, the ideal 50s cake is what has come to be known as a "Watergate Cake," so named because they were popular in the Watergate era. This pale green, pistachio flavored cake has four basic ingredients:

  • White cake mix
  • Eggs
  • Vegetable oil
  • 7-Up
  • Pistachio pudding mix
  • Cold milk

    • You will of course be frosting your Watergate cake with Cool Whip whipped topping. Watergate cakes can be adorned with chopped walnuts, shredded coconut, or maraschino cherries, depending on your taste.

    The "Poke Cake" is another 50s classic. To make a Poke cake, you bake a cake (from cake mix, with or without extra ingredients like eggs or oil). Once the cake has baked and cooled, poke holes into it, then pour cold, un-set Jello liquid over the top. Frost with the ever-present whipped topping, and you're set!

    Here are three popular Poke cake recipes:

    Poke Cake I
    Poke Cake II
    Poke Cake III

    However, the hands down winner in my "Find 50s Cakes on Allrecipes.com" contest has to be a concoction called Preacher's Delight. The ingredients are as follows:

  • 1 package white cake mix
  • 1 can sweetened condensed milk
  • 1 can coconut milk (the recipe calls for "cream of coconut" but I assume they mean "coconut milk")
  • Pineapple juice
  • Cool Whip (for frosting)

    • That's really all you need to know. Bake the cake from the mix, blend together the three liquid ingredients and pour them over the cake, then frost with whipped topping.