VERONICA HINKE
author • speaker • journalist • coach
Recipes & Food Styling
West Haven Cake
West Haven Cake
Today: Marking a year of healing and celebrating an amazing long life!
In the year since my Grandma Hinke passed away, (January 24, 1919 to September 19, 2020) I’ve baked one of her treasured heirloom cakes each month. I used her recipes that were featured in the paper each month in 2014.
Here is the “Cake of The Month” list that Grandma and I strategized at her kitchen table in autumn 2013:
October- Burnt Sugar Cake
November- Pumpkin Cake
December- Gumdrop Cake
January- Tomato Soup Cake
February- Shadow Cake (For Groundhog Day)
March- Maple Cake
April- Jelly Roll Cake
May- Lady Baltimore Cake
June- Bee Sting Cake (A “Yeast” Cake, for Pollinator Week)
July- Strawberry Shortcake
August- Lazy Daisy Cake
September- West Haven Cake
For September, on the one-year anniversary of her passing, I made Grandma’s fabulous West Haven Cake. Like the pears this time of year, this cake reminds me so much of Grandma. The mix of cooked dates, chocolate and walnuts is perfect, as the earth begins its tilt toward autumn!
West Haven Cake
1 small package dates, cut
1 cup hot water
1 teaspoon soda
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 3/4 cups flour
1 tablespoon cocoa
1 pinch salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
Topping
1 bar semi-sweet chocolate, chopped (can use 1 bag chocolate chips)
1/4 cup walnuts, chopped
Pour water and soda over dates and let cool.
Cream sugar and shortening. Add eggs, then flour, cocoa, salt and vanilla. Add dates, water and soda mixture. Stir to combine.
Pour into 9 X 13 cake pan. Sprinkle chopped walnuts and chocolate chips on top.
Bake in 350-degree oven for 40 to 45 minutes.
