So Many Dishes

As a musician, I know how particular pieces of music can trigger memories. So can particular odors. The smells emanating from my oven definitely triggered some great childhood memories on Saturday.

When I was a kid growing up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, I associated Moravian sugar cake with Christmas. Bethlehem is the home of the Moravian church in America. (The Moravians’ other main settlement was in what is now Winston-Salem, North Carolina.) One of the traditions in the Moravian church is a service called a lovefeast. At heart, it’s a communal meal, during a church service that is composed primarily of music. It’s opened with a prayer, but there is a lot of hymn singing, and mugs of coffee are passed down the pews, along with sweet buns. Lovefeasts are common around Christmas, and if it’s a service geared to children, hot chocolate and sugar cake are served.

We didn’t belong to the Moravian church, but I attended any number of lovefeasts. I once sang at a lovefeast wedding. Moravian sugar cake wasn’t limited to the church service. It was a preferred breakfast cake, and one that we ate at our house every Christmas morning.

I’m sure there were people in Bethlehem who baked their own sugar cake, but many folks did what my parents did, and bought theirs from Groman’s Bakery. I read that Groman’s closed about 12 years ago, which felt like a chapter of my life had closed. I remember, as a teen, several years where my birthday cake was a lemon tango layer cake from the bakery: lemon cake with chocolate and pineapple fillings and toasted coconut on the sides. Groman’s also made the wedding cake when Ken and I got married. One of the memories that sticks with me is driving to the bakery with my dad the morning of Christmas Eve, and the car smelling of sugar and cinnamon as we drove home.

Once we moved away from Bethlehem, the only way to get sugar cake was to make it myself. I tried several recipes that were good, but didn’t match my memory. Then, after my parents retired and moved to Florida, my mother tried her hand at baking sugar cake. She gave me a copy of the recipe she used and said, “this tastes like Groman’s.” She wasn’t kidding.

Since it has just been Ken and me on Christmas Day, I don’t make it for Christmas anymore, as it just makes so much. But I’ll make it when the right opportunity comes along. The members of the music ministry were asked to provide the refreshments for the hospitality hour after last Sunday’s service, so this was my contribution.

The secret ingredient is mashed potatoes, and that’s where the recipe starts. I’ve seen recipes that suggest using potato flakes, but I use the real thing. It’s important not to salt the water to cook the potatoes, or to add anything when mashing the potatoes. My mother always mumbled because my sugar cake rose higher than hers, but she’d just automatically add salt to the cooking water. My dad thought it was hilarious that she was jealous.

Moravian Sugar Cake

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup warm, unseasoned mashed potatoes (cook potatoes without adding salt to the water, and do not add anything when you mash them)
• 1 package quick-rise yeast
• 1 cup warm water (check yeast packet for temperature recommendation)
• 3/4 cup melted butter
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 4 1/2 cups flour
• Brown sugar, cinnamon, and additional butter, for topping

Mix sugar and mashed potatoes in a large mixing bowl. Dissolve yeast in the warm water and add to the potato mixture. Add melted butter and eggs. Stir in the flour, one cup at a time. The dough will be sticky. Cover the bowl with a clean kitchen towel and let rise in a warm place for 2 hours, or until dough has risen. Grease a sheet pan (mine is 11 x 17). Spread the dough in the pan, cover again, and let rise for one hour.

Heat oven to 350 degrees. While oven is heating, poke holes into dough at approximately 1-inch intervals. Push small pieces of butter into the holes. Generously sprinkle brown sugar over the top of dough. Lightly sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes.

Happy eating!