Family Desserts

The classic three-layer German chocolate cake with the coconut pecan frosting cooked in a saucepan from egg yolks, evaporated milk, butter and sugar, stirred about 12 minutes until thick and caramel colored, spread between the layers and on top only, with the sides bare.

The famous impossible coconut pie: milk, eggs, sugar, melted butter, vanilla, sweetened flaked coconut and half a cup of baking mix whirled in a blender, poured into a greased 9 inch pie plate with no crust, and baked at 350°F for 45 to 50 minutes until it separates into a crust, a custard and a toasted coconut top.

Old-fashioned lazy daisy oatmeal cake: quick oats soaked in boiling water, a soft brown sugar and cinnamon cake in a 9 by 13 inch pan, then a topping of butter, brown sugar, evaporated milk, coconut and pecans spread on the hot cake and broiled until it bubbles. Cups and grams, oven time and broiler time.

The old-fashioned Mississippi mud cake: a chocolate pecan sheet cake in a 9 by 13 pan, miniature marshmallows melted on the hot cake for 2 to 3 minutes in the oven, then a warm cocoa icing poured over the whole thing. Cups and grams.

The Depression-era oatmeal pie: quick oats, brown sugar, light corn syrup, eggs, melted butter and vanilla baked in an unbaked 9 inch crust at 350°F for 45 to 50 minutes. It cuts and tastes like pecan pie with no pecans in it. Cups and grams.

Old-fashioned pinto bean pie: a cup of cooked pinto beans mashed smooth, beaten with sugar, brown sugar, melted butter, eggs and vanilla, baked in a 9-inch crust at 350°F until the top crackles. It looks, slices and tastes like pecan pie, with no pecans in it. Cups and grams.

The Depression-era peanut butter potato candy: one small boiled potato beaten with powdered sugar into a dough, rolled out on sugar, spread with peanut butter, rolled up, chilled an hour and sliced into pinwheels. Cups and grams, and the one rule about the potato.

The old-fashioned pumpkin roll: a thin spiced pumpkin sponge baked in a 15 by 10 inch jelly roll pan, turned out onto a powdered-sugar dish towel, rolled up hot, then filled with cream cheese. Cups and grams, the oven time, and why it never cracks.

The 1970s sock-it-to-me cake as it was on the side of the box: one box of yellow cake mix with sour cream, oil, sugar and four eggs, a streak of brown sugar, cinnamon and pecans through the middle, an hour at 350°F, and a thin powdered sugar glaze.

Old-fashioned Southern sweet potato pie: sweet potatoes boiled whole in their skins for about 45 minutes, peeled hot and mashed with butter, then beaten with sugar, eggs, evaporated milk, vanilla and nutmeg and baked in a 9-inch crust at 350°F. Why it is not pumpkin pie, in cups and grams.

The Southern three-day coconut cake: two 9 inch layers split into four, filled with sour cream, sugar and sweetened coconut, refrigerated three days, then covered in a fluffy cooked white frosting beaten seven minutes over boiling water and rolled in coconut.

The old-fashioned tomato soup spice cake: one can of condensed tomato soup, butter, sugar, eggs, flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves, raisins and walnuts, in a 9 by 13 pan or two 8 inch layers, with cream cheese frosting. Nobody can taste the tomato.