I hope you enjoy this issue of Between the Layers! Share it with your friends. An Easter Friendship + Last-Minute Lemon Cake - No. 386Join me on Substack Live tomorrow with cooking legend Christopher Kimball!
SINCE IT’S EASTER WEEK, and the connection is too much to resist, I’m writing about my mother’s impeccably dressed, refreshingly avant-garde next-door neighbor and confidante, Donna Easter. They telephoned late at night and rehashed bridge games and the comings and goings of their not-so-sleepy street. It was a world away from what Nashville seems like today. Up a secluded cul de sac, a country music star’s mistress moves into the house on the other side of Donna. Let’s just say my mother did her best to get dinner cooked and cleaned up so she could phone Donna and catch up on the drama. Donna was everything my mother wasn’t. Tall, thin, brunette, a Democrat, a decade younger, half-Jewish, and a lifelong Episcopalian.
She was born into the political world of Washington D.C. and never lost that glamour, accessorizing with the flair of Jackie O. Her daughter-in-law recalls never seeing Donna without a silk scarf tied elegantly around her neck. To fit her long, narrow feet she ordered custom Ferragamos from New York. And she displayed Vogue magazines on the coffee table of her living room which was painted chartreuse green to accentuate the Paul Gaugin-like Tahitian scenes she had painted on the window shades. I recall a visit to Donna’s house was like stepping into a modern art gallery. Donna taught art history, Spanish, and French in Nashville’s public schools for decades, and she was full of spunk. In 1976 she took her French class on a canoe trip down the Duck River and then staged a picnic lunch on an overturned canoe. The food editor of The Tennessean came along and wrote about it. When Donna turned 70, she returned to her childhood summer camp and swam across the lake.
Thirty years ago when my husband and I moved back to Nashville and lived briefly with my parents after the birth of our second daughter, Donna saw restlessness in the face of the four-year-old big sister. So she invited Kathleen over to play cards on her porch. They became friends. Donna was intuitive like that. A little earlier, in 1983, my mother and Donna had come to shop at Atlanta’s Gift Mart and stayed with me. We grilled salmon over charcoal and peeled the stems of fat, fresh spring asparagus before steaming and dipping them into a mustardy mayonnaise. We drank white wine on my screened-in porch, and Donna lit a cigarette. I’ll admit it was a side of my mom I hadn’t known. After my mother died in 2001 I’d see Donna around town and wave, but our shared loss was too raw to discuss. When enough time had passed, about 10 years, and both Donna and I were able to talk about my mom without tears, we met for lunch. Our visits continued until Donna’s house was too much for her to handle and she moved in with her son and daughter-in-law. Donna died in her sleep at 86 last August.
To bake a cake in her memory and take to her funeral, I pulled down my A New Take on Cake book and turned instinctively to Susan’s Lemon Cake. That Cake Mix Doctor classic is the obsession of actress Jamie Lee Curtis, too. It calls for a box of cake mix, is bright yellow from lemon Jell-O, and contains oil, eggs, and some lemon zest for good measure. So in some ways it is very much a pantry cake. It has that 1970s ease and bright citrus flavor in the glaze that’s welcome most any occasion, whether happy or sad. And it is the perfect last-minute Easter cake if you haven’t decided what to bake. For a twist, fold in a cup of fresh blueberries. Like Donna, it never goes out of style. Maybe it was their shared love of bridge. Maybe it was my mother’s inviting Donna to be a part of her bridge games. Maybe it was Donna’s open ear and discretion. Or the fact she was fun! I am not sure how their friendship took hold and blossomed. But opposites do attract and often meld into beautiful friendships. It’s a hopeful Easter message of rebirth and renewal that in life we get fresh starts and come across people not like us with whom we celebrate living. Happy Easter! - xo, Anne Don’t bake with a mix? I heartily recommend Torchio Lemon Olive Oil Cake. What are you baking for Easter or Passover?
Don’t miss my very first Substack Live with the delightful Chris Kimball of Milk Street! Tomorrow at noon EST! Here’s the link to join us in the Substack app. And bring your baking questions!One of my favorite interviews about Baking in the American South was with Chris Kimball of Milk Street. The guy knows food. But he’s new to Substack, so ever the professional, he’s hosting me in a live conversation at noon EST April 1. Click on this link tomorrow to join. I was unable to participate in the NO KINGS march last Saturday because I was en route home after a TED talk in Athens, Georgia. (Many of you have asked how to view my talk about recipes and their power to connect us, and I will share the link when it goes live in about a month.) Sincere kudos to the more than 8 million people who participated in the largest protest movement in America’s history. Here are two photos that BTL subscriber Susie Ries took at the Nashville event and posted on Instagram:
THE RECIPE: Susan’s Lemon CakeThis cake has been a favorite of so many Cake Mix Doctor readers. I’ll never forget the morning when a friend called frantically, instructing me to turn on the television at once. Jamie Lee Curtis was on Rachael Ray’s show holding up a copy of my book saying it was her favorite cookbook. I caught up with Jamie Lee later to thank her, and she said her absolute favorite cake was Susan’s Lemon Cake, a cake even a novice baker like herself could bake. The recipe originally came from my sister Susan, who truth-be-told, got the recipe from her neighbor Sally Roy. (Sort of the way all good recipes make their way to you.) And if you were to look at this recipe list you might wonder why so many folks are crazy about a cake with so few ingredients. And that’s the answer. It’s a snap to make, has a moist texture, a distinctive lemon flavor, is suitable any time of the year, and everybody loves lemon. No matter how busy you are, don’t skip the glaze. Makes 12 servings Prep: 15 to 20 minutes Bake: 30 to 35 minutes
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