Lively family conversations on Christmas Eve led to memories of my Granny Jacquita’s Blackberry Wine Cake.
Those of us who remembered it, missed it.
It is sweet and rich and full of Manischewitz blackberry wine— both in the batter and the glaze.
Smelling it, alone, could be enough to give you a slight buzz.
It was a holiday favorite. My grandmother enjoyed making it and my grandfather enjoyed the occasional nip off what was left of the wine bottle in the weeks after the holidays.
He might have even let his teenaged grandsons have a nip every now and then too.
We laughed when my uncle recounted when Granny once set out to make the cake only to find the bottle of Manischewitz was empty.
“I finished that off last week,” my grandfather Noel said. “Man, that stuff is good.”
She saw red and he was dispatched to Oak Ridge right then to get another bottle.
We laughed remembering how her mother, my great grandmother, was a teetotaler and did not approve of the wine purchase to begin with.
She turned her nose up to it.
The occasional rum cake was even more scandalous because hard liquor is more sinful than wine.
So, after all this discussion, our daughter understood the assignment.
My Aunt unearthed the recipe for us; Bella and her mother went to work and did an amazing job.
Along the way, she brought some old memories back to life and we created some new ones too— just in time for New Year’s Eve.
After a lot of hype all week in the family group text, it was perfect.
My grandmother passed away four days before Christmas in 2015. My grandfather preceded her in 2013.
Old family recipes connect us to the ones who have gone on.
Celebrity chef Jose Andres said it best, “I realized very early the power of food to evoke memory, to bring people together, to transport you to other places.”
In the kitchen of life, every dish is a story waiting to be told, and every bite is a step closer to finding our way back home.
Along the way, food can help us reconnect with our past and forge new stories for our future.
So, as promised on Facebook last week, here is our families’ blackberry wine cake recipe.
From all of us, to all you: Happy New Year!
I hope you find time to reconnect over old stories in the new year.
Granny Jacquita’s Blackberry Wine Cake
Ingredients
• 1 package white cake mix
• 1 package black cherry flavored Jell-O®
• 4 large eggs
• ½ cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup Manischewitz blackberry wine
• 1 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar
Directions
• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and flour a 10-inch Bundt pan. (Bella’s tip: grease the pan good, almost excessively).
• In a large bowl, stir together cake mix and gelatin mix. Make a well in the center and pour in eggs, oil and blackberry wine. Beat on low speed until blended. Scrape bowl and beat 4 minutes on medium speed. Pour batter into the prepared pan.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of cake comes out clean.
• Meanwhile, make glaze: In a small bowl, stir together confectioners’ sugar and 1/2 cup blackberry wine.
• Pour 1/2 of blackberry wine glaze over the top of cake while still warm. Let set for 10 minutes then remove cake from pan. Allow cake to cool fully before pouring the remaining glaze on top.