Grandma Fern’s sour cream red chocolate cake made regular appearances at the end of Sunday dinners during my childhood. Mom liked to make it for 2 reasons:
- It reminded her of the mother-in-law, Fern Stratton, who she dearly loved and who died at age 55.
- It was easy.
So easy, in fact, Mom taught me how to make it so I make it as my first 4-H project at age 10. It earned a blue ribbon.
We’re celebrating our oldest granddaughter’s 10th birthday this weekend. She requested chocolate cupcakes, so it seemed fitting to use a blue ribbon recipe. I made the cupcakes today. They appear rather plain in the photo above for good reason. I spent a good part of this morning hunting down this recipe and don’t want to lose it again. If I wait until after we get back from Wisconsin, where we’ll decorate them before her party, getting ready for Christmas may push my good intentions right out of my head.
Also, I found a card with the recipe written in Mom’s beautiful cursive and don’t want to wait another minute to share this bit of her with you.
Doesn’t her writing take you back to elementary school penmanship practice? Mine never looked that good.
One final note: Because of my dairy allergy, I used Kite Hill’s dairy-free sour cream and no one could tell the difference between it and regular sour cream. Will wonders never cease!
