A Slice of Family History: Baking My Great-Grandmother’s Cake

As genealogists, we spend countless hours researching other people’s families. We dig through courthouse records, scroll through census pages, and scour old newspapers. And while I love this work, sometimes my own family research gets pushed aside. One day, while working on a client’s family from Stilwell, Oklahoma, I decided to take a quick detour and see if I could uncover anything new about my own roots in the same area.

That is when I struck gold.

In the Adair County Democrat, dated August 18, 1932, I found something that went far beyond names and dates. It was a recipe. A devil’s food cake recipe submitted by my great-grandmother, Anhiwake. As fate would have it, chocolate cake happens to be my favorite.

Of course, when you stumble across a nearly 100-year-old cake recipe from your great-grandmother, there is only one thing to do. You head to the grocery store.

When I got home, I laid everything out on my kitchen island. I am an organized baker, so I like to have my recipe right in front of me, with every ingredient carefully measured out and ready to add as instructed. As I worked, I found myself wondering about Anhiwake in 1932. My grandfather would not be born until 1934, but she already had two sons then: Thomas, born in 1925, and George, born in 1928.

That year marked the beginning of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, which brought unimaginably difficult times for families in Oklahoma. And yet, here was a cake recipe. Something that may seem small to us today, but likely brought moments of happiness to her household. I could not help but wonder how many birthdays or special occasions this cake might have brightened for her sons.

I followed her instructions exactly, mixing the ingredients as she had written them. I was especially thankful that she noted the batter would be thin, because otherwise I would have questioned it. Sure enough, it was runnier than modern cake batters, but I poured it into the pans and baked it at 350 degrees until a toothpick came out clean.

After it cooled, I frosted the cake and took a bite, not expecting much. To my surprise, it was wonderful. It was not overly sweet or rich, but instead had a subtle, balanced chocolate flavor that was truly enjoyable.

As I savored that first slice, I thought about how extraordinary it was that my great-grandmother’s recipe had traveled through time. In 1932, she could not have imagined that her great-grandchild in 2025 would be standing in her own kitchen, baking the very same cake. What she likely saw as a simple contribution to her local newspaper has now become an heirloom, a sweet connection binding generations together.

Food has a way of doing that, bridging the gap between past and present and bringing us closer to the people whose lives shaped ours. For me, this recipe is not just about cake. It is about family, resilience, and the simple joys that sustained them through hard times.

Thanks to one small clipping in a 1932 newspaper, I now have a piece of family history I will treasure and share for years to come.