The Ice Box Cake

 

Tanta Ida, my mother’s older sister did not like to cook. She did enjoy baking and was quite good at it. One of my favorites was her ice box cake.

The recipe was simple. Chocolate snaps, lady fingers, heavy whipping cream, powdered sugar and vanilla extract.  The lady fingers ere split open and placed face up at the bottom of a six inch pan, then covered with a layer of whipped cream and that with chocolate snaps. This was repeated until the pan was filled.  It was then placed into the ice box over night and served chilled the next day. As an adult I learned about baked  Alaska, but it was no match for Tanta Ida’s ice box cake.  

    After I married and had children, I sometimes made an ice box cake for them and they loved it. “Why was it called an ice box cake?” I was asked.  I explained that when we were young we did not have a  refrigerator. Instead, we had an icebox,  small rectangular wooden and metal lined cabinet with two latch doors. Once or twice a week Mr. Popkin the ice man came to our block with his horse and wagon. The wagon was filled with large blocks of ice covered with saw dust and a burlap cloth to prevent it from melting. Depending upon the size of your icebox or whether you could spare five cents for a small block or ten cents for a large one, Mr. Popkin lifted the ice onto his shoulder, carried it  into the kitchen and placed it into the  top chamber of the icebox. This was supposed to keep a small amount of perishables in the lower chamber cool for several days, but it was not very efficient. In the winter we  kept a small box on a window shelf facing the backyard where some foods could be kept cold.  Basically however shopping was required to be done on an almost daily basis to ensure it  was fresh. Sometimes depending on whether Mr. Popkin was in a good mood, he would chop off small pieces of ice and give  it to the young children who congregated around the wagon. It was better than candy. We had no money for candy, and the ice was free.

     “ Since we no longer have an ice box. but a  refrigerator, why not call it a refrigerator cake”, my children asked? “ I replied, “ Because, then it would not be Tanta Ida’s ice box cake.”

Ben Haber