Picking A Cake

My dad just turned 93, a big number, and I asked him what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday. Before he could answer, my mom chimed in and shared that “he loves hickory nut cake!” Now I’ve known this guy for a long time, seemingly a lifetime, so how could I not know this?

“His Aunt Lillian made him a hickory nut cake for his eighth birthday,” my mom went on, “and quite a few times after that. She even mailed the cakes to him when he was in the Army.” My dad’s eyes lit up as he remembered those cakes.

Philip, Peggy, Johnny (the birthday boy), and Betty Jean, in 1932

Johnny today, anticipating cake

My dad had his own cake stories, of course. “Aunt Lillian would gather shagbark hickory nuts from the tree right out front of her house,” he told me, “and she would sit at the table and pick the nuts for hours on end. Even the squirrels avoided hickory nuts, because they’re hard as hell to pick. But she made me a cake most every year…until her eyes got bad.”

“She probably went blind from picking those damned nuts!” my mom interrupted.

Pretty sure that’s Lillian on the left

Aunt Lillian loved her nephews!

Not sure the story on the chair

“Lillian always lived with Inez and Sarah and Uncle Nicky,” my dad continued. “And she was very smart. She was the bookkeeper for Aunt Inez’s Milliner shop.”

“What?” I responded. “I thought Aunt Inez was a hatmaker?”

A classic hat from the 1930s, from Margie’s collection

My mom rocking one of Aunt Inez’s hats

Another classic

When my dad was growing up in Savannah, hickory nuts were easy to gather all over the green spaces of the city, and they probably still are. Hickory nut cakes were pretty popular in the 1930s, maybe because the Great Depression put a premium on recipes that required a trip to the park instead of a trip to the store.

Hickory nuts aren’t quite as easy to gather where I live in Virginia, but I was able to buy some on-line from a guy in North Carolina. I was psyched to find them, although it marked the first (and perhaps last) time I’ve done business with someone called “Carolina Nut Dude.”

Hickory nuts

lots of wood in these nuts

slow but steady progress

My dad didn’t have any details on Lillian’s recipe, but I was able to find several recipes for “old fashioned hickory nut cake” on the net. The recipes were pretty similar, with most of them calling for flour, egg yolks, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and vanilla. I made mine in a loaf pan with brown sugar frosting, just as Aunt Lillian used to do.

Ingredients

Mixing away

Mixing in hickory nuts

Cake mix with nuts

Brown sugar frosting

Cooking up the frosting

Mixing confectioners sugar into the frosting

So far, so good

Frosted and ready for action

Almost time to sing

The finished product

We enjoyed our cake as my parents reminisced about Savannah in the 1930s. They shared fun memories of Lillian and of things that they did as kids, pretty amazing considering that it all happened 85 years ago.

Downtown Savannah

Young Johnny on the porch

The Marshall House

I think pop still has that jacket

Broughton Street, 1930

Lillian in later years

St. Patricks Day Parade, 1934

Margie, age 13, 1937

That’s Lillian on the right, at Hunting Island Beach, near Savannah. My folks tell me that the aunts always wore dresses, even at the beach!

As for shelling those nuts, that part hasn’t changed much. It is still a very tedious and time-consuming process. My mom jumped in to help me when I was making my cake, and then summarily stabbed herself in the wrist with a nut picker—reminding us why everybody needs a nutty aunt like Lillian.

Margie, just before she stabbed herself with a nut picker

Pop sneaks a nut

A family birthday shot