Competing With Mom's Chocolate Cake

I have been thinking about entering the pies and cakes competition in this year's Fall Festival and Fair.

Last year for the first time, in order to make the fair feel more country, Evelyn Clay, the new chamber of commerce president, launched the home-town goodies portion of the fair.

It drew some fine finger-lickin'-good cookin' entries. Participants had a lot of fun, as well as judges digesting not-to-be-forgotten home recipes.

The chocolate cake recipe I am considering comes from my mother. I remember it well growing up in the 1940s when she would make this rich, moist, chocolate cake in which my dad and I would devour.

Many, many years later, I asked her to once again recreate this masterful confection, but she couldn't find or remember the recipe.

Wonder of wonders, a few months ago, rummaging among some attic boxes of her memories, I discovered her recipe, written in her own hand.

Just for fun, one day, I'm going to make her cake from her discovered recipe, I told Faye, and one Monday a few weeks ago, I did, trying to replicate in detail her ingredients, and how she would have combined them in those days before the electric mixer. Gathering fresh and exact ingredients according to her recipe, the bill came to $45. At that price, this cake better good.

The final result was truly a work of art in creating a rich, moist, dark, chocolate cake. It tasted exactly as I remembered it, and on the next Sunday, what was left of it, was devoured by my grandkids. It was truly a cake to die for.

So all you chocolate cake makers out there planning to enter the cake competition at the fair, please be warned, mom's cake can stand up to stiff competition.

Other than the goodies competition, the fair returns this year beginning on Tuesday, Nov. 3 and running each night until Saturday Nov. 7.

I have always enjoyed this part of the year promoting the Fall Festival and Fair for the Chamber of Commerce.

The fair is one of the major fund raisers for the chamber, so in order for it to successfully function and fund its various community activities, the fair has to be an unqualified success.

Which it has been.

Sitting in the Fair Committee for lo these past many years, this year I have decided to move on, allowing others to come forward to promote it. That doesn't mean I don't get excited about the fair anymore. And that doesn't mean I can't write a publicity column about it.

The immediate past chamber president has the honor of administering one final duty, being chair of the Fair Committee. It may well be one of those delightful jobs, planning this event, whereupon thousands of moms, dads, kids, brothers and sisters will come out for an evening of fun. Knowing Suzy Bonifay as I do, I can guarantee that this will be the best fair ever.

It's been traditional that the first few nights have been young family nights. The midway company has added additional rides and kiddie games to attract young families for a night of clean entertainment. And the ride prices are discounted. The midway company guarantees that every child that participates in one of the games will win a prize. How can you beat that?

So some evening that week, skip dinner at home, come to the fair, and chow down on an Italian sausage sandwich, a corndog or hamburger with all the trimmings, cotton candy for dessert, or other carnival-food favorites.

Warning. It's always a good idea to eat after you have sampled the big rides.

Now, here's how you enter the home recipe competition. Go to the chamber website, www.bainbridgechamber.com, or call the Welcome Center at 243-8555, for an entry form. Enter the form by Oct. 30 to the chamber of commerce, in any of the following categories: pies and cakes; pickled items; breads; jams and jellies; and quilts.

Judging will be Friday at 7 p.m., Nov. 6.

Good luck. See you at the fair.