Some would say smell and taste carry memories with them far longer than any of the other senses and we would have to agree! Penny Gershman knows first-hand the history that one recipe can carry with it for generations and the important role food can play in remembering and honoring our family histories. For her, nothing demonstrates that more perfectly than her grandfather’s Orange Honey Cake Recipe.
My grandfather, Jerome Fishman, was a synagogue Rabbi for most of his professional career. In the later years of his life before he retired, he went back to school and got his Master's degree in Social Work. He was a loving husband, father and grandfather. For the last three years of my grandmother’s life, after she had a stroke, he became her sole caregiver. Somehow, even though he was extraordinarily busy throughout his life, between professional and familial obligations, my grandfather also took time out to bake and cook. My grandmother was sick most of her life and most every day tasks fell onto my grandfather. Luckily, when he was young, he spent his summers working in the kitchens of hotels in the Catskill Mountains and he learned to cook and bake then.
If I had to choose something my grandfather baked that I loved, it would be his orange honey cake. In my memory, we never spent Rosh Hashana with my grandparents growing up but I guess one time my grandfather made this cake and I loved it. After that, he taught me how to make it. I have vivid memories of the two of us standing in his two-by nothing kitchen in Kew Gardens Hills, NY baking orange honey cake. My grandfather would make it whenever I came to see him. He even made orange honey muffins and sent them to me at camp when he was living in Boston and taking care of my very sick grandmother. To this day, I have a hard time eating orange honey cake without thinking of my grandfather.
Like a lot kids, I was too young to really appreciate my grandparents while they were still alive. I wish I'd asked them more about their own childhoods, took advantage of their infinite wisdom and of course picked up a couple more recipes! But that's the great thing about food. It can say a lot about a person and I plan to carry on my grandfather's legacy by continuing his passion for food and sharing his recipes with my children and my grandchildren.
Now, around this time every year, I go to the store and, without thinking, I buy the jars of honey. I have taken it upon myself to keep making the orange honey cake for every Rosh Hashana. I make it for my parents and my sister. They know if I don’t make it, no one else will, because it was my special thing with my grandfather.. I may not be the scholar my grandfather was, nor am I the advisor and friend he was to literally thousands of people but I am helping to pass on the legacy that was my Zadie. And I do this by making our cake.
So without further ado, I offer you the family recipe of my Zadie's Orange Honey Cake...
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup orange juice either freshly squeezed or bought
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees
- Process the sugar and the eggs in a food processor for two minutes
- Next, add the oil and honey and process for another two minutes
- Add the flour, baking powder and baking soda and process all of the ingredients together until smooth.
- Pour into greased loaf pans and bake for 40 minutes. Test its readiness with a toothpick – when you poke the cake with a toothpick and it comes out clean, it’s ready. ENJOY!!!
A special thank you to Penny for sharing her Zadie’s Orange Honey Cake recipe and reminding us all of the power food can have in bringing families together. What do you make in celebration of your family history? Tell us in the comments!