[ back ]
Crumb cake is star of Pancake Breakfast
(by Maggie Fazeli Fard - April 15, 2008)
|
Famous Women’s Auxiliary Homemade Crumb Cake
|
|
Cake
|
|
1 box cake mix (yellow/pudding)
4 eggs
2/3-cup oil
2/3-cup milk
|
|
Crumbs
|
4 cups flour
2/3-cup brown sugar
2/3-cup sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
2 sticks margarine
1 stick butter
1 tablespoon vanilla
|
Blend cake mix, eggs, milk and oil. Pour into greased 11” x 15” sheet pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.
For crumbs, melt margarine and butter, then add vanilla, flour, cinnamon and sugars, and mix together.
Crumble crumb topping over cake. Bake at 350 degrees for an additional 20 minutes.
Cool and sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar before serving.
|
The Heaneys are old pros when it comes to pancake breakfasts. From local fire departments to American Legions, Ed, Rhoda and their daughter Cateri have been there, done that. But the one that tops them all for this Westwood family is the Westwood Elks Women’s Auxiliary’s annual fundraising event. What sets it apart?
“So! I’m not getting any crumb cake!?”
Rhoda, sitting at the Elks Lodge early in the morning on March 30, smiles and nods toward the elderly man eating alone at the next table. He’s barely swallowed his last bite of pancake when he demands dessert. His yelp says it all.
“We go to a lot of pancake breakfasts and this one is the best,” Rhoda says. “Other breakfasts offer just that – pancakes. Here you get eggs, bacon, sausage… crumb cake.”
Ah, the crumb cake. Or, as it is known by its full name, the “Famous Women’s Auxiliary Homemade Crumb Cake.” The recipe is simple: yellow cake from a box topped with a mixture of sugar, cinnamon, vanilla and flour bound together by butter and margarine. Healthy, it is not. And don’t expect it to be mind-blowing. But it is, through and through, cakey and crumbly and pretty much everything a crumb cake should be, made all the more palatable by the long line of women who have baked it over the past 34 years.
While the exact origins of the cake are unknown, the recipe can be traced back to 1974 when member Carol Weaver obtained the recipe from someone at
Zion
Lutheran
School , where her grandchildren were students. The crumb cake was a hit, says Rebecca Casey, one of the co-chairs of the March 30 event, and it has been served at every pancake breakfast since.
|
|
|
Photo by Robert S. Pytel
Crumb cake bakers Rebecca Casey, Cathy Schrader, Ann Dixon, Gina DePalma and Renee Delehanty stop for a photo. Other lady members who helped make the cakes include Tricia Luhis, Sandy Heiser and Bunny Cangelosi.
|
If the crumb cake is what it takes to keep people coming back to the pancake breakfasts, Casey and her co-members are happy to comply. The Elks Women’s Auxiliary, which, like its men-only counterpart, supports handicapped children, has seen membership dwindle in recent years.
“We’re down to 12 members,” says Casey, “and eight of us do everything.”
The women used to hold as many as five events a year, raising money to send handicapped children to camp, but are now down to just one or two – a comedy night and the pancake breakfast. The March 30 breakfast brought in about $500, but Casey remembers when the group raised as much as $1,000 in a single morning.
She wonders why there has been such a drastic drop in community attendance and muses that it may have something to do with the recent increase in admission price from $5 to $6. “The cost of everything has gone up,” she explains in the auxiliary’s defense, but notes that one man put up a fight so they let him in for $5. “He was elderly and he’s been coming for a long time,” she explains.
Casey has been a member for 10 years, and like her co-members doesn’t have any plans of stopping now. If anything, the women are eager to invite new members, and prospective crumb cake-bakers, into the fray.
“We’re a fun, happy organization,” Casey says with a shrug. An organization with a sweet tooth.
For more information about Westwood Elks Women’s Auxiliary events or membership, call President Gina DePalma at 201-358-8968.
Maggie Fazeli Fard's e-mail address is fazelifard@northjersey.com.
[ back ]
