We're lucky around here… quite a few VPR staffers are terrific cooks. Fabulous smells often emanate from our kitchenette, and we do a lot of recipe swapping and taste testing! We love to cook for one another, and we'll use this page to showcase some of our favorite recipes, as well as the stories and traditions behind them.
This recipe is from my late grandmother, Irene Tarallo, who lived for the all-too-short summertime—from jumping off the Longfellow Bridge into the Charles River as a teenager, to her methodical tanning ritual at Long Beach in Gloucester. In addition to being allowed to eat those colorful miniature boxes of junky kids' cereals, our summer getaways always included blueberry cake. Even today, this not-too-sweet cake is a staple of my summer diet.
2 cups sugar
3 ¼ cups flour
2 eggs, beaten
½ tsp. baking soda
½ cup solid vegetable shortening
1 tsp. cream of tartar
1 cup milk
1 pint blueberries (rinsed and picked over)
cinnamon sugar
Cream shortening and sugar. Add eggs and beat. Combine flour, baking soda and cream of tartar in a separate bowl and add to wet ingredients a little at a time, alternating with the milk. Fold in blueberries. Pour batter into a 9 x 13 inch pan and sprinkle the top liberally with cinnamon sugar. Bake at 350 degrees for about an hour.
A word of caution: Due to the crumbly nature of this cake, it’s probably not the best thing to eat while you’re actually in the car — unless your car is like mine and you’ve pretty much given up hope!