Country Cakes and Frostings

IF YOU WERE FORTUNATE enough to grow up in the country, you will remember . . . how your fork cut through wedges of moist, fresh-baked and frosted chocolate cake . . . the aroma of spicy applesauce cake baking in the oven . . . thin slices of homemade fruitcake at Christmas on a holly-decorated plate ... the smell of fresh air and the soothing feel of sunshine when you carried warm cake to the field for your father’s coffee break . . . gorgeous cakes on the table waiting to escort hand-cranked ice cream and ripe strawberries at the social . . . your mother’s special hickory nut cake in your lunchbox.