MEMORIES .....

I popped into Market Street the other day .... not something I do too often, but a real treat when I do.
While browsing the fruit section (I realize just how lame that sounds .... I love spotting the unusual though !!!), I found grenadillas ..... my heart quite literally skipped a beat. In the 10 years we've lived in the US, I think I've only seen them one other time. I have sometimes been able to buy the tins of pulp from British Emporium - but it's just not the same as the fresh fruit. Here in the US, you know it as Passion Fruit.

Rewind about 35 years, when I was a little girl, growing up in Rhodesia, I remember my late Mom making a grenadilla cake ... delicious.
I have the recipe book, that the recipe she used came from (with hand written notes, and all :-) ...... it's an old fundraising cookbook from my Primary School. It was created back in the day, before photocopying was even commonly used (well, back in Rhodesia anyway) ... the recipes were typed up on a typewriter, and the pages were roneod ..... for those who may remember - that handle you used to wind to make copies ...
This will  give you an idea of what a Roneo Machine looked like, if you're interested :-)

As you can see it was really well loved, but is very fragile now. The sad thing, about that exact recipe, is that the printing has faded so badly, that I couldn't use it ... I wasn't confident, that the cake would turn out. So I did a little snooping around the great WWW ....... and I came upon This Recipe, shared by a South African lady. When I compared the two recipes (as best I could), they looked almost identical :-)
So, on went the apron (after a visit to Market Street, to buy the grenadillas), and I got to it !!!

Oh My Goodness ..... while I haven't had a hunking great slice yet (I can assure you, that will happen before I go to bed tonight), but I will confess to picking a little of the inside to taste, and licking the icing bowl out .... this is cake perfection !!!! It is a grenadilla cake, that tastes unmistakably of grenadilla, and I LOVE it !!!!

This recipe will now be written right alongside that old faded recipe that my Mom used to use .... there for future generations to use and enjoy.