Garden & Gun

A Cake for the Ages

Ihadn’t thought about caramel cakes until I heard about Mrs. Beavers. I had been digging through my grandmother’s collection of recipes while resurrecting heirloom desserts for my rural Virginia bakery, hoping to find some kind of long-lost cake that needed a little light shone on it. But so far I was flummoxed.

Within a week, as it happened, a customer asked me if I could revive a cake beloved among the townsfolk of The Plains, a little burg up the road. “Mrs. Beavers, now gone, was famous for her caramel layer cake that still haunts us all,” he told me, providing a skimpy list of ingredients from

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from Garden & Gun

Garden & Gun2 min read
THE WELCOMING COMMITTEE Benjamin Deaton and Anna Scott K. Masten
While New York and Los Angeles have long been the epicenters of the contemporary American art trade, Atlanta is making a strong case for joining that list. One combined force shifting attentions south: Benjamin Deaton and Anna Scott K. Masten, who, j
Garden & Gun3 min read
THE LIFE PRESERVER Erica Heller
LOCATIONRichmond, VA MEDIUMTaxidermy HOMETOWNGreensboro, NC Not unlike an ambitious portrait artist, Erica Heller aims to capture the living essence of her subjects. But instead of brushes and paints, she first reaches for scalpel and fleshing box, a
Garden & Gun2 min read
THE ALCHEMIST Shan Kuang
LOCATIONFort Worth, TX PROFESSIONArt conservator A FAVORITE TOOLAntique surgical scalpel When Shan Kuang began pursuing a degree in chemistry at Yale, she planned to go to medical school, but she just couldn’t shake her passions for art and history.

Related