I wanted to memorialize this family recipe, which comes from I wanted to memorialize this family recipe, which comes from my grandmother Donica, through my mother Catherine, and now my sister Catherine and I carry on the tradition. This cake is easy to make, delicious, and has presided over many family celebrations.

It also served us well on nights when a good movie was on, and we had no dessert in the house–you can whip this up easily with ingredients you probably have in the cupboard and refrigerator already.
My grandmother started it. I don’t know where she got it from, but we’ve used it for birthdays and celebrations of all sorts. I never knew my grandmother. She actually passed away the year before I was born, but I do know that she grew up in Lower Manhattan. She was born in 1926. I think this recipe is something that came out of the Depression because it’s so scant on ingredients–it was making something out of nothing. After she moved out of lower Manhattan, she married my grandfather, who was a World War II vet. They moved out to Levittown, Long Island, where there were a lot of housing structures being built for returning veterans. That’s where they started their family, and that’s where she made this cake quite often.

They later moved to Plainview, Long Island, and I know she continued making this cake there as well. She gave the recipe to my mom and my aunts, and my mom married my dad and moved to Queens, and we carried on the tradition in our family.

When me and my siblings were very young, my mom was very much yearning for a girl’s night, so she put us kids to bed early and she invited her friend over. The deal was they were going to make this cake and they were going to have coffee and just talk.

They started preparing the ingredients. They got the cake into the oven, but when they pulled it out, it was curiously very flat. They looked at each other and my mom’s friend said, “What is this? What happened? Did we forget anything?” My mom said, “We forgot the egg.” So even though the title is one-egg cake, they forgot the main ingredient.

Happy baking, and I hope you all try it out and enjoy it–just don’t forget the egg.