When Janet Hunt’s mother was being treated for diabetes at Richmond Hospital in the late 1940s, the last thing the family expected was for her to bring home a coffee cake recipe, sweetened by two cups of sugar, that she’d enjoyed eating as a patient.
But, as Hunt told Richmondside, Elizabeth Peres did things her way. She looked and felt great after her stay at the hospital on 23rd Street, so she saw nothing wrong with bringing home the recipe, written in cursive on a lined 3×5 card.
“I went to see her (in the since-closed hospital), and she said, ‘Oh I feel better, yes, and I had the best breakfast — this coffee cake,’ Hunt said. “I was shocked.”
Peres’ sweet tooth is one of Hunt’s many lasting memories of her mother, who thanks to insulin went on to live a full life. Now 93, Hunt fondly recalls once picking up her mother’s checkbook only to have a Hershey’s chocolate bar fall out.
“I said, ‘Well, that’s a surprise,’ and she said, ‘Not to me.’ “
There are other stories like that, Hunt said. One day her mother, who lived across the street from her in El Cerrito, asked her to come over to find out why there were numerous trails of ants all over the house.
Hunt said she followed the trails from one side of the home to the other, up and down walls and across window sills until their seemingly relentless march ended in a closet, where they were enjoying the spoils of her mother’s candy-filled robe pocket.
Cookbook is memoir of Richmond’s rich cultural tapestry
The Richmond Hospital Sour Cream Coffee Cake recipe is just one of many collected in a 38-page soft-cover book published by the Richmond Library last year.
The library envisioned it could be a memoir of the city’s rich cultural tapestry, and it doesn’t disappoint. Notes tell some of the stories behind the recipes, which include: Sweet Lokshen Kugel, Konkani-Style Okra, Three Comrades Larb Mushroom, and Frantisek Pencik’s Delicious Turkey Stuffing.
Favorite family recipes often carry more meaning than a dish sitting on a table. They’re about when and where and with whom the food was enjoyed, as demonstrated by a visit with Hunt and her granddaughter, Madi Hunt, who submitted the recipe to the library on her grandmother’s behalf.
“Meme would always make [the coffee cake] for Christmas morning,” Madi Hunt told Richmondside. “We’d have it before brunch. It was always a really yummy sweet treat. Meme makes it in foil and all the burnt sugary pieces on the edges were like the gold of the coffee cake.”
Visit any Richmond library branch to pick up a free copy of the community cookbook, which can also be checked out if you have a library card.
On a recent weekday morning, the Hunts made the easy coffee cake in the cozy kitchen of their family’s 1950s ranch home while telling stories that provide a glimpse into what life in Richmond was like during the Depression and World War II for immigrants like the Peres family, from Portugal, and the Rieplings, who came from Germany.
Wartime rationing meant making do with simpler recipes
Meme Hunt, wearing a 1946-inspired shade of red lipstick and a bright blue patterned blouse, deftly navigates her wheelchair around the neat assortment of ingredients she has laid out on her kitchen counter. The family settled in El Cerrito after living in numerous wartime-era homes built on what used to be wide open land in what became the heart of Richmond, mostly along Roosevelt Avenue.
She notes that recipes were much easier to make then, pointing to classics such as eggless, butterless, milkless “War Cake,” usually packed with dried fruits and molasses, and macaroni salad, made with just pasta, celery, green onion and mayonnaise.
“In the Depression we didn’t have everything. (And) in World War II, you couldn’t get it. It was rationed,” Hunt said, grabbing a well-worn family utensil, a 1920s hand mixer that she explained must be cranked firmly 100 times to blend the coffee cake’s wet ingredients. “You’ve got to get it so it’s fluffy.”
When asked what she liked best about Richmond in those days, Hunt said, “Just the whole thing. We could walk to meet our friends at 10th and Barrett and go to the movies.”
The family also liked to go to Nicholl Park after attending Mass, but they weren’t happy the day their father, George Peres, decided to demonstrate his geese-calling skills. That’s because those geese answered back.
“We were so embarrassed,” she said.
During the war there wasn’t enough housing for the many people arriving to work in the Richmond shipyards, where more than 700 warships were built, so the area’s many movie theaters let people stay there, the temporary occupants milling about with the moviegoers, Hunt recalled.
Meet Your Neighbors
WHO: Janet “Meme” Hunt, 93, and her granddaughter Madi Hunt, 39
NEIGHBORHOODS: Janet Hunt was raised in central Richmond and moved to El Cerrito in 1957; Madi Hunt lives in Richmond’s North and East neighborhood.
RICHMOND RESIDENTS FOR: The Hunts have lived in the area most of their lives. Madi Hunt, whose mother was Argentinian, lived in Brazil for awhile, where she taught English.
FACTOIDS: Their ancestors lived on Point Richmond when it was an island, and Janet Hunt’s grandmother, Mary O’Connell, was born there. She remembers family members had to time their trips to the mainland by the tides. Peres Elementary school is named after Janet’s grandfather, John Peres, a whaler who immigrated from the Azores and “jumped ship” in San Francisco, where he was a blacksmith until the business was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake.
MADI HUNT SAID: “It’s interesting when it’s really foggy at night — really classic Richmond weather, and it’s windy, and I think of how many generations of my family have dealt with the weather.”
Richmond is home to 40+ distinct neighborhoods, a fact that some residents have told us makes them feel disconnected to the city as a whole. This story is part of an occasional series to help Richmonders get to know their neighbors. Do you know someone we should feature? Email hello@richmondside.org or post a tip here.
Hunt remembers that a week after Pearl Harbor everyone was afraid that Japan would bomb Richmond so residents were under orders to cover their windows with black curtains at night so no light could be seen by enemy aircraft. Her father was a block captain, and it was his job to walk the streets to make sure everyone complied.
A bite of sweet coffee cake; how a pencil got Meme married
The coffee cake comes together easily, with Madi Hunt helping her grandmother assemble the creamy pale yellow cake batter, covering the bottom layer and the top with a crumbly, sugary mix that caramelizes to give it that sweet crunch.
While it bakes, the pair sit in the family room telling more stories. Madi Hunt helps her grandmother fill in any slight memory gaps as Janet Hunt affectionately rests a hand on her granddaughter’s knee.
Meme Hunt recalls meeting her husband, Harold Hunt, while they were students at Contra Costa College, which opened in 1949. They were in multiple classes together and, in each class, he kept asking if he could borrow a pencil.
“I was thinking, “Who goes to school and doesn’t have a pencil!’ And I married him,” Hunt said with a laugh.
One of their first dates was an Oakland Oaks baseball game. Later she was surprised to discover that Harold had been the track star who had beaten her Richmond High team at a big meet she had covered for her high school newspaper.
They were married in 1952 and remained together until his death in 2019.
Hunt seems to be in good health, and her paper calendar is busy with engagements. Asked for any personal longevity tips, she dryly notes that she has both “done and undone” a variety of healthy eating or drinking trends.
Her granddaughter reminds her how the stretching and exercises she does in bed have helped her feel better, and says her grandmother enjoys Sunday outings to the San Pablo Sportsman Club, a fixture since the 1930s, when it used to be a private club for business owners.
The kitchen timer rings, and it’s time to try the coffee cake, which they serve to their guests on flower-patterned plates.
It’s buttery and fluffy — simple, like the era it was born in. The sugary crunch becomes more flavorful as it cools.
The visitors quickly clean their plates and seconds are encouraged. Meme Hunt describes her great grandson George, now 6, putting a creative spin on the dish, combining coffee cake bites with raspberries nibbled from his fingertips.
As her granddaughter had noted in an earlier conversation, it’s much more than a coffee cake recipe.
“There’s a story behind it,” she said.
Sour Cream Coffee Cake
Cake
½ cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ teaspoon salt
8 oz. (1 cup) sour cream
Filling
½ cup refined sugar
½ cup brown sugar
¼ cup softened butter
1 cup chopped walnuts or almonds
1 teaspoon baking soda
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°F.
For the cake, beat butter and sugar in a large bowl until fluffy. Add eggs, beating after each one.
In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add sifted ingredients, plus vanilla and sour cream, to the cake mixture.
For the filling, combine sugars, softened butter, nuts and baking soda in a medium bowl using a pastry cutter or two knives.
Place half of the batter in 9×13 greased baking dish and cover it with half of the filling. Then pour remaining batter over filling and top it with the rest of the filling.
Bake for 35 to 40 minutes. Cool before cutting into squares and serving.
Tip: You can line the baking dish with foil, making it easy to remove cake from pan for travel. Freezes well.
