1917 to 1945 Cake #8

La Fonda Pudding Cake

Fred Harvey was a British restaurateur who saw a golden opportunity to improve the food in the southwest by establishing hotels and restaurants along the Santa Fe railroad. The Fred Harvey Company opened many locations in the early 1900's and offered travelers fine places to eat and sleep along the way. The La Fonda hotel was a 1922 Mission style inn and in 1926 it became one of the prestigious Harvey Houses. These locations had excellent food as well as the Harvey girls, who were smiling waitresses that delivered the food to the guests. The La Fonda is part of the oldest hotel corner in America, in Santa Fe Square, where there is a Spanish Inn that was operating as early as 1607. One of the signature desserts served at the La Fonda was the La Fonda Pudding Cake. This cake is a moist and gooey walnut concoction that is based on using graham cracker crumbs.

Interesting Excerpt from the book about Graham Crackers and cakes:

"One of the crust components in Key Lime Pie and cheesecake, the graham cracker is an old American ingredient, dating back to the mid 1800's when Presbyterian minister and health fanatic Sylvester Graham created crackers from whole grain wheat. The graham crackers we bake with today are a lot sweeter and more processed than the crackers that made Graham famous. When World War I demanded people get resourceful and come up with substitutes for wheat flour, cooks found you could crush graham crackers and use them in baking like flour. A graham cracker cake won the Chicago Daily Tribune's 1918 wartime recipe contest. It was a practical cake that hung around for decades, and this La Fonda Pudding is a variation on that early cake."

My Experience:

As a finished product, this cake looks like well, not much. I was not expecting much when I took the first bite, but I thought it was full of flavor and it had cool chewy texture on the edge and a soft gooey feel in the middle. I actually found it to be one of those desserts that you keep coming back to for a little nibble here and there. It was very easy to make, I got to crush up walnuts and graham crackers and then whip some eggs and dump it in the baking dish. It is very plain and would go well with ice cream or whipped cream.

Neighbor's comments:

"I like this one! It would be better with ice cream, but it's still yummy though!"