Fashionable Food

Recipes from the Twentieth Century

from Fashionable Food: Seven Decades of Food Fads

by Sylvia Lovegren


Food for a Nuclear Winter

Not all the instant food being served up carried fancy French names. This “party-pretty dessert” could be made ahead (weeks probably) to save “hostessing time,” according to the Better Homes and Gardens Guide to Entertaining (1969).

Bomb Shelter Chocolate-Cherry Delight Cake

1 (18 ¼-ounce) package devil’s food cake mix
1 (20-ounce) can cherry pie filling, undrained
1 (3.9-ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 package dessert topping mix (or use Cool Whip), enough to make 2 cups whipped topping
Maraschino cherries for garnish

Prepare and bake two 8- or 9-inch layers from the cake mix according to the package directions; cool. Whirl the pie filling in a blender for a few seconds, just until the cherries are chopped. Stir the pudding mix and cocoa into the pie filling. Prepare the dessert topping according to the package directions; fold into the cherry mixture. Spread about ½ cup of the cherry mixture on the bottom cake layer; top with the second layer. Spread the rest of the cherry mixture on the top and sides of the cake. Garnish with maraschino cherries. Chill until serving time.

Makes 1 cake

Book details:

Sylvia Lovegren
Fashionable Food: Seven Decades of Food Fads
With a new Preface
©1995, 2005 464 pages, 35 halftones, 7 line drawings
Paper $19.00 ISBN: 978-0-226-49407-4

For information on purchasing the book—from bookstores or here online—please go to the webpage for Fashionable Food.

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