It’s been way too long since I added to this blog. I have lots of ideas but little time. I will try to do better.
This evening, I was walking up 2nd Ave, between 51st and 52nd Street, when I happened on the Buttercup Bake Shop. Since it was time for a bit of something sweet to finish off dinner, I stopped in. They had a great selection of cakes and cupcakes. I was waffling between German Chocolate and Lemon. I asked and they said that the lemon had a layer of pineapple glaze under the icing, so I went with it. Sounded good to me.
But, you know how it is with cake. As good, and soft, and sweet, and lemony as the cake was, there was one thing missing – ice cream. All cake is improved with ice cream!
When I was little and would go to Wilson, Arkansas to visit my mother’s 
parents, we would have cake for dessert. When we did, Nannie would always ask if we wanted a “black plate”. Seemed kind of strange to me. What difference could the color of the plate make?
Turns out, years and years and years before, it seems that my grandfather’s mother, Pearl Hudson Wren, had two sets of dessert plates. The everyday plates were great when you were having a piece of cake or a piece of pie. But, if you needed a little something extra, like ice create with your cake, you needed different equipment. Grannie had another set of dessert plates that were a little larger and could easily hold both the cake and the ice cream. And guess what! They were black!
So, if you wanted a black plate, you wanted cake and ice cream. Mystery solved and tradition started. So, even though my Nannie did not have a set of black plates, asking for a black plate still got a nice scoop of ice cream with your cake. Even still works sometimes at Mom’s house today.
The cake was really good, though. If you’re on 2nd Ave in Midtown, stop in to the Buttercup Bake Shop.
Wrenacres 