Nobody bakes a cake as tasty as a Tastykake...

Ahhhhh, the delicacies of life all you non-Phillydelphians miss out on.  Not hoagies, Philly soft pretzels, or cheese steaks but....Tastykake!  A Philly delicacy since 1914 courtesy of the Tasty Baking Company.  All of us who grew up in Philly and South Jersey probably have that "Nobody bakes a cake..." jingle permanently etched in our memory banks.  And if you opened up the lunch boxes in an elementary school cafeteria you would undoubtedly see cellophaned packages of krimpets, tandytakes, cupcakes and pies. Tastykake also provided our first lessons in multi-taking.  Before the wrappers were cellophane they were wax paper.  Which meant  FIRST you ate your Tastykake, THEN you took the wrapper and waxed down the sliding board at recess for some really fast sliding and skinned knees!

While the average Philly family liked their Tastykakes (what wasn't to like?) MY family was linked even more so to the company.  My grandpop drove a Tastykake truck, my uncle drove a Tastykake truck, and my dad drove a Tastykake truck too.  Seeing the box-like truck in my driveway meant I could sneak on board at the end of a work day and see if there was a stray box of Peanut Butter Tandytakes laying around.  Unfortunately, it was usually boxes of coconut cream pies I found...YUCK!  Apparently NO ONE liked those!

Every Christmas growing up, our family would convene at my Granny's home on Fifth Street in Philly.  It would be there that my Granny, her five children, and all 15 cousins would gather in a row home where a front parlor, dining room, kitchen and basement with a wringer dryer would try to contain us.  Luckily before it got too dark out our parents would free us for a stroll up Fifth Street to look in the storefront windows.  But we had to be back in time for the grand finale...my Granny's presentation of the cookies.  Not home made cookies, but  a tub of Tastykake Christmas sugar cookies given to each one of us with such a flourish that only my Granny could muster.  These cookies were greeted with either delight or an eye roll depending on which cousin you were.  Mine was an eye roll and a reminder to say "Thank you Granny".  Regardless of the reaction, the cookies did morph into a family tradition as well as a family joke (sorry Granny!).

 Eleanor "Granny"

(Christmas 1967, Granny and her grandkids...front parlor)

Granny passed away, my generation all drifted into our own lives, and the family get togethers ceased 20 years ago.  Sometimes you need experiences and perspective that only life can give you (and Facebook doesn't hurt either!) to make you want to reconnect with family.  And that is what happened this past weekend at my home.  48 family members re-convened and guess what other family member was also there.....TASTYKAKE.  Do you know they STILL makes those tubs of cookies?


They were my house marker...

My dining room centerpiece (well UNTIL my cousin decided her boxes, and boxes, and boxes of bakery rolls needed to take the cookies' place on my table...okay, they WERE delicious!)...

A home made version of Peanut Butter Tandytake cakes....

And bread pudding made out of Butterscotch Krimpets...

Do we know how to run with a theme or what?!?  Note:  Coconut Cream Pies were NOT given an invitation!

Nobody bakes a cake as tasty as a Tastykake BUT....nobody holds them in their heart like my family.  Hey Granny....LOVE YA and MISS YA!



--Kathy