A Recipe for an Uneasy Summer

In the summer of 1952, life in a town right outside of Detroit, continued in its familiar rhythm.

There were church suppers, recipes passed from one woman to another. Cakes cooling on kitchen counters. Neighbors who knew one another by name and sometimes, neighbors who knew very little about the people living just a few doors away.

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The Story

Edward, Mattie and Amelia were siblings. All three were unmarried and lived in the house they were raised in.

By the time authorities learned what had happened inside their home, Amelia had been dead for eight weeks. Her body had remained in the house all that time.

According to an article in the Detroit Free Press, Mattie told the prosecutor she was the "only real prophet", and she was the "confidante of the Supreme Being." She also mentioned she had possessed this gift since birth. She believed Amelia would return from the dead.

For eight weeks, Amelia's body was bathed daily and dressed. Mattie spoon fed her coffee while she waited for her sister's resurrection. She believed that enough prayers could bring Amelia back to life and eventually wrote to a radio minister asking him to pray. It was that letter that brought the authorities to the house.

Mattie believed Amelia's death was the result of witchcraft practiced by what she called the "evil ones who smile knowingly." The changes taking place in Amelia's body, the signs that to anyone else would have indicated that a body was returning to dust, were to Mattie simply symptoms of the hex.

And then, there was the fan. When authorities arrived, Amelia was found lying in bed with an electric fan positioned on the window ledge, sending a breeze across her body.

But perhaps the detail that lingers with me the most is what happened on the Fourth of July. They dressed Amelia and placed her in a chair on the front porch! They wanted their sister to see the parade. However, the parade never passed the house because it turned two blocks away.

The neighbors, who later said the family largely kept to themselves, had no idea that anything was wrong.

And while this story is deeply unsettling, there is something almost surreal about placing it within the ordinary rhythm of a 1952 summer. Outside, the world continued as it always had. People went about their days. Meals were prepared and recipes were shared.

Which brings me to this. I found a recipe from a 1958 Wyandotte, Michigan church cookbook titled Personal Recipes, published by the Woman's Auxiliary of Grace Episcopal Chapel. The recipe was submitted by Betty Dayton.

A simple crumb cake. The kind of recipe that feels like it belongs in a well-used kitchen, written down and passed from one woman to another. The kind of recipe that might have been served with coffee on a warm, summer afternoon.

And perhaps that is what makes it the perfect companion to this story. Because sometimes the most unsettling stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned buildings. Sometimes they begin in an ordinary home, on an ordinary summer day, while the rest of the neighborhood carries on, completely unaware.

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The Crumb Cake

From Person Recipes, 1958

Woman's Auxiliary of Grace Episcopal Chapel

Wyandotte, Michigan

Recipe submitted by Betty Dayton

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour

• 2 teaspoons baking powder

• 1 scant teaspoon salt

• 1 1/2 cups sugar

• 3/4 cup melted butter (if Crisco is used, add more salt)

• 2 eggs, lightly beaten

• 3/4 cup milk

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Method

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, sugar and melted butter. Mix until the ingredients form fine crumbs, as for a pie crust.

Remove 3/4 cup of the crumb mixture and set it aside for the topping.

In a separate bowl, combine the lightly beaten eggs, milk and vanilla. Add the liquid ingredients to the remaining crumb mixture and beat well until creamy.

Pour the batter into a greased shallow pan. Sprinkle the reserved crumbs over the top.

Bake at 350°F for approximately 25 minutes or until baked through.

My Adaptation

For my version, I baked the cake in an 8-inch round pan. Because of the deeper pan, it required approximately 40 minutes in my own oven rather than the 25 minutes called for in the original recipe.

At around the 30-minute mark, I loosely placed (tented) a piece of aluminum foil over the top to keep the crumbs from becoming too dark while the center finished baking.

It is a very simple cake. Which somehow feels fitting. A recipe from a church cookbook. A summer story that remained hidden behind an ordinary home. And the strange reminder that history is often found in the most unexpected places. Sometimes in a newspaper, sometimes in a family story and sometimes in a crumb cake cooling in your kitchen.

xox

~Mallie