Russian Cake

There are lots of little things in New Orleans that only happen in New Orleans.

After the big day at our school yesterday, I came home with a huge bag of kettle corn. This morning, I put it in containers and tried to parcel it out to the neighbors.

When I got to one neighbor's house, she offered me some Russian Cake and I accepted. She said, "I won't be offended if you hate it."

That's not usually what people say when they give you cake. Well, I soon learned that Russian Cake is an acquired taste. After a day of asking every local I know about it and reading about it on the internet, I learned that bakeries (and apparently a local convent-homeless shelter that has a secret deal with Tastee Donuts) in New Orleans take their leftover cake, cookies, and pie crust and make it into something new: Russian cake. They cut it all up into little bits, then heat it up and pour some sort of cherry flavored syrup or liquor on it and rebake it. Then they put a layer of fresh cake on the bottom and top and frost it and put sprinkles on it. Yuck.

Good thing she won't be offended.