Southern Recipe Restoration Project

The contributor: Donna Benson, a former Realtor who lives in Lawrenceville, describes herself as not so much as a cooking enthusiast as a “cooking laziast.”
“I love good, easy recipes, but I only like to cook when I want to cook,” she said. A grandmother of seven boys and one girl, she has been married to Nelson Benson for 47 years.
The story: “My mother, Mildred Melton, was famous for her strawberry cake, but I have a hard time getting it to come out right every time. I fussed at my mother for years, asking her, 'Why can’t I get it perfect?’ And she said, 'Oh, when I got old, I didn’t worry about it being perfect.’ But it always was.”
The trick, says Benson, is to cook the milk and sugar until it is thick enough to drip just a few dribbles down the cake and then hold its shape, mid-drip. But it shouldn’t be cooked to the point that it will become sticky when it cools. “My siblings and the families always want me to make this cake at Christmas, and every year I say, 'Never again.’ They always say it doesn’t matter how it looks or whether it’s perfect, but you always want it to be.”
– Deborah Geering for The Journal-Constitution

Admittedly, getting this cake exactly right is tricky. But as Benson’s family members always reassure her, don’t worry if it isn’t perfect. It will still be delicious –- somewhere between a gooey tres leches cake and a strawberry shortcake.