Queen Ann Cake

Shanita Monroe

In my family, we have a tradition that every Christmas we have special cakes and pies for dessert like red velvet cake, pecan pie, sweet potato pie, and many more. One of my favorite desserts that we have is Queen Ann cake. It has been on the menu for years and has become an important part of our family.

The Queen Ann cake is basically a four-layer chocolate cake with cream cheese icing that has shaved chocolate pieces in it. My mom is the person who usually makes it, although my grandma was the one who introduced the family to the recipe. It is funny that the recipe is so important to the family now because, the first time it was made, it was an experiment just to see how it would turn out. Nobody else in our family has tried to make it other than my mom, I guess because she makes it so well.

It is usually around Christmas time when the cake is made. We always make the Queen Ann cake at Christmas time because it is something that we have done every year, plus it is one of the desserts that everybody loves. My mom usually prepares it the night before, and then we all eat it the next day. My mom makes it at our house, and then we take it over to my grandma's house because that is where we always eat Christmas dinner.

The cake is made by simply taking a box of devil's food cake mix and combining it with a few other ingredients. You bake it, and once it's done, cut it to create four layers. You make a homemade icing with cream cheese and top it with shaved chocolate. The recipe says to serve it at room temperature, but we usually refrigerate ours for a little while because we like it chilled. I personally top my cake with chocolate syrup and whipped cream.