Powdered Sugar

This past week was my Aunt Bonnie’s birthday. She passed away three years ago, in January.

I grew up in a different state than most of my extended family. My parents moved away when they got married so my Dad could start his career in the film business. But that physical separation never made much of an impact on the closeness we had as a family unit. Our family was of utmost importance growing up. That emphasis on family was instilled in both my brother and I and I know my father was drilled in the same by HIS father. I never knew my Dad’s dad…Ralph, Rocky…or as the older cousins called him, Popo. I feel like I know him well from the stories and pictures. And the genes run strong in the Hirsch family…my Dad looks just like him. Incidentally, my brother looks just like my Dad. There’s something comforting in that, the circularity of family and life. Even though by the time I was in 2nd grade the elders in the Hirsch family clan were gone, I didn’t miss out the way you’d think I would have. I see the relationship between my parents and my daughter, and I realize how lucky I was to have had the priority of family instilled in me so young.

My Dad grew up with two older sisters, Bonnie and Peggy. While my Aunt Peggy and my Dad grew up close together in age, getting into scrapes and sharing friends and inside jokes, my Aunt Bonnie was older than them. Not less close, of course, thanks to Popo’s family comes first tenet, but still apart. While my Aunt Peggy has been like a second mom to me in my life, I realize that my Aunt Bonnie filled a different role for me. She was a grandmother. What makes a grandma, anyway? My Aunt Bonnie was so many things. She was elegant. She always smelled so good, like expensive perfume. She had soft, cool hands and she was gentle and sweet. To me, she always seemed calm and being around her made ME feel calm. She was fiercely protective of her loved ones, and she made sure to carry on the Hirsch legacy of keeping one’s family close. She became an actual grandma to my cousins’ littles who called her Bey, but she had some great practice before they came. I don’t even know if I realized her exact role in my life before she passed, but I’ve certainly had my eyes opened in the last few years.

She and my Aunt Peggy used to make Christmas Cookies every single year. When I lived in Los Angeles, in the same city as my cousin Julie, we attempted to keep up the tradition. We were successful for a couple years, but then of course, I moved to Seattle and it’s not the same making Christmas cookies by yourself! The cookies were always given in tins, and there were always pecan snowballs, and almond brittle, and green and red spritz cookies with sprinkles. Every now and then there’d be some heavenly hash or a different kind of cookie, just to shake it up. I miss her, but I feel her around all the time. Sometimes I can even smell her, in perfume or powdered sugar. It’s amazing how it works, isn’t it? What a mysterious, magical world this is.  Growing up, the ‘fly-over’ states between my family and I didn’t seem so vast. But as I grow older, and we all have our own lives and families, the togetherness is few and far between. And this past year, those states between us are like an impassable desert. Since Aunt Bonnie passed, I have been more keenly aware of the passage of time.  So to bring back some of those memories, I thought I’d make a recipe direct from my Aunt Bonnie. It’s one of my very favorites. Not complicated, not even ‘scratch’ made. But it’s like my Aunt Bonnie, elegant with a gentle sweetness. I hope you give it a shot and enjoy it as much as I do.

poppyseed Cake

1 box of yellow cake mix

1 package instant vanilla pudding

1 cup sour cream

1 cup vegetable oil

4 eggs

1/3 cup poppyseeds

Mix all the ingredients together for 3 to 5 minutes. Pour into a prepared (greased and floured) bundt cake pan and bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 50 minutes to 1 hour. Cake is done when a toothpick or tester inserted in the center comes back clean. Let cool for about 45 min. in pan and then turn out onto plate. Dust with powdered sugar.

We like it just like that, but you can serve it with whipped cream, berries, ice cream, anything!

Bonnie Hirsch Hurwitz

February 21, 1940 – January 8, 2018