Old family recipes are little treasures, comfortable rest stops on the roadmap of a family’s history.   Since I’ve been writing this blog I’ve been receiving family recipes from friends and followers of the site and it’s been amazingly consistent: every recipe I’ve tried has been better than good.  It seems there is a universality about family recipes, no matter the background or means or region, everybody’s got one, and there’s a reason they keep handing it down from generation to generation.

Today’s recipe comes from Maine.  My friend Rebecca Trafton is a noted landscape designer whose family has lived in Maine for many generations.  She gave me her grandmother’s blueberry cake recipe last week, and it was so good that I had to add an extra post and share this with you.  And I wanted to do it while we’re still at the height of blueberry season.   Rebecca recommends using Maine blueberries if you can find them, because they are tiny and much sweeter than other blueberries.

Rebecca’s father was the Speaker of the House of the Maine state legislature, and her sister in law, Barbara Trafton, served in the the house and the state senate there.  Barbara used to bake this cake to take with her to political events.  Rebecca says people seem to like a politician who also has time to make a homemade cake, especially from an old family recipe.  This is also her daughter Virginia’s traditional birthday cake for her mid-August birthday, so the recipe travels on down the family line.

Serves: 6

Prep Time: one hour and fifteen minutes, plus time for cake to cool before frosting