Did you ever eat grasshopper cake? (No relative of Grasshopper Pie). If you are a newcomer to Greeley, you will shrug your shoulders, turn up your nose, and shudder, but if you belong to a pioneer family there you will smile and say, "Yes, my grandmother made it!"Grasshoppers compounded the difficulties that the intrepid band of Greeley colonists had to overcome. Between 1872 and 1874, grasshoppers stripped the countryside of everything they could devour. The pests left nothing that was worth taking. Feed for chickens was scarce, eggs were a prohibitive price, and cake became an unknown luxury.
Mrs. Ralph Hilton, a plucky capable woman, concocted a cake made without eggs and took it to a social. The eggless cake was christened "Grasshopper Cake" and the recipe was welcomed in all homes when the price of eggs went up.
Grasshopper cake is still made by Greeley pioneer families.
**** copied from Across Colorado Recipes and Recollections - The North Plains - page 268
Unfortunately this cookbook did NOT publish the recipe for Grasshopper Cake :(
Now you know where Grasshopper cake comes from - I knew you all were wondering about this ;)
4 comments:
I have not had this...but I love the interesting history!!!
I've never heard of grasshopper cake. As long as it doesn't have grasshoppers in it, I would probably love it. Those pioneers really had it tough. We really have a lot to be thankful for!
Not to far South from Greeley, my Grandparents were minors ( well my grandma was not). They eat frog legs, turtle soup, and dandelion greens. Wonder if that is in the cook book?
Glad grasshopper cake was so named because it was minus the eggs not plus some grasshoppers!
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