Along with toilet paper and Doritos, yeast has disappeared from store shelves. Bread itself still appears relatively abundant, but Americans seem to be returning to the grit of their forebears, planting victory gardens, raising chickens, and making things from scratch.
My maternal grandmother left us an abundance of recipes from tougher days that have remained family favorites. One was her chocolate “Depression cake,” which in our family is the traditional birthday cake, named for the hard times that inspired it, the strange recipe, and the method of mixing the batter.
