"Leftover" for National Chocolate Cake Day

Well, it's many years since I've heard any PA Dutch, but I can tell you the 4 or 5 phrases I learned all had to do with eating, LOL. "What's for lunch?" "Tastes good!" and a few dish names. I think, sadly, the days when eating was really meaningful in family memories is past, even though we might be eating more healthy now. Likewise the ethnic dishes of so many European countries, now replaced with a few microwaveable simulations. :P And foods that were common but no longer are, like rabbits. I'm told there was a card game named "hasenpfeffer" (spelling??), which would translate as peppered rabbit (stew?) I think, but even Google can't provide the details of the game - surely it must've been played fast! I'm just old enough to remember when it was impossible to get any kind of pie in a store. Not many make them at home now... And I've been told my G'ma made donuts every morning! But I never knew her to make any. OK, time for dinner! Thanks for the chat, always interesting, often amusing. :)

Yes Rebecca, I do use raisins in my apple pie. We don't eat apple pie for dinner though;-)))
I love your story!
My G'ma's brother was married to a German woman and lived in Germany (in Recklinghausen). We used to visite there in school Summer holidays. They were 'self sufficient' and grew their own vegetables and patatoes. They had 'regular' and longhair rabbits, chickens (plenty eggs) and pigeons. The longhair rabbits were shaved and the wool was sold. The other rabbits and their chickens and pigeons were there to be eaten. At home we had meat only once or twice a week and here we got it every day! I was a 'lousy' eater when I was a child and I just couldn't eat the meat of a rabbit I had been stroking 2 days earlier! My mum kept saying I had to finish my plate though but (luckely) my Aunt said it's ok to leave it...."Die Hühner müssen auch essen"!! (the chickens also need to eat) After dinner my Aunt cleared the table and came back from the kitchen (always) with 2 different home made pies for desert....so actually I filled my stomach during our German Holiday visits with pie!!! I was skinny back then, but it's good we only stayed for a week!☺
I looked on Google for Schnitz und Knepp and it says ham and apples. Maybe with patatoes it's a variety?? I wasn't familiar with it at all!!

Impie, do you put raisins in your apple pie? I think I've told before, my Pennsylvania Dutch (German) grandmother used to serve hot apple pie for dinner - and nothing else! Each person had a large bowl and after cutting up their pie into bite-sized pieces, it was doused with milk! Mom, my sister & I just looked on in disbelief, LOL, and I kept thinking, oh, if it was only chocolate pie (as I never cared for apple much). Finally Mom told G'ma she & we needed some protein, so she started serving cold cuts, cheese, and hard boiled eggs with it, which was still a treat especially because there were no vegetables, yeah!! :)) As I understand it, even in my father's day meat was only served once or twice a week, and since pioneer times 200 years earlier, apples & potatoes were daily staples. In fact I think fried apples & potatoes (with onions) is called schnitz und kneppe??

Thanks niccolino - actually I don't think my hand was steady - the top design was pressed on by a mold (shh!), which I just followed.

What a beautiful cake - I love the icing design. You must have a very steady hand to do the piping! It looks great on that beautiful glass plate too.

I've never baked chocolate cakes, but I do make a mean 'appeltaart' (apple pie)....;-))

I promote chocolate cake throughout the year. :) Luckily it freezes wel.l (tip: I make a 1-layer cake, then frost. Cut pieces, then slice each one horizontally so that it's half the height. Place the unfrosted bottom half of the piece on the top, so that the frosting is in the middle - no sticking on freezer wrap.)

What a shame Rebecca....maybe you should make a new one and then cut out a piece for a photo. I think Jigidi is a very good excuse to make a National Chocolate Cake Day cake! :))