{"id":85588,"date":"2015-05-08T16:46:24","date_gmt":"2015-05-08T20:46:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=85588"},"modified":"2015-05-08T16:46:24","modified_gmt":"2015-05-08T20:46:24","slug":"culinary-complicity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/08\/culinary-complicity\/","title":{"rendered":"Culinary Complicity"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

The beloved family wine cake<\/p><\/div>\n

Back in 2011, I wrote a paean to my family\u2019s one and only signature recipe: the wine cake<\/a>. I hadn\u2019t read it\u00a0since it went up, and recently ran across the post while searching for a recipe for the cake; I was craving one for my own birthday.<\/p>\n

At the time, I described wine cake as the sole edible thing to emerge from my grandparents\u2019 kitchen, and explained that it was a constant at all family birthdays. It wasn\u2019t too galling, so far as rereads go. But I worry that I failed, in 2011, to express the most important thing: wine cake is amazing<\/em>. <\/p>\n

Is it made of cake mix, instant pudding, oil, and the cheapest Bristol Cream sherry money can buy? You bet. But it\u2019s not good in spite of this; rather, these same chemical components are what make it delicious. Although I admit to a fierce sentimental attachment to the flavor of wine cake, I will happily go on the record in saying that it is objectively delicious. The flavor is rich, buttery, refined but accessible. The cake, rich with oil and pudding and soaked in glaze, is almost unbelievably moist. To add to its charms, it\u2019s easy to make, hard to screw up, and travels and slices like a dream. Oh, and it\u2019s cheap\u2014especially if, in family tradition, you use only past-sale ingredients from a discount commissary.<\/p>\n

At the time of publishing, one commenter kindly pointed me towards John Thorne\u2019s essay \u201cTruly Awful Recipes<\/a>,\u201d in which that great food writer includes a receipt for a mix-based chocolate cake. Of such concoctions, Thorne writes,<\/p>\n

\n

They increase in appeal when exchanged hand to hand with a glowing personal recommendation. It was an officemate who first got me to try the cake recipe, creating in the tension between the intensity of her praise and the humdrum ingredients a sense of complicity, like getting a spell from a witch.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It is with great pride and pleasure, then, that I pass along, for the second time, this particular bit of alchemy. As Thorne says, \u201cany unbiased observer would have to admit the direct line between these dishes and the living pulse of American cooking,\u201d but its appeal is not theoretical. It is not Proustian. It is obvious.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

Wine Cake<\/strong><\/p>\n

1 box yellow cake mix (we always used generic; as a fancy-schmancy adult I have switched to Duncan Hines)<\/p>\n

1 lg. instant vanilla pudding (if you can\u2019t find a big package, you can\u00a0do a small plus 2 T or so)<\/p>\n

1 c. oil (my grandpa liked to strain and reuse oil for years but this is not strictly necessary.)<\/p>\n

3\/4 c. sherry wine (If you paid more than a dollar\u00a0for this, my grandfather would have labeled you a \u201cwine snob.\u201d)<\/p>\n

5 eggs (past sell-by date is customary, but not necessary.)<\/p>\n

Mix all ingredients well. Pour into a greased and floured bundt pan.<\/p>\n

Bake at 350 degrees for fifty\u00a0minutes. Cool for five minutes.<\/p>\n

Glaze<\/em>
About 1 c. powdered sugar
Enough sherry to make a thinnish glaze\u2014start with about 4 Tblsp.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Here is the important part! Without turning out of the pan, poke the\u00a0bottom of the cake all over with a skewer, or a chopstick, and pour some\u00a0glaze over so it soaks into the cake.<\/p>\n

Let this stand for about ten minutes, so it hardens a bit and won\u2019t drip out.<\/p>\n

Turn the cake out, poke the cake all over, and pour the rest of the glaze\u00a0over it. Sometimes I make more glaze to really soak it.<\/p>\n

Squat pink candle and flowers are optional, but recommended.<\/p>\n

Sadie Stein is contributing editor of\u00a0<\/em>The Paris Review, and the\u00a0<\/em>Daily\u2019s correspondent.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back in 2011, I wrote a paean to my family\u2019s one and only signature recipe: the wine cake. I hadn\u2019t read it\u00a0since it went up, and recently ran across the post while searching for a recipe for the cake; I was craving one for my own birthday. At the time, I described wine cake as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13115],"tags":[1671,17192,14367,7657,14679,4807],"class_list":["post-85588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-daily-correspondent","tag-cooking","tag-dessert","tag-families","tag-recipes","tag-traditions","tag-wine-cake"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSadie Stein\u2019s Wine Cake Recipe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Passing on a (gloriously cheap) family tradition.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/08\/culinary-complicity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Culinary Complicity by Sadie Stein\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"May 8, 2015 \u2013 Back in 2011, I wrote a paean to my family\u2019s one and only signature recipe: the wine cake. I hadn\u2019t read it\u00a0since it went up, and recently ran across the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/08\/culinary-complicity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-05-08T20:46:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/winecake.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"574\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"431\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sadie Stein\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sadie Stein\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/08\/culinary-complicity\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/08\/culinary-complicity\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sadie Stein\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9\"},\"headline\":\"Culinary Complicity\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-05-08T20:46:24+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/08\/culinary-complicity\/\"},\"wordCount\":625,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/08\/culinary-complicity\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/winecake.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"cooking\",\"dessert\",\"families\",\"recipes\",\"traditions\",\"wine cake\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Our Daily Correspondent\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/08\/culinary-complicity\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/08\/culinary-complicity\/\",\"name\":\"Sadie Stein\u2019s Wine Cake Recipe\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/08\/culinary-complicity\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/08\/culinary-complicity\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/winecake.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-05-08T20:46:24+00:00\",\"description\":\"Passing on a (gloriously cheap) family tradition.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/08\/culinary-complicity\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/08\/culinary-complicity\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/08\/culinary-complicity\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/winecake.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/winecake.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/08\/culinary-complicity\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Culinary Complicity\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9\",\"name\":\"Sadie Stein\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Sadie Stein\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/sstein\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Sadie Stein\u2019s Wine Cake Recipe","description":"Passing on a (gloriously cheap) family tradition.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/08\/culinary-complicity\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Culinary Complicity by Sadie Stein","og_description":"May 8, 2015 \u2013 Back in 2011, I wrote a paean to my family\u2019s one and only signature recipe: the wine cake. I hadn\u2019t read it\u00a0since it went up, and recently ran across the","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/08\/culinary-complicity\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2015-05-08T20:46:24+00:00","og_image":[{"width":574,"height":431,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/winecake.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Sadie Stein","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Sadie Stein","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/08\/culinary-complicity\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/08\/culinary-complicity\/"},"author":{"name":"Sadie Stein","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9"},"headline":"Culinary Complicity","datePublished":"2015-05-08T20:46:24+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/08\/culinary-complicity\/"},"wordCount":625,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/08\/culinary-complicity\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/winecake.jpg","keywords":["cooking","dessert","families","recipes","traditions","wine cake"],"articleSection":["Our Daily Correspondent"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/08\/culinary-complicity\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/08\/culinary-complicity\/","name":"Sadie Stein\u2019s Wine Cake Recipe","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/08\/culinary-complicity\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/08\/culinary-complicity\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/winecake.jpg","datePublished":"2015-05-08T20:46:24+00:00","description":"Passing on a (gloriously cheap) family tradition.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/08\/culinary-complicity\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/08\/culinary-complicity\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/08\/culinary-complicity\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/winecake.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/winecake.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/08\/culinary-complicity\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Culinary Complicity"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9","name":"Sadie Stein","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Sadie Stein"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/sstein\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/178"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85588"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85594,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85588\/revisions\/85594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}