What's a Celebration Without Cake?

Any good celebration calls for cake — birthdays, anniverries, holidays, winning an award, retiring — whatever the occasion, it’s always better with the confection. Since an anniversary issue and we’ll soon be heading into the holiday season, we decided to share a few cakes that have traditionally shown up at our more festive family functions.

While there is tradition in serving these cakes, they don't necessarily use traditional methods. The whisky cake was made with boxed cake and pudding mixes, and the Angel's Delight didn’t provide an angel food cake recipe, so a boxed cake mix was often used for it, too. I’ve recreated these recipes to make the components from scratch. If you prefer to use a boxed cake mix, you certainly can (we do in a pinch).