Geraldine Nina Brugh

  General Notes:

Friday, February 22, 2008 -The Old Foodie:
Cake Day No.5 Sauerkraut Cake sounds like some sort of sick joke, but it is very real indeed. It came about in the 1960s as a result of the USDA Surplus Committee's request (specifically to school lunchroom managers) for ideas to use up a large quantity of stockpiled canned sauerkraut. You have to admit - to think of cake in the same context as fermented cabbage would take a particular type of mind. The honor apparently went to Mrs. Geraldine Timms, supervisor of the lunchroom at Waller High School in Chicago. There is not much variation between the versions in the newspapers of the time. Here is one of them:
Sauerkraut Cake.
2 cups sifted flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup water
2/3 cup rinsed, drained, and chopped sauerkraut.
Grease and flour two 8 inch round cake pans.
On wax paper sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cocoa.
In a large mixing bowl cream butter and sugar. Thoroughly beat in eggs, one at a time, and the vanilla. Stir in dry ingredients in 4 additions, alternately with water, until smooth each time; begin and end with dry ingredients. Stir in sauerkraut. Turn into prepared pans. Bake in a preheated 350 degree F (180 C) oven until cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. About 30 minutes. Place on wire rack to cool completely. Fill and frost with Mocha Whipped Cream. Store in refrigerator
I guess that recipe just goes to prove that everything is better with chocolate!
By the 1970s, a cake with beetroot sounded quite tame. There were many variations on this theme - many with chocolate, but this one brave enough to not include the brown wonder food, but amazingly brave enough to include cottage cheese.
Geraldine was employed by the Chicago Board of Education during the1950's and 1960's as lunchroom supervisor until her retirement in1976. After her retirement, she was employed by the Culver Academy and received her realtors license while in her 70's. She was in the real estate business until failing vision prevented her from continuing sales of real estate .She was a traveler. Vacation time might find her following the Alaskan Pipeline with her friends, riding a camel in Africa, or flying to Hawaii with her daughter and granddaughter, but her greatest interest was her
farm, the land and her crops.

Geraldine married Charles Timms on 21 Jul 1935. (Charles Timms was born on 22 Apr 1909 in Cook County, Illinois, died on 27 Nov 1973 in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois and was buried in I.O.O.F Cemetery, Richland Center, Section 4, Row 7, Fulton County, IN.)