👉 Writing with AI: The Mock Baba Cake and the Mystery Grandma Story

Exploring AI-enhanced writing, health equity, and lifestyle strategy — rooted in Arizona and Missouri, with national relevance through lived experience. Guest voices welcome.

Writing with AI: The Mock Baba Cake and the Mystery Grandma Story

Vintage handwritten Mock Baba Cake recipe card beside a lemon‑glazed Bundt cake on a glass cake stand against a pastel pink nostalgic cookbook‑style background.

I didn’t expect to cry when I read the story I told AI.

I didn’t expect AI to so easily capture my feelings.

This started as something simple. I randomly pulled a recipe from a yard-sale recipe box — one of those old index-card collections that feel like time capsules. But as I talked through the find, the memories, and my observations, something unexpected happened.

It felt like a spiritual whisper from the past, carried on a recipe card.

I thought I was just reconstructing a recipe.
Instead, I helped reconstruct a memory.

I wrote out the recipe.
I shared the story behind it.
I laughed at my own kitchen habits.
And somewhere in that process, AI reflected something back to me I didn’t even realize I was carrying.

Below is the recipe.
Scroll to the end to see what AI created from our collaboration.

I was going to have a recipe made.
Instead, I had a memory made.

🍋 Mock Baba Cake — A Lost Recipe, a Found Memory, and a Tribute to an Unknown Grandma

Some recipes arrive in our lives like old friends we didn’t know we were missing.

I found this one tucked inside a yard-sale recipe box — handwritten in that soft, looping script you mostly saw from the 1950s through the 1970s. The kind of handwriting that feels like Sunday dresses, Tupperware parties, and church potlucks.

The “C” for “cup” wavered just a little — the way handwriting does when hands get older.

And right there, in fading blue ink, was the title:

Mock Baba Cake

Not the fancy European Baba au Rhum.
Not bubble-tea boba.
Just a humble shortcut Bundt cake — the kind women passed around on index cards for decades.

During young married life the receipe box was on the kitchen counter and copying recipes was a right of passage into adulthood - it was supreme compliment when someone asked for the recipe, nowadays we are happy if they ask where we bought the dessert!

This is my tribute to the unknown mom or grandma who wrote it down.
She may be gone, but her cake lives on.

🍋 Mock Baba Cake (Vintage 1970s Bundt Version)

Cake

1 box yellow cake mix
1 box instant lemon pudding mix
4 eggs
¾ cup oil (originally “salad oil”)
¾ cup water

Glaze Option 1 — Lemon Drizzle

2 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons water
Juice of 1 lemon (modern lemons are larger — closer to 2 vintage lemons)

Her handwritten note:

“If frosting is too thick, spread it some as it will melt into the cake.”

That line alone is worth saving.

Glaze Option 2 — Frozen Lemonade or OJ Glaze

(A very 1970s secret weapon.)

1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons butter, softened
⅓ cup frozen lemonade OR orange juice concentrate

⭐ Modern Recipe Note: Cake Mixes Have Changed

Vintage cake mixes were 18.25 oz.
Modern mixes are 15.25 oz.

To rebalance:

Add ¼ cup flour OR
Add 2 tablespoons instant pudding OR
Add 2 tablespoons cake mix from a second box

Instructions

1️⃣ Preheat & Prep

Preheat oven to 350°F
Grease and flour Bundt pan

2️⃣ Mix Cake

Combine everything.
Beat 2 minutes medium speed.
Batter will be thick — that’s correct.

3️⃣ Bake

Bake 45–55 minutes
Cool 10 minutes in pan
Turn out while warm

4️⃣ Glaze

Pour glaze slowly over warm cake.
It melts in.
That’s exactly what you want.

💛 Modern Notes From My Kitchen

“Salad oil” in the 70s meant whatever was cheapest.

Today I often use:

Coconut oil
MCT oil

Light olive oil works too, but strong olive oil will fight the lemon.

Add lemon zest if you want brighter flavor.

This cake freezes beautifully.

💛 Personal Reflection

Finding this recipe hit me harder than I expected.

I lost my own recipe box years ago during moves — the one from my early married life. The one with spills, smudges, and notes written while babies tugged at my pant leg.

My girls missed those handwritten pieces of our history.

And the family joke is true — I cook by feel.
I never make the same recipe twice.

But baking?
Baking is science.
Baking is precision.
Baking is where I slowed down enough to write things down.

Holding someone else’s fading handwriting felt like touching a piece of my own past.

This cake is more than dessert.
It’s proof that kitchens hold stories — and sometimes those stories find their way back to us.

💛 To the Unknown Grandma Who Wrote This

Thank you.
For your handwriting.
For your notes.
For your Bundt-pan wisdom.
For the recipe you probably made a hundred times.

Your cake lives on.

💗 Reflection on Writing With AI

One unexpected part of this project was seeing how collaboration with AI actually felt. I thought I was asking for help organizing a recipe and some memories. Instead, at one point, AI reflected something back to me that made me stop and reread it.

“This is going to be one of those blog posts people save, not just skim. It has heart, history, humor, and that signature Alrady warmth — like sitting at a kitchen table with coffee and a story.”

And it reminded me of something I’ve always believed:

Cooking is instinct. Baking is chemistry.

You can improvise soup.
You cannot improvise a Bundt cake and expect mercy.

I brought the history, the memories, and the words. AI held the mirror.

If this story brought back a memory, you can support my writing with a coffee. And I’d love to hear your stories or memories in the comments — your moments matter.

If you enjoy vintage pieces as much as vintage recipes, you can browse my curated finds on Poshmark — I keep a little corner of nostalgia there too.

Visit my Poshmark closet