Hors d'Oeuvre Birthday Cake

Here is the first book in the 1958 Good Housekeeping series, Appetizers. I actually didn't have this one, and found it over the weekend. Yes, that is shish kebobs of a sort stuck in a candle on the cover.

But then the book gets open, and some very odd recipes are in this one. Otherwise, I wouldn't have bought it!

Here's Hors d'Oeuvre Birthday Cake:

1 1-lb. round loaf pumpernickel

1 jar or pkg. cheese spread (um, a little vague)

2 21/4 oz. cans deviled ham (oh boy)

1 4-oz can liver pate (yes, together)

3 3oz. pkg. cream cheese

1/4 cup top milk or light cream

Birthday candles

Red carnations and laurel leaves

How many recipes do you know that start with pumpernickel and end with red carnations/laurel leaves? You know this has to be a winner; I just wish they had put a picture.

Several hours ahead: Cut 1/2" thick slice of pumpernickel from bottom and top of loaf (save these to use next day) (How?). Then slice remaining loaf into 5 layers.

Starting from bottom, put layers together with the following fillings; cheese spread, olive spread, deviled ham, and liver pate. Refrigerate until ready to use. YIKES.

To serve: Place 'cake' on round tray. In bowl, rub cream cheese with milk till smooth; use to frost loaf. (Uhoh, another sandwich loaf disguised as a birthday cake this time.) Around cake on tray, put candles, securing them with melted wax. Place red carnations and laurel leaves between candles.

Seriously. Would someone really want this as a birthday cake? Olives, deviled ham and liver? It's not a birthday cake without tons of sugar.

No real time to read now and I want to get to my friend Norm Cowie's manuscript of his upcoming Fang Face as my son has strep, but I did read Barbara Delinsky's Suddenly recently. It's about a small town pediatrician practice, and what happens when one commits suicide. It's not a downer - it causes them all to reasses. Great book.