To the editor:

I own Annabella’s Bakery and Café in Richmond with my mother, Barbara Bowley.

We received in the mail recently a small written note attached to a recipe. The note read, “Saw The Times Record article about the bake shop and café. Thought you might like to try the ‘Earth Quake Cake’ sometime. We enjoyed it.”

This letter was not signed nor was there a return address on the envelope. Well, we thought this was very nice of whoever had sent this to us.

On June 1, our one-year anniversary, we made the Earth Quake Cake — and it is amazing! Our customers have enjoyed it as well.

We would also like to thank the person for sending us this great recipe and we will be making it again.

The story that came with the ‘Earth Quake Cake’ recipe is as follows:

“This delicious decadent cake takes its name from the fault lines that appear across its top during baking. It gained fame after a 1990 quake in Missouri, when local papers published the recipe, and it’s been shaking up bake sales ever since.”

The recipe is:

1 package devil’s food cake mix

1 1/4 cups water

3 large eggs

1/2 cup plus 6 tbsp. butter, softened

2 (3 oz) packages cream cheese, softened

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 1/4 cups powdered sugar plus more for dusting on cake

3/4 cup sweetened flaked coconut

3/4 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 13x9x2inch baking pan

1. Combine cake mix, water, eggs and 1/2 cup butter in a large mixing bowl. Beat at low speed with an electric mixer just until dry ingredients are moistened.

Increase speed to medium; beat 2 minutes or until batter is smooth, stopping to scrape down sides of bowl as needed. Pour batter into prepared pan.

2. Beat cream cheese and 6 tbsp. butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy; add vanilla, beating just until blended. Stir in coconut and pecans. Dollop mixture by tablespoonfuls over cake batter to within 1 inch from sides of pan; do not stir.

3. Bake 40 to 45 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely in pan on a wire rack. Cut into squares; dust cake with powdered sugar before serving.

If you would publish this letter and recipe in The Times Record that would be wonderful and appreciated. We don’t know how else to thank the person who sent this to us, and we loved it so much we wanted to share it.

Stacy LaBombard
Richmond