Another Ruth Ellen Church Reference

The food writer who gives the most credit to newspaper food editors is Laura Shapiro. Examples are included in her above book, Something From the Oven. She includes several references to Ruth Ellen Church, a food editor at the Chicago Tribune.

One of those references is about the popularity of making cakes – a popular topic for food writers and food historians for what a cake represents. In 1948, Church (writing under the pen name “Mary Meade”) introduced the recipe feature “Cake of the Week.” Church was quoted: “My staff and I have known for a long time that women love cakes, but we were somewhat surprised at the popularity of this weekly cake presentation.”

As proof, Church noted that 200 women called the newspaper on the day that the recipe for Orange Lemon Sunshine Cake appeared too blurry to read. (pg 70-71)

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