Chocolate Cake

SMITHSBURG - The annual Chocolate Festival is Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Trinity Lutheran Church, 15 Main St. The sweet event will include a silent auction, lunch, chocolate fountain, chocolate chip cookie contest, chocolate cake, cakewalks, Valentine crafts for children, a Willy Wonka movie, and some pie throwing at the pastor. Proceeds will go to youth summer activities.

The winning bidder for Kristi Schetrompf's almond chiffon cake, the grand champion of open-class baked goods at this year's Washington County Ag Expo & Fair, got a sweet deal. Schetrompf, who makes wedding and special event cakes for a living, said she would have charged $100 if she'd sold the birdhouse-themed cake privately, but because it was sold at the fair's cake auction Donielle Inskeep of Hancock got it for $30. "They got a deal," said Schetrompf, who works for Cindy's Sweets and Supplies Inc. in Williamsport.

We in West Virginia pride ourselves on being neighborly. That's why my friend Carol and I decided to take a cake to Martha Stewart, a recent arrival to our state. Martha is serving a five-month sentence at the federal prison camp in Alderson for lying about a stock deal. I don't condone Martha's actions, but at least she is doing time while her male counterparts in financial skulduggery are still free. Charles Town is 231 miles from Alderson. Carol and I left early on a frigid Saturday because visitors are allowed at Alderson on the weekend.

Linda Tantillo of Hagerstown is a veteran of Herald-Mail baking contests. Her Apple Cranberry Holiday cookies were featured in our Home Cooking recipe series in December 2010. She is also active in the Hagerstown Lioness Club. Tantillo said her cooking career started when she was a child. "I started cooking at 12," she said. "My mother was sick. She had asthm, which always turned to pneumonia. I could cook a whole meal at age 12. " She likes to bake with yeast - coffee cakes, breads, cakes.

Trinity Lutheran Church, 15 Main St., Smithsburg, the annual Chocolate Festival is today from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The festival includes a silent auction, lunch menu, chocolate fountain, chocolate chip cookie contest, chocolate cake, cakewalks, Valentine crafts for children, a Willie Wonka movie and some pie throwing at the pastor. Proceeds go toward youth summer activities. World Harvest Outreach, 1090 Wayne Ave., Chambersburg, Pa., the 2009 Kingdom Warriors Men's Conference continues today and Sunday with speaker Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin.

Laura Kefauver turns to grandma's one-pan chocolate cake recipe when she needs cake in a hurry. To make the pan cake, you dump all the ingredients in the cake pan and mix. Bake it for 30 to 40 minutes. Top with your favorite frosting - Kefauver likes butter cream - and serve. No fuss, no messy clean-up afterward. "It's an easy recipe for kids to make," said Kefauver, who teaches preschool at Hagerstown Children's School. "It teaches them basic math skills. " However, she doesn't recommend this for her preschoolers.

WAYNESBORO, Pa. -- It's not unlike a scene from "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. " Tables piled high with chocolate truffles, a chocolate fountain, and chocolate cake greet guests to Chocolate Extravaganza each year in Waynesboro. This year's event will be Saturday, April 4, from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Elks Club on West Main Street. "We're excited about the band and live music. We're excited about the roomier venue," said Bruce Dreisbach, manager of nonprofit organization Main Street Waynesboro Inc. About 200 people attended last year's Chocolate Extravaganza in the Susquehanna Bank lobby.

Remington, the Washington County Free Library's pet gold fish, will be celebrating his sixth birthday at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, April 26, at the North Pointe location. The library will host a special birthday storytime in honor of our beloved mascot. And Remington has asked that guests attending his birthday party bring an item to donate to the animals at the Humane Society of Washington County.  Items that are greatly needed at the shelter include Purina Cat Chow, Purina Kitten Chow, non-clumping cat litter, Kongs of all sizes, towels, wash cloths, liquid laundry detergent, bleach and dish detergent.

gregs@herald-mail.com HAGERSTOWN - Dieter Blosel, the executive chef at Schmankerl Stube, stood outside the University System of Maryland at Hagerstown building on West Washington Street Friday night. There was a light drizzle, and it was dark outside, but Blosel's spirits were up. He was holding a cake he had made, and it had just fetched $500 in an auction to benefit a scholarship fund for the campus. "Finally, someone appreciates my work!" Blosel, 35, said smiling.

In a recent class, I received several blank stares as I tried to explain how book titles can be underlined or italicized. There was a time when italic type was only available to publishers and calligraphers. Italic type looks like this. It tilts to the right. Typewriters did not have format or font functions to change type to bold or italic, so students were taught to underline titles and the names of long works. The title would be typed and the typewriter carriage would be moved back to the beginning of the first word so that an underline could be tapped out one character at a time.

Linda Tantillo of Hagerstown is a veteran of Herald-Mail baking contests. Her Apple Cranberry Holiday cookies were featured in our Home Cooking recipe series in December 2010. She is also active in the Hagerstown Lioness Club. Tantillo said her cooking career started when she was a child. "I started cooking at 12," she said. "My mother was sick. She had asthm, which always turned to pneumonia. I could cook a whole meal at age 12. " She likes to bake with yeast - coffee cakes, breads, cakes.

Linda Kline remembers how much work goes into preparing a Thanksgiving meal. “I loved doing it for the kids,” said Kline, 61. With her children grown, Kline doesn't cook the big holiday meal anymore. So she went to the Williamsport Moose Lodge's third annual community Thanksgiving meal on Sunday. “It's my birthday and I'm by myself, and I want to be around people and enjoy a nice dinner,” said Kline, who will celebrate her birthday with her family on another day and has been invited to two family Thanksgiving dinners.

Remington, the Washington County Free Library's pet gold fish, will be celebrating his sixth birthday at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, April 26, at the North Pointe location. The library will host a special birthday storytime in honor of our beloved mascot. And Remington has asked that guests attending his birthday party bring an item to donate to the animals at the Humane Society of Washington County.  Items that are greatly needed at the shelter include Purina Cat Chow, Purina Kitten Chow, non-clumping cat litter, Kongs of all sizes, towels, wash cloths, liquid laundry detergent, bleach and dish detergent.

June's recipes are provided by members of After Hours For Women, a gathering of women pursuing individual paths leading toward "prosperity, a state of flourishing, thriving, success and good fortune. " Meetings are hosted by Shelby Penn at the downtown office of Edward Jones, 333 W. Franklin St., Suite 101, Hagerstown. For more information, contact Penn at 301-733-0625. This was a big favorite among the chocoholic members of After Hours For Women. But watch the calorie count.

QUINCY, Pa. -- Debbie Althouse and Elizabeth "Betsy" Snively are self-described tomboys. As children, they both enjoyed climbing to the top of chicken coops. Once up there, Debbie would join her brothers in jumping to the ground, while Betsy sat and used the surroundings as inspiration for her art. The women grew up 125 miles apart but shared much in common for their childhood pursuits. Now, at ages 105 and 103, they live in Quincy Village, a retirement community north of Waynesboro, Pa. Debbie Althouse Debbie, who was born Nov. 11, 1904, has lived the majority of her life in Berks County, Pa. She moved to Quincy Village in 1996, four years after the death of her husband, Harry.

Carolyn Etzler's Wacky Cake received its first blue ribbon in the late 1960s when Etzler, then a teenager, entered it in the Frederick County, Md., 4-H cake contest. The Wacky Cake has won first place almost a dozen times since then, including taking the prizes for open-class cake champ and open-class grand champion of baked goods at the Washington County Ag Expo & Fair last Friday. Kaitlyn Corbett's orange nut butter cake won grand champion of cakes for 4-H members. This was the third time Kaitlyn's cake won at Ag Expo.

WAYNESBORO, Pa. -- It's not unlike a scene from "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. " Tables piled high with chocolate truffles, a chocolate fountain, and chocolate cake greet guests to Chocolate Extravaganza each year in Waynesboro. This year's event will be Saturday, April 4, from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Elks Club on West Main Street. "We're excited about the band and live music. We're excited about the roomier venue," said Bruce Dreisbach, manager of nonprofit organization Main Street Waynesboro Inc. About 200 people attended last year's Chocolate Extravaganza in the Susquehanna Bank lobby.

Trinity Lutheran Church, 15 Main St., Smithsburg, the annual Chocolate Festival is today from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The festival includes a silent auction, lunch menu, chocolate fountain, chocolate chip cookie contest, chocolate cake, cakewalks, Valentine crafts for children, a Willie Wonka movie and some pie throwing at the pastor. Proceeds go toward youth summer activities. World Harvest Outreach, 1090 Wayne Ave., Chambersburg, Pa., the 2009 Kingdom Warriors Men's Conference continues today and Sunday with speaker Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin.

SMITHSBURG - The annual Chocolate Festival is Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Trinity Lutheran Church, 15 Main St. The sweet event will include a silent auction, lunch, chocolate fountain, chocolate chip cookie contest, chocolate cake, cakewalks, Valentine crafts for children, a Willy Wonka movie, and some pie throwing at the pastor. Proceeds will go to youth summer activities.