Though the bakery closed decades ago, the Lemon Crunch Cake has stayed a local favorite for years to come. So I borrowed a thing or two from Amanda, changed some other things around, and ta-da! Problem solved.īuilt in 1902 in downtown Honolulu, the Alexander Young Hotel is where head baker, Norman Hideo Asao, first created the Lemon Crunch Cake. But I wanted a cake recipe with real ingredients. The biggest problem with Lemon Crunch Cake is that it’s a cake from another time, meaning every recipe called for a yellow boxed cake mix. My head swam with measurements and ingredients. I looked at lemon cake recipes, boxed cake recipes, yellow cake recipes, white cake recipes. It’s a cake that is equal parts simple and challenging, one that has left many curious about the recipe that has somehow managed to stay a secret for so long. Layers of soft lemon sponge cake filled with vanilla pastry cream and lemon curd, frosted with whipped cream and crumbled bits of toffee. If you’re an island local, then you’ll probably be familiar with this one. But there are always new things in Hawaii I grew up with that I had no idea existed for decades long before I was born. Today I’ll notice things around the house that I now realize come from another era perfumes sitting on a gilded mirrored tray, a blue lounge chair, a stack of hat boxes. As a child, I always loved looking at old photographs, snooping around in family photo albums and reading my grandma’s saved newspaper clippings. Everything about it and many of things inside it felt like they came from a completely different time. A lot of it probably has to do with growing up in the same home my Grandpa built in the 1950s. But I’ve always had a fascination with old things, what was different about the world years ago. I was never the most excited student in history class.

Louisiana crunch cake origin