Family recipes may be beloved within the family, but they don’t usually rise to the level where people ask for them outside the family. And when they do, sometimes the family is protective of the recipe. They feel it’s so much a part of their identity, they can’t give it away.
I grew up with a chocolate cake recipe that my dad made for most special occasions. It was beloved within the family, and when other people tasted it, they wanted it to be beloved in their family too. It’s become a standard cake in a lot households connected to mine. But the recipe’s origins have been murky. So I went home and, while my dad baked another edition of the cake, I got the recipe – and pinned Dad down on where it came from.
