I rounded the corner at the grocery store headed toward the dairy case. A man was standing there holding onto a quart of whipping cream with both hands as if it was going to escape from him at any second. 

He said, “Could I ask you something?”

 “Sure.” 

“My mother makes this dessert. It has a whole lot of whipped cream in it. She takes an  an angel food cake, tears it into pieces and puts it into a bowl. Then she pours chocolate over all of it. And then, I think she covers everything with whipped cream, and puts tin foil on it so that it is tight and puts a plate on the top to hold it down. It is the best dessert I ever had.”

He holds the carton up and asks, “Do you think this is what she uses?”

“I bet so,” I replied.  

“Is this the kind that you stir up with the electric hand mixer?”

“Yeah, it is. Now it won’t be sweet unless you add sugar. Is your mother’s whipped cream sweet?”

“Sweet. It is real sweet, the best dessert I ever had. How much sugar do you think she adds — a couple of spoonfuls?”

“Yeah probably, at least a couple of spoonfuls. Whip the cream up before you add sugar. Taste it as you go to see if it is sweet enough.  You’re going to have a lot.  How many people are eating dessert?”

“Just her and me,” he says. “It’s the best dessert I ever had. She just can’t quite remember how to make it anymore.”

 “Thanks,” he said as he turned to leave, “I’m going to give it a whirl.”

Later after I put my groceries away, I drifted toward the computer and found myself looking for an angel food ice box cake recipe. I found a lot of them. I guess it was a real show stopper dessert about 60 years ago when a hostess would finish hooverizing and head toward the kitchen. Tuck this recipe somewhere in case you run into someone who has forgotten how to make it.