When friends typed their letters to King, the letters were longer and they touched on a few more topics. Paul F. Dunn touches on the drought conditions, fair wheat crop, grasshopper troubles; mentions Wah Mar will open the Shanghai Restaurant, and the war conditions in East Asia. His letter is photocopied.
Who was Paul Dunn? An engraver? Into local politics? And a friend of King.
GEO. A. HILL & CO.
Real Estate
Insurance – City Loans
501 Fourth National Bank Bldg.
Wichita, Kansas
June
19, 1936
Dear King:
We sure were glad to hear from you,
and to know you are keeping well. We
have had a week of very warm weather – Tempt. Over 100 each day & still
pretty warm of nights. Wheat is not so
very good, but there will be some in most places. We are needing rain again. So glad your mother keeps well also glad she
liked her little gift we sent. I know
she enjoys having you with her. We see
Henry every once in a while, he seems to get along pretty good. We are glad you are talking about coming back
in October, for we miss seeing you a lot.
The girls & Bob are all well, and we all speak of you often. Mrs. Hill & I keep busy at the
office. Write us again if you have the
time.
With kindest regards from all of us.
Your
friend Mr. & Mrs. Hill
(photos of Arthur - right - from 1966 West High yearbook, and
below from 2021)
This is an egg cake memory and a glimpse of some of the Chinese women in Wichita who may have made egg cakes.
Mom’s egg cake is one of many fond, food memories. Especially, in the late spring or early summer when strawberries were in season, egg cake with fresh strawberries was a favorite. Dad made whipped cream for a topping. For me, egg cake could be as simple as a slice of fresh cake or dressed up with fresh strawberries and whipped cream. Occasionally, mom would use whipped cream as frosting and top the cake with strawberry halves for a more elegant presentation. However, there were always bowls of strawberries and whipped cream for those who wanted more.
I think the egg cake was also the ‘go-to’ cake for birthdays. The birthday cake was probably just the cake
with candles. The cake may be too
delicate to handle cake icing like a buttercream frosting.
Mom’s egg cake recipe is in Attachment 1.
My friend commented that all the Mah’s (Ma and Mar) made the same
egg cake. She received a sponge cake recipe
from her mother-in-law and it is attached (Attachment 1). The two recipes are very similar. My friend’s comment would have been in the
context of the Chinese community in Wichita and relating to those with the
family name of 馬 (Mah, Ma, or Mar plus others with non-Mah
last names but were actually Mah…think ‘paper son’). My friend’s recipe identifies one of the
ingredients as Swan’s Down cake flour which was a common pantry item in our
house in Wichita.
I often wonder who was the first Chinese man from our village to
come to Wichita. In this case, who was
the Chinese lady who may have been the originator of the egg cake recipe used
by Chinese ladies in Wichita.
So, imagine my mom arriving in the US as a young immigrant…does
not know anyone…cannot speak the language.
Imagine similar young Chinese ladies settling into a new land…probably a
frightening and, hopefully, an exciting experience at the same time. See Attachment 2.
In the days when I was a kid, the Wichita Chinese community was
very tight and all or most came from the same village or neighboring
villages. The young ladies formed strong
bonds as they were challenged to live in a ‘new world’ and learned from those
ladies who came before them. Did these
young ladies make the same egg cake? Did
these young ladies learn baking skills from a single “old Chinese lady” in the
Wichita Chinese community? We’ll never
know; but a number of my childhood friends have special memories of homemade
egg cake while growing up.
Egg cake brings back many memories. I want to bow to my mom, her friends, and all
the Chinese women who came before us who bravely created warm homes and loving
families for all of us.
One final note, Attachment 3, is Benjamin’s second attempt at egg
cake. On his first attempt when he turned
the cake upside down to cool as I watched my mom do many times, his cake slid
out of the pan and collapsed into itself.
Key note: Don’t oil the inside of
the cake pan. Another tip: Use a cake pan with supports or tabs on the
rim (See Attachment 3). When you turn
the cake upside down to cool, these tabs on the rim become “feet” to support
the cake pan and keep the top of the cake off the counter.
Attachments 1:
Mom's Egg Cake Recipe
Sponge Cake Recipe from my friend’s mother-in-law who lived in
Wichita
These two photos were taken November 22, 1948 probably in the same
studio. The babies in the second photo
were born in 1948 while I was born in 1949.
(l – r) Lai Gar Mah (Arthur’s mom); Fooey Hing Chuey (Jimmy’s
mom); Mon Jee Mah (Marlene’s mom)
(l – r) Mrs.
Chin Wee (Yim) with Gene; Mrs. Wayne Wong (Kim) with Linda; Mrs. Ning Mar
(Ping) with Susan; and Mrs. Chuck Mar (Fong) with Yvonne
