Where a bustling town once stood, only sand, marsh grasses, and memories remain. Hog Island, part of the seventy-mile stretch of salt-swept barrier islands in the Volgenau Virginia Coast Reserve, once supported a town of 250 residents, who worked as fishermen, hunters, and wreckers—people who salvaged goods from shipwrecks.
By the early twentieth century, Hog Island had also become a playground for the elite, hosting visitors like President Grover Cleveland and the Rockefellers at its private resorts. But after a series of hurricanes in the 1930s forced the last residents to leave, Hog Island lived on only in history and local traditions. Some of those traditions include cake.
In the compilation Memories and Recipes from Hog Island, Hilda Simpson Tittermary contributed a recipe for Hog Island Applesauce Cake, a dish that would have shared the holiday table with oysters, roast pork, black duck, and cranberries. The beloved dessert tastes like something your grandma used to make. Or your great-grandma. Or your great-great grandma. No one knows exactly when the applesauce cake tradition began, but it’s easy to see why it endured. Dense, moist, and packed with holiday spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice, this cake is pure Christmas.
