Growing up in a small Iowa town, Redditor GardenerAndScientist, who prefers to remain anonymous, remembers loving all things cherry.
“My birthday is on George Washington’s birthday,” she told TODAY Food, “and I was about every cherry — you know, cherry tree story and all. I remember there were even embroidered cherries on my favorite dress.”
But one thing GardenerAndScientist didn’t love was birthday cake.
Not a fan of cake icing or even pie crusts, she said she likely challenged her mother to find a birthday cake she would like.
Cherries were the obvious answer — specifically a ’70s Pillsbury recipe for Cherry Dream Squares that used boxed white cake mix and cherry pie filling and was baked in a 9×13 pan until golden-brown, then cut into squares.
“Having what I called ‘my birthday pie,’ — a cherry ‘pie’ — for my birthday seemed fitting,” she said. “Mostly I remember the topping with oats and nuts. It was a bit strange with birthday candles, but to me it was so much yummier than frosting.”
GardenerAndScientist, who now lives in California, also remembers sharing her birthday treat.
“My next-door neighbors were an elderly gentleman and his wife, and his birthday was the day after mine,” she recalled. “So each year on my birthday, after blowing out the candles, my mom would wrap up a piece and I would bring it next door. The next day, he would deliver a slice of his birthday cake. That went on until I left for college.”
After finding the old Cherry Dream Squares recipe while helping her mother clean out her home, she decided to share it again, posting a photo of the dessert and the recipe in the Old_Recipes subreddit.
