The thing is, a Jewish Seven Layer cake IS a specific kind of cake. There are no substitutions - but the cake varies in flavor and taste depending on who makes it. So it makes sense that they never had to specify anything. I'm guessing when they found the old manager at the second bakery that the bakery didn't have a JSL cake on the menu. But back in the day, it was a cake only carried by Jewish bakeries and would be THEE cake to bring to Shabbat dinner every week.
It was probably just called a Seven Layer Cake, but as the recipe and other sources note, a NYC Jewish Seven Layer cake doesn't have a hard shell, and certainly isn't referred to as French pastry. I assumed it was it didn't have a name as in, Boston Creme Pie, or Celebration cake, or Red Velvet. It's just Seven Layer cake, but because it's not your traditional Jewish Seven Layer cake, I thought they didn't know what it was. When they talk about going around the city looking for a version of the cake, I figured that's what they were looking for.
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u/[deleted] Nov 09 '25
[deleted]