"My request is for a recipe my mom used to make in the 1960s. She called it Oatmeal Surprise Cake."

Denise Huber, Affton



Janice Friedrich of Belleville provided two similar recipes for a simple oatmeal cake. The batter is baked in a 9-by-13-inch pan, then a coconut topping is added and it is browned under the broiler.

"This recipe comes from the Columbia Missouri United Church of Christ Cookbook around 1967, while I was a student at Mizzou," she wrote.

Huber thought that her mother's recipe contained apples, which this recipe does not. If anyone has an apple-oatmeal cake recipe, please send it and we will make sure that Huber gets a copy.

And now, more requests:

— "I'm looking for a pork tenderloin recipe, which was in the paper about 20 years ago," wrote Mary Jane Soehnlin of Belleville. "First you cooked garlic and onions, then added the tenderloin, a liquid (soy sauce? vinegar?) and pickling spice, and let it simmer for about a half hour."

— "I've lost a yummy Jell-O recipe I used to like for Christmas gatherings," wrote Phyllis Pieper of St. Louis. You made layers with red and green Jell-O (gelling a layer at a time), but there was also another layer in the middle using plain Jell-O packets and something creamy, maybe cream cheese."