The Book

A collection of vintage cake recipes collected over 45 years in a women's locker room at the C&H Sugar Refining Company in Crockett, California, inspired the story of an isolated company town, a history of quintessential small-town America, where families, women, and the immigrant experience were celebrated. The tale includes the rich past of Crockett from the Karkin Ohlone indigenous people to the arrival of the Spaniards, Mexicans, and European colonial settlers. Through the stories of two Italian immigrant families, the Magnaghis and the Pagnis, it also discusses the importance of immigrants to the development and success of C&H Sugar, a significant national and San Francisco Bay Area industry; the factors that influenced Crockett's story; the destruction and changes caused by the construction of a freeway through town; and how the relationship between Crockett's citizens and its industry has changed over time. Most importantly, it introduces readers to the working women at the factory and their sisterhood, who were to the food industry what Rosie the Riveter was to shipbuilding during World War II.  The work also discusses the development of community cookbooks and their importance to local history and includes over thirty vintage cake recipes that have been tested, updated, and photographed for today’s bakers.