Coarse Sanding Sugar

"The icing on the Cake"  -- Do you remember that expression?  It was used in both a positive manner and a negative manner in the 1950's.  Grandma Jennie always added the icing to the cake -- frosting that, as Marash Girl remembers, was made primarily of Crisco and sugar.   Not to hurt Grandma Jennie's feelings,Grandpa Peter always ate the cake after  he had carefully removed the icing.  Perhaps he knew, even then, that fat and sugar on top of Grandma Jennie's home-baked cake was not the healthiest comestible.  Perhaps that's why he almost reached 100 years of age.

The expression, "That's the icing on the cake!" -- popular in the 1940's and early 1950's --  (do folks still use the expression?) actually had a negative connotation -- something added that was not necessary, and that, in fact, made the situation a whole lot worse.

Funny how something sweet can become something sour.

All that as background to suggest that, in this more health conscious time, should we still choose to bake cakes, we can avoid "the icing on the cake" -- both the work of making it, and the "work" of eating it.  Simply sprinkle coarse sanding sugar (uncolored) over the top of cake batter before baking.  Remove that cake from the oven, and your cake will sparkle!  No fat or Crisco needed.