Tastykakes

TASTYKAKE PAINTINGS by artist Jan Elmy, Rittenhouse Fine Art, 1723 Spruce St. Show opens with reception 5:30-8:30 tonight, and continues 10:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, through June 10. Info: 215-735-2676. Provence has its starry nights, so Van Gogh painted those. Tahiti has beautiful women in sarongs, so Gauguin painted them. And Philadelphia? Well, we have Tastykakes, so Jan Elmy is painting them. The Maryland-based artist is known mostly for her Chesapeake landscapes and snack-food-free still lifes.

So, now we know why Hartence Bullock's banana pudding was so doggone good. She threw some butterscotch krimpets into that bad boy! "Keep that close," her son, Timothy, pleaded. "Nobody knows about that. That was her secret recipe. " Too late, brother. But, as sweet as "Miss Hartence's" banana pudding was, she was even sweeter. Bullock, a retired crossing guard and former Tastykake worker who was nicknamed "The Roadrunner" for her flurry of activity in her church and community, died of heart failure Aug. 2. She was 69 and had lived at the Integrated Heath Services nursing home in Whitemarsh since April.

You could always get a Bible quote and a Butterscotch Krimpet from Deacon Melvin Holmes Jr. Holmes, an Army veteran and staunch church leader, worked at the Tastykake Co. for 29 years. He started out as a driver. But in 1977, he became the bakery's first African-American district manager, appointed to the Baltimore region. His connections made the deacon's West Philadelphia house a very popular place indeed. "He would always bring Tastykakes home when he could," said Keith Holmes, a son. "Whenever we played ball, he would go to work early so he could get off early so he could make the game.

Philip J. Bauer had an idea: Why should housewives all over Philadelphia have to bake all their own cakes? Store-bought cut cakes often were too expensive, and you had to wait for the grocer to cut your purchase, weigh and wrap it, then hope it would be fresh. And so began a local culinary icon: the Tastykake. The first was the Chocolate Cup Cake, and it remains the best-seller. But there are other faves as well, including Butterscotch Krimpets, Peanut Butter Kandy Kakes and apple and lemon pies.

Philadelphians and the mayor's gab about flab It was a bittersweet day for me as I read the front page of The Inquirer (Jan. 20). How could Mayor Street think for one moment that I would give up my beloved Tastykakes for a cardboard tasting, sandpaper-like rice cake? As a retired surgeon, I am the first one to advocate a healthy lifestyle. And at 73 and 160 pounds, I'm proud to say that I have consumed jelly Krimpets and lemon pies every day of my life since the age of 12. Do I have aches and pains?

For years, we've had to listen as people droned on and on about how Baltimore has done all the things Philadelphia should be doing. Baltimore has a downtown ballpark. Why don't we? Baltimore has developed its waterfront. Why don't we? Baltimore has less than half the population of Philly, but it draws more tourists. Why can't we do better? It's like having some kind of snot-nose cousin our parents are always comparing us to. Why can't we be more like him? Well, guess what?

It's one thing to walk the streets that Benjamin Franklin and George Washington walked; it's quite another to hear what they heard and see what they saw while walking the streets. That's the intention of "Lights of Liberty," a sound-and-light show at Independence National Historical Park. The hour-long show, which premiered last night but was unavailable for a preview, has the potential to be, well, revolutionary. Here is how it works: You show up after dusk at the Liberty Center, at the southwest corner of Sixth and Chestnut Streets.

A Butterscotch Krimpet that feeds six people? A square chocolate cupcake? Tastykake lovers may think it's all a dream, but tomorrow, Tasty Baking Co. will begin distributing its line of Classic Baked Goods, boxed family-sized desserts. The Hunting Park company is hoping to compete directly with Entenmann's bakeries and increase productivity at the plant in Oxford, Chester County, that it purchased three years ago. "We've taken our snack cakes and our brand and moved it to another eating occasion," said Carl Watts, chairman, president and chief executive of Tasty Baking.

The things that Philadelphians take for granted. Imagine you're a college student strolling across campus at the University of Miami or UCLA and a bone-shaking craving for a Chocolate Junior or a Butterscotch Krimpet overtakes you. More than ever, your mouth is watering for a Tastykake, because, of course, "no one bakes a cake as tasty as a Tastykake. " But then it hits you like an anvil in your gut, and you realize that you're not on Broad Street anymore. Same gut feeling when you get a jones for cheesesteak.

To some, the controversy was a preemptive strike at the cultural heart of Chicago. Mayor Richard Daley was incensed enough to call in the president of the offending company for an arm-twisting session. Newspaper columnists mounted their soapboxes and pointed north toward Minnesota, where the decision that prompted the brouhaha was made. A local historian went so far as to declare the action another example of Chicago's "becoming the hole in the doughnut when it used to be the commanding crossroads as a corporate headquarters.