During our dad’s funeral observance last weekend, friends and neighbors made sure there was plenty of comfort food for our family during our time of grief and loss.
At the Saturday funeral luncheon, we ordered large sheet cakes for the dessert course and kept to a family tradition of ordering cakes from our renowned hometown Fingerhut Bakery at 119 Lane St. in North Judson.
Opened in 1946, plans are already underway to celebrate next year what will be an 80-year sweet success family business. It is just one piece of the pie that is the delicious divided dynasty of Fingerhut family bakeries, a fixture in the near west suburbs of Chicago since the late 1800s after the Fingerhut family emigrated from Czechoslovakia.
Family patriarch Keith Allan Fingerhut, 88, died June 1, 2024, surrounded by his family. Today, his sons Greg and Doug continue the family’s legacy. Greg created some special scrumptious lemon and cheese kolacky to join the other varieties like prune, apricot, poppyseed, blueberry and raspberry on the trays that awaited in the coffee lounge of O’Donnell Mortuary for guests paying respect to Dad’s lifetime.
Among the longtime Fingerhut Bakery employees is our family friend Linda Kacafirek, who is the lead cake decorator and an icing artist. As Linda Miller, hailing from the very tiny neighboring farm town of Tefft, near Wheatfield and San Pierre, she began her bakery career just after high school.
Fingerhut Bakery cake decorator Linda Kacafirek designed a replica, tiered wedding cake served to guests for the 70th wedding anniversary ballroom dinner feting Chester and Peggy Potempa Sept. 3, 2023. She worked from a framed photo of the original cake as displayed in a bejeweled frame on the event’s cake table. (Photo by Philip Potempa)
On Dec. 31 next week, she celebrates her 50th anniversary decorating cakes at Fingerhut Bakery. She has decorated many of our family occasion cakes during the past half-century, including our dad’s funeral sheet cakes.
Two years earlier, for a happier gathering, Linda created a very near replication of Mom and Dad’s tiered wedding cake from their Sept. 5, 1953, reception at our family farm, which she helped serve at our parents’ 70th wedding anniversary party in the ballroom at The Center for Visual and Performing Arts in Munster.
My mom’s longtime friend from their women’s bowling league days of the 1970s, Barb Blaha, baked a moist and delectable Bundt cake, even pre-sliced, for our mom to share with the family. Something as simple as the gesture of a slice of cake paired with a cup of coffee helps whittle away at grief, such as during our time adjusting to the loss of Dad, who died at our family farm peacefully in his sleep at age 96 on Dec. 10, 2025.
I was certain Barb’s cake was soaked in rum, given the time of year and the incredible flavor and succulence.
Much to my surprise, it was not the boozy goodness of rum included in Barb’s recipe, but rather chardonnay white wine as the dual ingredient in both the cake batter and in the soaking glaze.
Chardonnay wine is the surprise ingredient for a heavenly, moist Bundt cake that is the signature favorite holiday pastry from the kitchen of Barb Blaha of San Pierre, Indiana. (Philip Potempa/for Post-Tribune)
“I make at least a dozen of these same cakes during the holidays to give them out to friends,” Barb said.
“It’s an old recipe, but also such an easy recipe.”
Columnist Philip Potempa has published four cookbooks and is a weekly radio show host on WJOB 1230 AM. He can be reached at PhilPotempa@gmail.com or mail your questions: From the Farm, PO Box 68, San Pierre, Ind. 46374.
Barb Blaha’s Chardonnay Wine Cake
Makes 12 to 14 servings
Cake batter:
1 box yellow cake mix
1 box French vanilla instant pudding
4 jumbo eggs
1/2 cup chardonnay wine
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup cooking oil
1/2 cup pecan chips (optional)
Glaze ingredients:
1 stick butter or margarine
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup chardonnay wine
1/4 cup water
Directions:
1. Mix all cake batter ingredients (except pecans) on medium speed for 2 minutes
2. Fold in pecans and pour into Bundt pan sprayed with cooking spray.
3. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes on middle rack.
4. Remove from oven and leave in pan.
5. To make glaze, combine all ingredients and boil for 2 minutes and immediately pour over warm cake by poking holes in cake with salad fork and then pouring glaze over cake.
6. Allow cake to cool for 30 minutes and carefully remove from Bundt pan.
7. Once cake has cooked, dust with powdered sugar before serving.
