Redemptorist pastor carries on family baking tradition to benefit his parish

Baking is in Father Robert Wojtek’s blood.

Ever since he was a boy growing up in Our Lady of Fatima parish in East Baltimore, the Redemptorist pastor of the Catholic Community of St. Michael and St. Patrick in Fells Point has been whipping up mouth-watering cakes for special occasions using long-held family recipes.

Father Wojtek recently put his culinary expertise to good use when he spent most of his day off baking 15 hot milk cakes and 10 chocolate cakes for the cake raffle stand at St. Michael’s carnival, June 16-18. He plans to bake another batch for the carnival’s second weekend, June 23-25.

Father Wojtek’s all-time favorite is the hot milk cake, a sweet concoction made with milk and flavored with vanilla or almond extract with a taste similar to pound cake. The recipe was handed down to the priest through his family from Albert Schimunek, his great-grandfather. Mr. Schimunek was a legendary East Baltimore baker who owned the now-closed Canton Steam Bakery on the corner of Hudson and Linwood streets.

Mr. Schimunek, whose ovens were built into the brick walls of his two-story home bakery, was so highly regarded that he was asked to teach the bakers of the U.S. Army how to make breads during World War I.

Using one of the same 100-year-old aluminum molds from his great-grandfather (along with some newer, less sturdy ones), Father Wojtek said he had a great time making his family’s famous cakes to benefit his parish.

The secret to a great-tasting cake, Father Wojtek said, is mixing the ingredients separately rather than plopping them all in one bowl and mixing them simultaneously.

“When my grandmother learned the recipe, she wouldn’t even measure things,” Father Wojtek said, noting that his grandmother topped her hot milk cakes with powdered sugar.

Wojtek cakes have benefited Catholics far and near. When Father Wojtek was serving in the Dominican Republic, his father baked more than 40 cakes at a time that were raffled – raising enough money to build a chapel for his son’s parish. Father Wojtek’s father also baked cakes for his parish of Our Lady of Fatima, donating others for St. Michael’s carnival.

While it takes a lot of work to make a perfect cake, Father Wojtek said it’s worth it.

“Boy, I tell you, I can wolf down one of those hot milk cakes in one sitting,” he said with a laugh.

Email George Matysek at gmatysek@CatholicReview.org

Copyright © 2006 Catholic Review Media

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