In praise of Nabisco's Famous Wafer Refrigerator cake

When my kids were small, I knocked myself out on their birthday cakes. I tinted whipped cream with strawberry reductions so they could have pink frosting without the red dye. I assembled from-scratch cakes into bunnies and clowns. I decorated sheet cakes with tiny plastic toys to create carnivals, beach scenes and zoos. Then I came to my senses. What birthday cake had my mom always made for me? What was the cake I still craved? The Nabisco Famous Wafer Refrigerator Cake, of course.

For those unfortunate souls who have yet to encounter this confection, here's what you do: Buy a box of Nabisco Famous Wafers. (Actually, buy two boxes, because the wafers are often broken. What's up with that, Nabisco?) Then follow the recipe on the box. It involves spreading whipped cream over the wafers (don't even think about using "whipped topping") and forming them into a log, which is then refrigerated. This is now our "official" birthday cake. It is way better than the sum of its parts.

But I've always been a bit embarrassed about it. I mean, it's not even baked; it's assembled. Imagine my delight, then, when a sumptuous new cookbook "Absolutely Chocolate" (2009 Taunton Press), from the editors of Fine Cooking magazine, featured not one but two recipes using Famous Wafers. If Famous Wafers are good enough for Fine Cooking magazine, I need to feel no shame. Validation at last!

• Marialisa Calta is the author of "Barbarians at the Plate: Taming and Feeding the American Family" (2005 Perigee). For more, go to marialisacalta.com.