At a seminar for budding journalists this summer, 51 high school students representing every state and the District of Columbia gathered in Washington to tour newsrooms, learn more about the craft, and talk to movers and shakers in the industry. For a memorable hour in June, I got to chat with the participants about my food beat at The Washington Post and beyond. The audience was passionate and inquisitive, and I left the event feeling more optimistic about the future of journalism than I have in a long time.
The teens had questions about landing a first job, how to get their foot in the door, and what they could do to be a better journalist. For groups such as this, I typically tick off a bunch of practical suggestions I’ve gleaned from decades of interviewing and reporting — news they can use:
Silence is your friend, especially after asking a difficult question. If you let a pause linger, people tend to fill it with their most honest response.
Read your work aloud. You’ll find sentences that are too long, jokes that don’t work, maybe even a misspelling or two.
Fact-check everything. Reconfirming information prevents you from writing Tom Smith when the subject’s name is spelled Thom Smyth.
Trust but verify. “If your mother says she loves you,” goes the old newsroom adage, “check it out.” Everyone always laughs at that, but it reminds writers to show rather than tell.
Recently, I’ve added another tip that tends to draw surprised looks. I encourage people to write notes – specifically thank-you notes, in both personal and professional situations.
I inherited the habit from my mom: Select a card, put pen to paper, stick a (78-cent!) stamp on an envelope. If that strikes some people as old-fashioned, to me it feels necessary and important, much like making the bed first thing in the morning. No matter what else transpires during the day, you will have created some order in your life.
Also, at a time when people simply text their thanks – if they extend any appreciation at all – the act of sending a handwritten note signals something honorable about the sender. (To make it easy, I sometimes address an envelope ahead of events where I know I’ll need to thank someone, so I can mail a note ASAP.)
Good things come to those who write
The habit of writing thank-yous is backed by research. A recent Italian study demonstrated that writing by hand activates parts of your brain linked to memory, creativity, and senses that producing a mere email does not. A 2018 study published in the journal Psychological Science found that people underestimate how much a thank-you note will mean to the recipient, and overestimate how awkward it will feel to send, even though a note reliably boosts the sender’s mood [insert vigorous nod here].
FYI: Don’t worry about finding the right words or being embarrassed by your penmanship. The best notes don’t just acknowledge thoughtfulness, they recall it, as in: “I need the recipe for your wonderful roast chicken” is more colorful than “Thank you for dinner.”
Hand-written notes can feel like gifts to recipients
I don’t save things like I used to, but I hold on to select letters and notes from people whose appreciations have moved me. Now and then, I’ll pull them from a file and re-read them; they always land like gifts. I remind myself how lucky I am to have the senders in my life. In contrast, I know of no one who looks back at email, however nice the message.
A friend of mine who recently retired from the Pentagon shares the story of how, as a U.S. Army second lieutenant, he had to improvise note-taking ahead of a field exercise because he had forgotten his own notebook. The handiest substitute was cardboard pulled from a rations box. His colonel responded later by sending my pal a package containing a new, Army-issued notebook with this message tucked inside: “You may find it easier when receiving orders in the future,” along with kudos for a “tremendous job.”
My friend told me that “in a couple short sentences, that colonel, 20 years my senior, taught me a lesson and lifted my morale at the same time.” Later, as a commander himself, my friend said he had written and hand-delivered several notes a day to his subordinates, a practice that took him only about 10 minutes.
Receiving such a note can elicit more than a smile and positive feelings. When a politician I support took the time to send a handwritten letter of thanks for assisting with a campaign fundraiser, it prompted me to contribute further.
Small efforts reap great rewards, for all involved.
A dessert deserving of thanks
The featured recipe this week appeared in The Washington Post in 1985, when my predecessor, Phyllis C. Richman, wrote about Mother’s Day traditions in her family and included directions for a single-layer cake with a broiled coconut topping.
Phyllis said the cake was baked for an array of life moments: reunions, promotions, whenever someone needed cheering up. Once, when she flew to Italy on a weeks-long eating assignment, her mother, Helen, sent her off with foil-wrapped slices.
My mentor seduced readers with this description:
“Squares of barely sweet buttery hot-milk sponge cake which, good as it is, still acts only as an excuse for the crackly, glossy, lacy brown-sugar coconut topping laminated to the cake under the broiler.”
Just reading those words can send me to the store for shredded coconut.
That cake was one of more than a thousand recipes I tested during my four years as an editorial aide in the twice-a-week Food section back then, and one of the desserts I’ve made the most since. I always feel grateful when recipients ask for a second helping or take-home leftovers, which is when I’m prompted to thank Phyllis, now 87 – at least mentally.
Next time I serve her delicious legacy, though, I’ll commit the compliment to paper and put it in the mail.
Main image by Deb Lindsey Photography
Helen’s Coconut Cake
12 to 15 servings
Two techniques give this cake its especially tender texture: scalding the milk-butter mixture, and beating the eggs and sugar properly. A metal baking pan is necessary here if you’re browning the topping under the broiler.
The cake can be covered loosely in foil and stored at room temperature for up to 4 days.
For the cake
1 cup whole milk
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 large eggs, at room temperature
2 cups granulated sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
For the topping
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
½ cup packed light brown sugar
4 ounces (about 1⅓ packed cups) shredded sweetened coconut (see NOTES)
1 tablespoon coconut cream (optional; see NOTES)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
For the cake: Preheat the oven to 350℉. Grease a 9 by 13-inch metal baking pan with cooking oil spray then line the bottom (only) with parchment paper.
Combine the milk and butter in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Cook just until the butter has melted and small bubbles appear at the edges (scalding the milk), then remove from the heat.
Combine the eggs and granulated sugar in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment; beat on medium-high speed to create a thick, foamy, and lightened mixture, for about 3 minutes. Reduce the speed to low and gradually add the scalded milk mixture.
Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl until evenly distributed, then gradually add it to the mixer bowl (low speed) beating just until no trace of dry ingredients remains. Pour the batter into the pan, spreading it evenly, then gently rap the pan on the counter to release any large air bubbles. Bake until lightly browned and a tester inserted into the center comes out with a few moist crumbs (195℉ internal temperature), for 25 to 30 minutes. Keep in mind that the cake will spend a little more time in a high-heat oven.
Let cool slightly in the pan while you position the top oven rack to 6 inches from the broiler element and preheat the broiler. (Alternatively, you can skip this oven step and use a kitchen torch instead.
For the topping: Melt the butter in a medium, microwave-safe bowl. Stir in the brown sugar, shredded coconut, coconut cream, if using, and the vanilla until well blended. Immediately spread the topping evenly over the warm cake.
Return the cake to the oven and broil just until the topping becomes bubbling and lightly browned; watch it closely, and turn the cake from front to back if the browning is uneven. (Alternatively, use a kitchen torch to evenly brown the topping.)
Cool completely, then run a round-edged knife around the edges before cutting and serving.
NOTES: The 1985 recipe called for “Southern-style” shredded coconut in a can, which might have been packed with syrup. Today’s shredded sweetened coconut packaged in plastic bags works well here; if your coconut is not so moist, stir the optional coconut cream into the topping mixture.
Coconut cream is the solidified mass that gathers at the top of some canned coconut milks; the cream itself is also available in 6-ounce cans.
Adapted from a 1985 Washington Post recipe.
Got a dining question, rant or rave? Send it to me at [email protected], where I’m addressing reader submissions every Thursday as the new food correspondent for NOTUS.