Sylvia Plath is best-known for many things: Her poetry and especially her semi-autobiography “The Bell Jar”; her brilliance at Smith and then over in Cambridge (UK); and her abusive marriage to the poet Ted Hughes. She died at the ago 30, a great loss. Like many (most?) writers she kept copious diaries, and according to AtlasObscura many of her entries concerned food, what she ate while out with Ted in England (British cuisine in the 1950s/early1960s) and what she made herself.

Here’s an excellent recipe straight from one of her diaries. She doesn’t call it by its real name, but it is A BUNDT CAKE! Wrote Sylvia:

Here is a heavenly sponge cake recipe which you should make in a high cake pan with a funnel in the center so the cake has a hole in the middle. [IT IS A BUNDT CAKE!!!]

6 eggs (separate)
1½ cups sugar (sifted)
1⅓ cups cake flour
1½ teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons water
½ teaspoon lemon extract
1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions for sponge cake: Beat yolks till lemon colored. Add sugar gradually. Add water & flavoring. Add flour gradually, beating. Beat egg whites to froth; add baking powder and salt to frothy egg whites. Beat until very stiff. Fold gently, but thoroly into egg yolk mixture. Sprinkle granulated sugar lightly over top of cake before putting it in the oven. Bake for one hour at 325. Do not remove cake from pan till cake is cold.