Who is (was?) Hildegard Schulte? Why do we have this book? (This is a question that I find myself asking quite often when roaming through some of the library's uncataloged historical treasures.)
The title page offers further illumination:
The Schulte School of Cake Decorating, right here in Omaha! I wanted to know more. A quick Google search indicated that a revised edition--probably a bit more slick than this, since it contained 108 pages and photographs--was published in 1958; this edition can be found on a few used-book sites. Ours seems to be an earlier first version, possibly produced in the early years of Hildegard's career as a cake decorator--although her obituary, published in the Omaha World Herald on December 8, 1981, says that already in the 1940s she was known as "the cake lady" because of her skills as a cake baker and decorator, and that even then she was teaching in Omaha and abroad. She had actually graduated from pharmacy school, but confined her concoctions to the kitchen. An Omaha World Herald article published May 1, 1949, remarked that she had "a frosting idea for practically every occasion" and had even made a set of sugar earrings and brooch to match (I like the idea of edible accessories--perhaps nostalgia for those candy necklaces we had when I was a kid). I wish I had a good picture of some of those cakes (or better yet, the sugar earrings!) but the best I can do is post a couple of her cake designs here.
The 1951 Omaha city directory does not have a listing for the Schulte School of Cake Decorating (or any Schulte school), though it does give separate listings for Hildegard M. Schulte and her husband, Ellwin R., both living at 2542 Chicago St. Ellwin was a pharmacist at O'Brien Drugs (they had met at pharmacy school). Not until 1954 is there any mention of the Schulte culinary entreprises, and even then it is merely appended to Mrs. Hildegard Schulte's directory entry: "cooking school" as an occupation. Finally, in 1955, the Schulte School of Cake Decorating & Fancy Cookery rated its own separate directory entry. By 1956 it was the Schulte School of Cake Decorating & Candy Making, and in no time its entry was in bold font.
1961 was the last year the school was listed with Hildegard as the proprietor; in 1962 it was not listed at all, although Ellwin and Hildegard were listed. By 1965 Ellwin had retired, the house on Chicago St. had fallen victim to the new freeway, and the couple were living on Keystone Dr. In 1967, the Schulte School of Cake Decorating reappeared at 7002 Grant St., under the management of Ellwin and Hildegard's son, John J. Schulte, and operated there until at least the early 1970s.
Ellwin passed away in 1967 (Omaha World Herald obituary, 26 July 1967), but Hildegard carried on with her creative pursuits. She was interviewed by the Omaha World Herald in 1972 (OWH, 2 April 1972, p. 85), and although she claimed to be retired (her obituary, in contrast, says she retired in 1977, the same year she was presented with a life membership in the International Cake Exploration Société), she obviously never stopped learning, teaching, creating. She had learned tole painting, taught classes, took organ lessons, and made huge quantities of pastry treats and panoramic sugar Easter eggs for family, friends, and nursing homes.
Hildegard passed away at the age of 82 on December 4, 1981. The nature of her art was more transitory than most, but we still have The Art of Cake Decorating....
