The Colorado Cache Cookbook started out as a venture to make a little money for charity but ended up as a recipe for a philanthropic powerhouse.

The hefty spiral-bound cookbook, first published in 1978 by the Junior League of Denver, has sold more than one million copies, with its proceeds benefiting dozens of various charities in the Denver area.

“Every year, we tried to come up with an idea for raising money,” said Jaydee Boat, who chaired the project’s very first edition in 1978. “Every year, somebody suggested doing a cookbook. Finally, somebody decided it was a good idea. Other Junior League chapters around the country were doing it.

“In those days, a lot of people were watching Julia Child on TV and loving her because she was funny and she made really good food look like something anyone could make,” Boat said.  “We could see there was a growing interest in food. And cooking real food, not just casseroles, which many of us grew up on. Attitudes toward food and cooking were changing in the ‘70s.”

Because Boat had actually produced a guide to dining in Denver — visiting restaurants, interviewing owners and chefs and gathering recipes — she was tapped to spearhead the project. (Incidentally, she even once escorted Julia Child around Denver for three days, visiting various eating establishments.) Boat was president of the Colorado chapter of the American Institute of Wine and Food, not to mention a good cook.

“All I did was take the recipes, collate them and organize them by category,” she said. But they got thousands of recipes submitted so “it was a lot more work than I first thought.”

Most recipes came from Junior League members, but they often tapped friends, relatives or neighbors who were good cooks.

A naming contest resulted in the title of Colorado Cache. Because a cache is usually a collection of valuables, they thought it fit. As a group they wanted the book to reflect the culture and history of the state as well as offering good recipes. The committee decided against photos of the food in favor of illustrations reflecting the state’s unique beauty.

“We noticed in some other cookbooks that the food photos quickly looked outdated. We didn’t want that,” Boat said.

Ann Douden of the Denver Junior League produced the cover art and the original illustrations.

“That alone set us apart from other cookbooks,” Boat said. “She was brilliant.”

As for the content, “we wanted a regular cookbook but all about Colorado,” she said. Little factoids and stories about Colorado are interspersed with the recipes. Recipes include nods to local fare like trout and game that most cookbooks don’t feature.

Every single recipe works at high altitude as well as lower elevations.

A core committee of 19 women oversaw the testing. For example, they’d gather all the brownie recipes and dole them out to members, who would make them and rate them on a scale of one to five. One was a definite keeper. Five got tossed. Some in between got tweaked.

“Only the best of best made it into the book. Somebody would say, ‘Oh my Aunt Ethel’s brownies are better than this,’ and maybe that’s what ended up in the book,” Boat said. “One time we taste tested 10 or 12 brownies at once. It was a lot.”

 Every recipe in the book was selected from a number of contenders and no recipe got in without being tasted and then tested at least twice, she said.

“I mean, we spent countless hours trying to decide which recipe for chili we would include,” Boat said.

Hundreds of volunteers fried, sauteed, roasted, broiled and baked each recipe. Everyone was assigned recipes for which they bought ingredients, prepared the dish and evaluated it.

“I made at least three recipes for dinner every night for six months,” Boat recalled. Her family served as guinea pigs for the experimentation.

Ultimately, 700 recipes made the cut. The book has gone through five revisions over the years, but many of the original recipes remain. One unique aspect of the first book was a chapter on microwave cooking which wasn’t that common at the time of its first publication.

Unlike many such cookbooks, individual names aren’t attached to each recipe because some were changed slightly. Instead, a full list of recipe contributors appears in the back of the book after the lengthy, detailed index.

***

The book has gone through five revisions over the years, but many of the original recipes remain.

***

The initial book took three years to complete and was immediately successful. According to the Denver Post in 2008, 30 years later, Colorado Cache was “still a smash.”

On top of all the cooking, there was the mammoth job of copyediting each recipe — comparing the list of ingredients to the text of the recipe, and vice versa, to make sure the instructions were complete and accurate.

Once the book was complete, it went to several Denver area publishers for a bid. That’s when things got real.

The new president, Marty Segelke, opted for a first edition printing of 10,000 copies.

“That’s like a million today,” she said. “It was scary.” She needn’t have worried. The first edition sold out in six weeks requiring a second rush printing before the Christmas holidays.

League members were expected to buy 10 copies each and there were about 500 members in those days. That kick-started sales for the first printing. Once word got out, it sold like, well, hotcakes. Bookstores and other retailers across the state carried it.

Segelke took 36 copies to the annual meeting of Junior League presidents and gave them away as a promo.

“They were thrilled,” she recalled.

“I think the reason it has remained so popular is because the recipes are accessible, but really good,” Boat said. “And they have been tested and tested, so you know they work. You can count on it.”

Many of the original recipes still make the cut for each revision. Some are just all-time favorites.

“We rarely had canned soup in recipes, but the exception was Stroganoff Pie. I just made it not that long ago,” Boat said.

About every 10 years, there’s a survey of readers to find out the favorite recipe in the book. It’s almost always the Mandarin Salad or the Denver Sheet Cake, she added.

Though the Junior League of Denver has produced other cookbooks over the years — their Colorado College Cookbook and Créme de Colorado are celebrated as truly unique to the west — Cache has remained its best seller with uncommon recipes for Colorado Blue Grouse en Casserole, Barbequed Pheasant, Mount Evans Elk Sausage and Trotelle ala Savola (Baked Trout with Mushrooms).

Aunt Ethel’s brownies aside, the piquant and savory appetizers make for some elegant entertaining, with seven fillings for stuffed eggs, Green Chile Wontons and Crab Spinach Fondue.

“It’s been kind of a bible for some cooks,” Segelke said.

“A lot of it was luck, and good timing,” Boat added.

Recipes from Colorado Cache Cookbook

Bronco Bread

 2 tablespoons softened butter

¼ cup hot water

½ cup orange juice

1 ½ tablespoons freshly grated orange rind

1 egg

1 cup sugar

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon baking soda

1 cup fresh blueberries, or frozen or canned, well-drained

1 loaf

Combine butter, water, orange juice and rind in a bowl. Add egg and mix well. Add dry ingredients and fold in blueberries by hand. Bake at 325 degrees in greased 9X5 inch baking pan for 1 hour and 10 minutes. Cool on rack. Note: Freezes well.

Denver Chocolate Sheet Cake

SERVES 12 TO 16

2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup butter

1 1/4 cups water

4 tablespoons baking cocoa

1/2 cup buttermilk

2 eggs, beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Chocolate Frosting (recipe below)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 x 13-inch baking pan. Combine the flour, sugar and baking soda in a bowl and mix well. Combine the butter, water and baking cocoa in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Add to the flour mixture and mix well. Add the buttermilk, eggs and vanilla extract and mix well. Spoon into the prepared baking pan. Bake for 30 minutes or until the cake tests done. Spread with the warm Chocolate Frosting; the frosting will harden as it cools.

Chocolate Frosting

1/2 cup butter

6 tablespoons buttermilk

4 tablespoons baking cocoa

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

16 ounces powdered sugar

1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Combine the butter, buttermilk and baking cocoa in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Remove from the heat. Stir in the vanilla extract. Add the powdered sugar and

mix well. Fold in the walnuts.