From the experimental kitchen: Great-Grandma Spanagel's spice cake

[serinde]

(Or, another round of avoidance behavior.)

My great-grandparents--that is, my mother's mother's parents--owned & ran a corner bakery in Cleveland. Grandma, as the oldest child, helped out in it until they lost the business during the Depression. Naturally, being the era that it was, they didn't really work from recipes much; and it being many, many years between then and now, Grandma didn't remember a lot of them any more, so she and Mom have on occasion worked on re-creating some of the favorite selections. Herewith the family redaction, served at sweh's housewarming to great acclaim:


3/4 c. shortening [1]
1/2 c. sugar
3 eggs, slightly beaten
1 T. vanilla
1 3/4 c. flour
1/2 T. baking powder
1/2 T. salt
1/2 T. baking soda
3/4 T. nutmeg
1 T. cinnamon
2 rounded T. cocoa
3/4 sour milk
1/2 c. coarsely chopped nuts

Cream together the shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time; then beat in the vanilla.

Sift together the dry ingredients, and add alternately with the sour milk. (As is the rule with cakes, begin and end with the dry, not the liquid.) Stir in the nuts. Pour into a greased & floured 9X13 pan, and bake at 350 deg. F. for 35-45 minutes. Mom says you can also do it as 2 8" round layers--adjust cooking time accordingly.

Frost with a standard buttercream frosting to which you have added cocoa.

[1] I don't know whether butter, lard, veg. shortening (i.e., Crisco) or what would have been the Done Thing then. Several other family recipes say half butter, half Crisco for the shortening needs, but I don't know if that's a later refinement from Grandma. It probably doesn't matter--you go to war with the shortening you have.

Comments

[tactisle.livejournal.com]

Whoa! a -tablespoon- of vanilla, and a teaspoon-and-half of baking soda? (or are some of those capital Ts supposed to be lowercase...?)

As for shortening, I find that plain Crisco makes baked goods damn fluffy. When I'm out of Crisco (or when I don't want that shortening-flavor in the food), I substitute 2/3 butter and 1/3 oil. (I hear that half butter, half Country Cock is another acceptable sub.)

I do know that modern-day Crisco is a fair bit lighter than ordinary lard. So a half butter, half Crisco mix might be a good approximation of good ol' pig fat, in a recipe designed for the latter.

[xlerb.livejournal.com]

...Country Cock is another acceptable sub.

I'm not sure if I want to hope that typo is deliberate.

[syringavulgaris.livejournal.com]

Yep. Those are all T-as-in-Tablespoon. In this step, a miracle occurs?