NO LESS THAN PIES (PERHAPS EVEN MORE SO), cakes have been the pride of good cooks everywhere. In bygone days, special occasions, holidays, and religious observances of any kind rarely passed without a culminating cake. Today, fewer families enjoy the festivities with a cake made from scratch, but the cake remains a central symbol of celebration.
As they are today, recipes were passed among friends and relations, but in times past cake recipes usually made up the bulk of the handwritten collections handed down from generation to generation. Chances are, if you asked someone for his or her personal favorite or most special recipe, you would have been given one for a cake. Spice, fruit, ginger, chocolate, oatmeal, honey, date, angel food, orange, potato, nut, cheese, apple, kirsch, poppy seed—the variety is mouth-wateringly endless.
15 grains saffron (1 big pinch)
1 cup boiling water
1½ cups sugar
½ cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1 teaspoon lemon extract
2½ cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1½ cups raisins
¼ cup currants
¼ cup candied fruit
Place saffron in a bowl; cover with the 1 cup boiling water and let steep 1 hour.
Cream together sugar, butter, eggs, and lemon extract. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Dredge raisins, currants, and candied fruit in flour mixture. Add to butter mixture alternately with steeped saffron liquid. Pour into 2 medium, well-greased and floured loaf pans. Bake at 325 or 350 degrees for about 1 hour.
This is the recipe for the Cornish saffron cake once served visitors at Pendarvis, the Cornish restoration at Mineral Point operated by the Wisconsin Historical Society.
Two women admire a prizewinning cake at the State Fair, August 1963.
WHi Image ID 8343
¾ quart new milk (the milk from the second milking after a cow has freshened)
¾ quart whole or skim milk
1½ cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
Cinnamon
Sugar
Combine two milks. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt and add to milk. Beat well with an egg beater or spoon. Mixture will be the consistency of thick pancake batter. Pour into a greased 9- by 13-inch cake pan. Bake at 400 degrees for 40 minutes and then sprinkle with cinnamon and then with sugar. Continue baking until golden brown, about another 20 minutes. Cake will have two custard-like layers.
Submitted by Hilda Hillman (Mrs. Sulo) Sukanen, Marengo. “Panu-kaku was a real treat for children coming in hungry after playing hard outdoors in the fresh air,” she recalled. “Panu-kaku is especially delicious warm, but it can also be eaten cold.”
1½ cups boiling water
1 cup quick-cooking oatmeal
½ cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
¾ cup sugar
2 eggs
1½ cups sifted flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
Topping (see below)
Pour boiling water over oatmeal. Mix well. Let stand until cool.
Cream butter and sugars; beat in eggs. Stir in cooled oatmeal. Sift together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt and add. Pour into a well-greased 9- by 13-inch pan and bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes. Cool and frost with topping.
¼ cup brown sugar
½ cup light cream
3 tablespoons butter
½ teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flaked coconut
1 cup chopped nuts
Combine sugar and cream and boil until bubbly. Add butter, vanilla, coconut, and nuts. Spread on cooled cake. Place under broiler to brown.
Submitted by Mrs. Leo Wesolowski, Oconto Falls.
Simple to make and plain but appealing, cinnamon flop is an old-timey dessert that is beloved even in the twenty-first century (Search for it online, and you’ll get thousands of hits).
2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 tablespoons lard
1 cup sugar
1¼ cups milk
3 tablespoons or more melted butter
Brown sugar
Cinnamon
Combine flour and baking powder and use your fingers or a pastry blender to work in the lard well. Add sugar and mix. Add milk and mix well. Spread 1 inch thick into greased pie plates and use a pastry brush to spread on the melted butter. Sprinkle thickly with brown sugar and lightly with cinnamon. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes or until nicely browned. Watch carefully, as this burns easily.
Adapted from a recipe submitted by Mrs. Clyde Zahn, Shawano.
4 eggs, well beaten
1 cup sugar
Pinch salt
1 cup flour
Sugar
Slivered almonds
Combine eggs and sugar and beat until sugar is dissolved. Stir in salt and flour. Blend well. Stir in vanilla. Spread in greased baking pan or pans so batter is ½- to ¾-inch thick. Sprinkle sugar and slivered almonds over the top. Batter should be covered, but topping should not be too thick. Bake at 350 degrees about 30 minutes or until done.
Submitted by the Reverend Frederick W. Ringe, Mukwonago.
½ cup shortening
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup hot water
1 cup dates, pitted
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup sugar
1 cup sifted flour
1 cup chopped nuts
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
Whipped cream or ice cream
Combine shortening and baking soda with hot water; pour over dates. Add egg, sugar, flour, nuts, salt, and vanilla. Mix well. Bake in an 8- or 9-inch square pan at 375 degrees for 35 minutes. Serve with whipped cream or ice cream.
Submitted by Charles Hendricksen, Milwaukee.
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
Lemon flavoring to taste
4 eggs
1 cup milk
4 scant cups sifted flour
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 cup currants
⅓ cup citron
4 teaspoons cinnamon
Currant jelly
Cream butter thoroughly; add sugar gradually, beating continuously. Beat in lemon flavoring. Beat eggs until very light; add to butter mixture with milk. Sift together sifted flour, cream of tartar, and baking soda and sift into batter. Beat quickly and thoroughly.
Grease and flour three square pans of the same size, 8 or 9 inches. Pour ⅓ of batter into each of two pans. Into the remaining ⅓ of batter, stir currants, citron, and cinnamon; pour into remaining pan. Bake at 350 degrees until done, about 30 minutes.
Cool slightly and remove from pans. Put layers together with thin spreadings of currant jelly, placing the cinnamon-currant layer in the center. While still warm, firmly weight the layers down; a pair of iron flatirons works nicely.
Submitted by Mrs. Forrest Wilms, Neenah.
Young girls in Madison celebrate a birthday with cake, party favors, and hats, September 1930.
WHi Image ID 20082
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon cloves
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup sugar
4 eggs, very well beaten
1 teaspoon light corn syrup
2 teaspoons heavy cream
½ cup light rye flour
½ cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
Sliced almonds
Confectioners’ sugar
Mix spices with sugar; add gradually to well beaten eggs and continue beating until light and fluffy. Beat in corn syrup and cream. Mix flours with baking powder and gradually add to the batter, beating thoroughly. Pour into an oiled and floured 9- by 13-inch cake pan. Top with sliced almonds. Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes. Sift confectioners’ sugar over the cake while still warm. Cut in squares while still warm.
Submitted by Helen F. Andruskevicz, Green Bay, who “had the foresight to copy this delicious recipe” when she was fourteen years old in the 1920s. Every August 15, Bohemian women from Menominee, Michigan, and Marinette, Wisconsin, would make a pilgrimage to Robinsonville, near Green Bay, for the feast of the Assumption. After mass and the procession through the fields, the women and their families would eat the lunch they brought with them, which always included this marzipan cake. “When they returned to our home on one of these occasions, one of the women baked a marzipan for us and I ‘caught’ all of the ingredients into measuring cups and spoons, for these were cooks without recipes. My mother was the interpreter, because none of these women spoke English.”
½ cup shortening
1½ cups sugar, divided
2 eggs
1 cup sour milk (see page 267)
2¼ cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch salt
½ cup finely chopped raisins
½ cup chopped nuts
2 oranges (grated rinds and juice)
Cream shortening and 1 cup sugar. Mix in eggs, milk, flour, baking soda, salt, raisins, and nuts. Bake in a square or rectangular pan at 350 degrees until done, about 30 minutes.
Mix grated orange rind, orange juice, and remaining sugar; let stand while cake is baking. While cake is still warm, pour orange mixture over cake evenly.
Orange juice mixture forms a glaze and the juice soaks into the cake. No icing is needed.
Submitted by Mrs. Harold Clumpner, Ogdensburg.
1 cup shortening
1½ cups brown sugar
1 egg
1 cup sour milk (see page 267) or buttermilk
1 teaspoon baking soda, divided
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
1½ cups finely cut raw rhubarb
¼ cup sugar
1½ teaspoons cinnamon
Whipped cream
Additional cinnamon and sugar
Cream shortening and brown sugar; beat in egg. Stir ½ teaspoon of the baking soda into the milk or buttermilk and add to shortening mixture. Combine flour and remaining baking soda and mix into batter with vanilla. Fold in rhubarb. Pour into a buttered 9- by 13-inch pan. Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.
Serve topped with whipped cream and sprinkled with additional cinnamon and sugar.
Submitted by La Verne (Mrs. Walter) Turnquist, Eagle River.
THE LARGE, WARMLY COMMODIOUS KITCHEN and the giant of a stove that dominated it remain a vivid remembrance of things past for some Wisconsinites. Some stoves were of plain black cast iron, but others were lavishly embellished with shiny chrome or nickel. Plain or fancy, they were intricate and efficient constructions of lids, fire box, warming oven, baking ovens, water tank, storage shelves, movable grates, and ash chest. The manipulator of this marvelous machine was very adept at controlling the oven temperature and utilizing the surface’s hot and cool spots to achieve the desired results.
There were a number of ways to test the proper heat for baking in a wood or coal stove oven. Being able to keep your hand in the oven for a moderately slow count of twenty was one. Another was to throw some flour onto the floor of the oven; if the flour caught fire, the oven was too hot. (The proper temperature browned the flour slightly after a few seconds.)
The flour might also be placed in a dish in the middle of the oven; in that position, the correct browning time was one minute. And some relied on the white writing paper test. If a sheet of it burned, the oven was too hot. If the color turned to yellow or buff, the cake or bread could go in.
On the surface of the stove, there were usually pots and pans at all times on both the hot and cool sections, with foods in various stages of preparation: the coffee or tea pot always at the ready, the bowl of sweet cream slowly souring, the pudding simmering, the bread rising. •
2¼ cups water
1 cup sugar
⅓ cup lard
½ cup chopped raisins
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon
⅓ teaspoon cloves
⅓ teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon baking soda
¾ cup chopped walnuts
2 cups sifted flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
Pinch salt
Combine water, sugar, lard, raisins, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, and allspice and bring to a boil. Remove from stove and add baking soda. Let cool. Add nuts, flour, baking powder, and salt and mix well. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.
Submitted by Jane Steinhorst Lyons, Greenfield. This eggless, milkless, butterless recipe came from her husband’s grandmother, who baked the cake as a girl. In those days, walnuts were comparatively cheap!
½ cup butter, at room temperature
½ cup sugar
2 eggs
½ cup molasses
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ cup buttermilk
1¾ cups flour
1 teaspoon ginger
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon salt
Lemon Sauce (see below)
Cream Topping (see below)
Cream butter and sugar with an electric beater until light. Add eggs and continue to beat. Stir in molasses. Add baking soda to buttermilk and stir to dissolve. Sift together flour, ginger, cinnamon, and salt. Add buttermilk to creamed mixture alternately with sifted dry ingredients. Beat well to blend. Spoon into a well-buttered and floured 8- or 9-inch square cake pan and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until cake shrinks from side of pan.
Split serving-size pieces of cake while warm and spoon on lemon sauce. Replace top piece and spoon more sauce over it. Top with cream topping and serve at once.
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 lemon, juice and grated rind
¼ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon butter
Beat eggs and sugar together; add lemon juice and rind, salt, and butter. Cook in a double boiler over simmering water until thick, stirring constantly. Makes about a cup of sauce for 2 or 3 servings.
1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
1 tablespoon rum or rum flavoring to taste
Whip cream until stiff. Sweeten with sugar and flavor with rum.
Submitted by Marjorie V. D. (Mrs. Alfred) Miley, Sheboygan Falls, who explained that this ginger cake was the favorite dessert of Ellen Sabin, the formidable and distinguished president of Milwaukee-Downer College from 1890 to 1921. It was served to the students on special occasions and was known as Miss Sabin’s Pudding. “It has since been a favorite in my family for three generations,” Mrs. Miley added.
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1½ cups applesauce
1 cup chopped dates
1 cup raisins
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
Using a wooden spoon, cream butter and sugar. Mix in egg, applesauce, dates, raisins, cinnamon, cloves, and vanilla and mix well. Mix in flour and baking soda. Batter will be very thick. Bake in large cake pan or in two or three loaf pans at 325 or 350 until done, about 30 to 60 minutes, depending on size of pan.
Submitted by Mrs. Ruth Bunker Christiansen, Frederic, who noted, “This is not a fussy cake and seems to turn out well no matter what size tins it is baked in. For a Christmas cake, I found that by adding candied fruits and nuts, and/or orange peel, this makes a delicious fruit cake. I bake it in loaves, set aside for two days, and wrap in waxed paper; it will keep for as long as two years, not frozen but in the refrigerator. If no dates are at hand, add another cup of raisins. If your applesauce is thick, add a tablespoon of water or cider, but don’t let the batter get thin.” Mrs. Christiansen’s older sister, a schoolteacher who boarded out during the week, brought the recipe home to their mother, probably sometime around the 1920s.
For the brown paper called for to line the pan, you can use baking parchment.
1 cup butter, softened, plus more for buttering pan
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon lemon extract
4 eggs
3 cups flour
¾ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 cup buttermilk
Butter and flour a 10-inch tube pan. Line bottom with brown paper.
Cream 1 cup butter and sugar with vanilla and lemon extract until light. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Sift together flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Add to creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk. Beat until smooth. Pour into prepared pan and bake at 350 degrees for about 1 hour and 10 minutes or until done.
Submitted by Mrs. Rosalie Franckowiak, Cudahy.
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
4 eggs, separated
¾ cup milk
1 cup mashed potatoes
4 ounces bitter chocolate, melted
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon cloves
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
Cream butter and sugar. Add egg yolks. Add milk, mashed potatoes, chocolate, flour, baking powder, and spices. Beat egg whites until stiff and fold in. Bake in an ungreased 9-inch spring-form pan at 350 degrees for 1 hour.
Variation: Other potato torte recipes contributed included raisins and called for sour cream instead of milk.
Submitted by Mrs. Edward Hoffman, Pewaukee.
1 package zwieback, grated (about 1 or 1½ cups)
2 cups sugar, divided
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ cup butter, melted
4 to 6 eggs (depending on how dry you like the filling)
2 pounds dry or well-drained cottage cheese
½ pint heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons flour
Pinch salt
Mix grated zwieback with 1 cup sugar and cinnamon. Pour butter over mixture and mix well with hands. Remove 1 cup and reserve. Line bottom and sides of buttered 9- by 13-inch baking pan with remaining crumb mixture.
Beat eggs; beat in remaining sugar. Add cheese, cream, vanilla, flour, and salt and mix well. Pour into crust and sprinkle top with reserved crumb mixture. Bake at 300 degrees for 1 hour or a little longer, until done.
Variations: Other recipes for cheese torte (or cheesecake) called for Holland rusk or graham crackers instead of zwiebach.
Submitted by Susanne Marie Williams-Brown, Clintonville.
¼ cup butter, softened
½ cup sugar
6 eggs, separated
½ cup fine bread crumbs
¼ cup melted semi-sweet chocolate
⅓ cup ground poppy seeds
Strawberry or apricot jam
Chocolate cream frosting
Cream together butter and sugar. Beat egg yolks until thick and lemon colored; beat in creamed mixture and crumbs. Fold in chocolate and poppy seeds. Beat egg whites until stiff and fold in. Spread in 2 buttered, paper-lined round cake pans and bake at 325 degrees until a light touch leaves no depression, 25 to 30 minutes. Turn out cakes and remove paper at once. Cool.
Put layers together with jam, and frost with a chocolate cream frosting.
Submitted by Darlene Kronschnabel, Greenleaf.
1½ cups flour
¾ cup sugar, divided
1 teaspoon baking powder
10 tablespoons cold butter
2 tablespoons brandy
6 eggs, separated
1 quart fresh pitted red cherries or 1 cup canned pitted sour red cherries, drained
¼ pound grated almonds (unblanched)
Rind of 1 orange, grated
Combine flour, ¼ cup sugar, and baking powder. Cut in butter as for pie crust. Beat together brandy and 1 egg yolk and add to flour mixture. Stir until particles cling together. Place dough in a spring-form pan and pat dough on bottom and up the sides almost to the top. Cover with cherries. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.
Beat egg whites with cream of tartar until frothy; gradually add remaining sugar and beat until stiff and glossy. Fold in almonds, orange rind, and remaining egg yolks, beaten. Pour mixture over cherries and return to oven for 45 minutes more.
Submitted by Phyllis Trimberger (Mrs. Roger J.) Schwartz, Milwaukee.
½ dolly cup butter
1 dolly cup sugar
1 bantam egg
2 dolly cups flour
2 dolly spoons baking powder
¼ dolly spoon nutmeg
½ dolly cup boiling water
Cream sugar and butter. Beat egg and add. Sift flour with baking powder and nutmeg; add to creamed mixture. Add water, beating batter as it is added. Bake in a small tin until done.
Submitted by Jean Bunker (Mrs. Felix) Schmidt, Siren, who added that “this is delicious for little girls and their dollies.” Her Scottish aunt gave her recipe after the family acquired two bantam chickens.
Hickory trees grow widely in Wisconsin, and numerous recipes using hickory nuts were submitted. Other similar cake recipes suggested finishing off the cake with confectioners’ sugar, cream cheese, or thin white frosting.
½ cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
1 cup milk
3 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup hickory nuts
4 egg whites
Chocolate boiled frosting
Cream butter and sugar. Add milk. Sift flour with baking powder and stir in nuts; add to creamed mixture. Beat egg whites until peaks form and fold in. Bake in a 9- by 13-inch pan at 375 degrees 30 or 35 minutes. Frost with a chocolate boiled frosting.
Submitted by Margaret Rose Hart, Milwaukee. This was one way her grandmother used up the nuts that grew on the hickory trees on their farm near Eureka, north of Berlin.
1 cup honey (strongly flavored, like buckwheat honey)
1 cup sugar
½ cup corn oil
3 eggs
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup boiling strong black coffee
3½ cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup raisins
Peel from 1 orange, chopped
1 cup walnuts or almonds, chopped
Combine honey, sugar, corn oil, and eggs and mix well. Add cinnamon and cloves and mix. Dissolve baking soda in coffee; cool. Sift flour and baking powder together and add alternately with coffee to honey mixture. Stir in raisins, orange peel, and nuts. Pour into a greased and floured tube pan and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.
Submitted by Mrs. Waclaw Soroka, Stevens Point.
NO PUBLIC OCCASION ON A COMMUNITY’S SOCIAL CALENDAR during the nineteenth century equaled the festivities of the Fourth of July. This was the big celebration of the year, with parades, oratory, public picnics, and fireworks displays in the evening.
An Independence Day egg race on Madeline Island, July 4, 1922. WHi Image ID 47249
In 1839 Madison residents welcomed the Fourth as a chance to vary their usual diet of bacon and fish with a fat steer. The men washed this down with what they called Peckatonica and Rock River. (The names of southern Wisconsin rivers, not always spelled as they are now, were used to designate various grades of whiskey.)
Liquor, however, was not a part of every community’s observance of July Fourth. In 1854 the Wisconsin Temperance League (a weekly newspaper published in Milwaukee) carried this account of the day’s festivities in Baraboo: “The dinner, for variety, deliciousness and abundance, was probably never equalled in so new a place. ... The tables were loaded with upwards of forty different varieties of food, well prepared and tastefully arranged. ... We know by the tickets collected at the table that twelve hundred persons dined with us on the occasion. ... No drunkenness was seen about the town during the day or evening; and with very few exceptions no profanity was heard. What a change there will be [elsewhere] in our Fourth of July celebration when rum is outlawed.”
A northwestern Wisconsin resident recalled a memorable Fourth in the early 1880s when a cut-down pork barrel was used to make lemonade for the picnic. There was no ice, since the relatively new settlement had not yet progressed to the icehouse stage, and the water had to be carried from the creek under a July sun: “It was warm lemonade, but it was good, it was a treat, and it was free!” For entrees, “I suppose there were baked beans and homemade bread and butter sandwiches.” And for dessert, “In those first few years it was only at Christmas time and on the Fourth of July that folks had pie or cake, so I suppose we did have a taste on the first Fourth celebration.”
In another developing part of the state, at least one businessman promoted a Fourth of July celebration as much for profit as patriotic reasons. Dave Stewart, who owned a mill near Wittenberg in Shawano County, decided in 1889 to “have a Fourth of July celebration at the Saw Mill,” as one of his employees later wrote. “I was cookee and so was Ovy St. Clair, and Albert Fitzgerald was the cook. He baked many Strawberry Pies, cookies, Doughnuts, cake, and so forth and we had a Big Supper for all. The outsiders paid for supper but the Boarders had theirs free. At 8 P.M. the Fire works were set off on a Hill across the road East from the Orchard and they were fine. After that was over every one went to the Ware House to Dance. The music was fine; they danced until 4 A.M.” •
½ cup shortening
1 cup sugar
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 egg
3 tablespoons molasses
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup sour milk (see page 267)
Mix together shortening, sugar, flour, baking powder, nutmeg, cloves, and cinnamon. Measure out ½ cup and reserve. Add egg, molasses, baking soda, and sour milk. Mix well. Pour into a greased 8- by 12-inch pan. Sprinkle with reserved crumb mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for about 1 hour.
Submitted by Nancy (Mrs. Robert) Cushman, Elkhorn.
½ cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 square bitter chocolate, melted
1 cup sour milk (see page 267)
1½ cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ cup currants or raisins
½ cup walnuts
Cream butter and sugar together; beat in egg. Stir in melted chocolate. Add milk alternately with flour and baking soda. Add currants and nuts and stir well to blend. Bake in a greased 9- by 13-inch pan at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes. Frost with your favorite icing.
Submitted by Mrs. Claude Sorenson, Manitowoc,
3 cups flour
½ cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup molasses
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup strong coffee, cold
½ teaspoon salt
½ pound chopped raisins
½ pound currants
Brown flour in a shallow pan in a moderate oven (350 degrees), watching carefully; cool and set aside.
Cream butter and sugar; add molasses and beat well. Dissolve baking soda in coffee and add to creamed mixture alternately with browned flour and salt. Stir in raisins and currants and blend well. Pour into greased and floured bread pan and bake at 350 degrees for 1½ hours or until done. Cool and wrap well and store for a few days to mellow the flavor.
Submitted by Mrs. Jean S. Hesse, Sheboygan. Her grandmother’s recipe was also known as Poor Man’s Fruitcake. “Years ago,” she noted, “thin slices of this cake were often served with strong cups of tea, diluted as Danes like it with milk and sugar.”
2 cups sifted flour
2 cups sugar
½ teaspoon salt
½ pound butter
1 cup water
3 tablespoons cocoa
2 eggs, well beaten
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
Quick and Easy Chocolate Frosting (see page 310)
Sift together flour, sugar, and salt into mixing bowl. In a saucepan, combine butter, water, and cocoa and bring to a boil. Pour over dry ingredients, and mix. Beat together eggs, baking soda, buttermilk, vanilla, and cinnamon, if desired; add to batter and mix well. Bake in a greased 15½- by 10- by 1-inch baking sheet at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes.
Make frosting about 5 minutes before cake is done, and frost as soon as it is removed from oven.
Submitted by Augusta (Mrs. Adolph) Miller, Montello.
1 cup butter
4½ cups sifted cake flour
2½ cups brown sugar
¼ teaspoon or more spices as desired
4 eggs, beaten
2 cups warmed beer
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 cups raisins
1½ cups white raisins
1 cup candied cherries
1 cup blanched chopped almonds
1 cup candied citrus peel (citron, lemon, and orange), cubed
Juice and grated rind of 1 lemon
Cut butter into flour. Add brown sugar and spices. Mix well. Beat together eggs, beer, and baking soda. Mix into dry ingredients. Fold in fruits, nuts, citrus peel, and lemon juice and rind. Pour into a well-greased and floured 9- by 13-inch baking pan. Cover with waxed paper and bake at 275 or 300 degrees for 3 to 3½ hours, removing wax paper about 30 minutes before it’s done.
Submitted by the Reverend Cormac Dwyer, Milwaukee.
1 heaping teaspoon baking soda
2 cups boiling water
1 pound ground fat salt pork
1 cup light molasses
2 cups sugar
2 tablespoons cinnamon
1 tablespoon cloves
7 cups flour, divided
2 cups raisins
1 pound currants
½ pound diced citron or yellow raisins
Dissolve baking soda in boiling water and pour over ground salt pork. Add molasses, sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and 5 cups flour. Mix well. In another bowl combine raisins, currants, citron, and remaining flour. Stir into first mixture. Bake in small loaf pans at 275 or 300 degrees for 1 to 1½ hours or until done.
Submitted by Jane (Mrs. Edward) Rikkers, Madison.
4 eggs, separated
1½ cups sugar, divided
½ cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup sifted cake flour
¼ teaspoon salt
⅓ cup milk
Custard (see below)
In a medium bowl, beat egg whites, slowly adding 1 cup sugar to make a meringue. Beat until thick peaks form. Set aside.
In another medium bowl, cream butter; add remaining sugar, egg yolks, and vanilla. Beat well (beaters do not need to be washed after beating meringue). Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt, and slowly add to butter mixture alternately with the milk. Beat well. Divide into 2 greased and floured 9-inch cake pans (layers will be thin). Spread meringue evenly over cake batter. Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes. Cool.
Remove carefully, meringue up; assemble on a cake plate with custard between layers and over the top.
½ cup sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon flour
2 cups milk
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
Combine sugar, salt, cornstarch, and flour; stir into milk in a saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until thick. Beat egg yolk in a cup with a fork; add a little of the hot mixture, then blend into custard. Cook a little longer. Remove from heat and add butter and vanilla; stir well. Cool.
Submitted by Mrs. Norbert La See, Marshfield.
Schaum torte is usually served with strawberries or other fruit and whipped cream, with flavored whipped cream alone, or with ice cream.
6 egg whites
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon vinegar
Beat egg whites until peaks form. Add sugar gradually, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla and vinegar. Bake in a greased and floured 9-inch spring-form pan at 225 degrees for 1 hour.
Submitted by Miss Edna. L. Timmel, Oconomowoc.
This novelty recipe was widely circulated at the turn of the twentieth century; the ingredients were to be found in the cited verses from the Bible.
1 cup Judges 5, verse 25
3½ cups I Kings 4, verse 22
3 cups Jeremiah 6, verse 20
2 cups I Samuel 30, verse 12
2 cups I Samuel 30, verse 12
1 cup Genesis 24, verse 17
1 cup Genesis 43, verse 11
6 Isaiah 10, verse 14
1 teaspoon Judges 14, verse 18
Pinch Leviticus 2, verse 13
To taste I Kings 10, verse 10
2 teaspoons I Corinthians 5, verse 6
Follow Solomon’s advice in Proverbs 23, verse 14 for making good boys and you will make a good cake. Or proceed as in the ordinary rules for cake baking, putting in the fruit and nuts last of all. The raisins should be seeded, the figs chopped and the almonds blanched and sliced; all of these well floured to prevent sinking to the bottom.
From a recipe submitted by Mrs. Lucius Fairchild in the Capital City Cook Book, third edition, published by the Grace Church Guild, Madison, 1906. Lucius Fairchild was governor of Wisconsin from 1866 to 1872. For those without a Bible close at hand, the ingredients, in the order given, are: butter, flour, sugar, raisins, figs, water, almonds, eggs, honey, salt, spices, and baking powder.
1 cup sugar
1 cup sour cream
1 cup hickory nuts
Combine sugar and sour cream and cook until thick. Beat in nuts.
Submitted by Virginia Roe, Whitewater.
¼ pound butter
3 tablespoons cocoa
6 tablespoons milk
1 pound confectioners’ sugar
½ cup chopped nuts
1 teaspoon vanilla
Mix butter, cocoa, and milk in a saucepan and heat over low heat, but do not boil. Remove from heat and add sugar, nuts, and vanilla. Mix well.
Submitted by Augusta (Mrs. Adolph) Miller, Montello.
Isinglass is transparent, pure gelatin made from the bladder of fishes such as sturgeon.
“1 sheet coopers isinglass dissolved in small teacup boiling water. Stir into 2 pounds pulverized sugar and flavor to taste.”
From a notebook kept by Frances Kimberly Babcock of Neenah. Her husband, Havilah Babcock, whom she married in 1872, was one of the four men who founded the Kimberly Clark Paper Company. Submitted by Mrs. Henry Babcock Adams, Neenah.
¾ cup butter, softened
½ cup confectioners’ sugar
Strawberries
Beat together butter and sugar until creamy. Add strawberries, whole or sliced, as needed to make a frosting.
Submitted by Mrs. Rosalie Franckowiak, Cudahy.
1 cup heavy cream
¾ cup brown sugar
Vanilla to taste
Chopped nuts (optional)
Combine cream and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly. Reduce to simmer and cook until of a rather thick consistency, stirring frequently. Remove from heat, add vanilla, and beat with a spoon until cool. Frost cake and sprinkle with chopped nuts if desired.
Submitted by Romona (Mrs. Courtland) Sperger, Waupun.