Carrot Cake

This is from the recipe drawer of Ora. Now I never had a chance to dig through Ora's recipe drawer, but passed around the family, as all amazing recipes are, I do have this recipe in my own recipe journal. I am sure that I wrote it down from some slip of paper that my mom had, but I don't have a picture of the old recipe. So that means you are going to have to use your imagination to picture this fantastic decadent cake.

• 2 c. sugar
• 1 1/2 c. oil
• 3 eggs
• 3 c. flour
• 2 t. baking soda
• 2 t. salt
• 1 t. cinnamon
• 3 c. grated carrots
• 1 c. chopped pecans
• 1 t. vanilla
• 1  - 20 oz. can crushed pineapple, untrained
• 1 c. raisins

*Preheat oven to 350°.
*Cream together sugar, oil and eggs.
*In another bowl, blend together flour, soda, salt, and cinnamon. Add to creamed mixture.
*Then add remaining ingredients.
*Grease and flour layer cake pans or a 9 x 13 baking dish. Add batter to pans.
*Bake layers for 30-35 or 9 x 13 for 1 hour.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

• 1 box of powdered sugar
• 1 stick of butter
• 8 oz. cream cheese
• 1 t. vanilla

*Sprinkle top of cake with chopped pecans.

Although there are no specific directions on the frosting, I am quite sure it is straightforward.  I am hoping you will give this one a try. It is extraordinary!

Applesauce Cake

This is from the recipe drawer of Maxine.  As I was looking through some of the recipes, trying to decide which recipe to post next, I came across this applesauce cake.  I recognized this recipe as one that I had written in my own recipe journal.  Mine is written down as "Great-Grandma Schaefli's Applesauce Cake."  I got this recipe from my husband's grandmother, Lola, Maxine's mom, and the daughter of Ada Mae Schaefli.

I also found two recipes in Maxine's drawer for this.  One you can tell was well worn and used and the other one was on a nice card and written in Maxine's handwriting.  I am making an educated guess, but I would suppose that the other one is written in either Lola or Ada Mae's handwriting and that Maxine put it in her drawer after Lola passed away.











I don't remember exactly, but I am sure I must have gotten the recipe from Lola, as mine is just the list of ingredients with the cooking time and temperature.  Maxine's copy also has some instructions with it.  So I will definitely want to try this cake again and try the instructions and see how it comes out.


1/2 c. shortening
1 c. sugar
1 1/2 c. apple sauce
1 c. raisins
1 c. pecans
1 egg
2 c. flour
1 t. cinnimon
1/2 t. allspice
1/2 t. cloves
1/4 t. nutmeg
2 t soda (baking soda)
1/4 c. hot water

Cream shortening and sugar.  Add egg.  Stir in applesauce.  Add flour and spices and mix well.  Pour in raisins that have been cooked slightly over low flame.  Mix soda with 1/4 c. hot water and add to mixture.  Add nuts and mix well.   Bake 45 minutes   375 degrees

May bake in Angel food cake pan or Bundt pan.

I have made this cake in the past with success and also without success.  I am hoping that the addition of these instructions will make it come out great every time!

Raw Apple Cake

This is from the recipe drawer of Pat.  I'm not sure where my mom got this recipe originally, but she used to make it often.  It was the favorite cake of my dad's best friend, Bill.  My dad and and Bill were truck drivers and often hauled apples.  We usually had several bags of chopped frozen apples in our freezer from their trips to the northwest.

Bill, became my father-in-law and like father, like son.  This is my husband's favorite cake as well, so it was important for me to have this recipe.  I don't have this recipe written in my mom's handwriting, but here it is:

3 c. flour
2 c. sugar
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1 t. cinnamon
3 c. apples; peeled, cored and chopped
1 1/2 c. chopped nuts, (optional)
3 eggs, slightly beaten
1 1/4 c. vegetable oil
2 T. vanilla

*Mix dry ingredients
*Add apples; and nuts (optional)
*In a separate small bowl, combine oil, eggs & vanilla
*Add to main mixture
*Stir with spoon or spatula; do not use mixer
*Grease and flour a tube pan or a 13 x 9 baking dish
*Bake at 350 degrees; tube pan - 1 hour; 13 x 9 - 45 min

There is a secret to making this the awesome cake that it can be.  You have to hide it.  Oh... it is good if you eat it the same day that you bake it.  But make it a day ahead and once it is completely cooled, put a lid on your pan if it has one, or cover it with plastic wrap.  Hide it!  If someone knows you have the cake, they might sneak a bite.  If you can manage to keep it until the next day, you will taste the most amazingly moist cake.  Just before you serve it dust lightly with powdered sugar.

"Sock It To Me" Cake

This is from the recipe drawer of Pat.  This is a cake that my mom used to make on special occasions. It is an interesting recipe, as this was one of the first cakes I remember her making in a bundt pan.  It also doesn't have a traditional frosting, but instead has a glaze.

Combine:
1 Box Duncan Hinds Butter Cake Mix
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup oil
4 eggs, well beaten
1/2 teaspoon butter flavoring
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup nuts
1/2 pt. sour cream

Mix together:
     1 tablespoon brown sugar
     1 teaspoon cinnamon
Pour half of batter in pan.  Sprinkle half of sugar mixture over batter.  Pour other half and sprinkle rest of mixture.  Bake 325 for 1 hour.
While cake is warm glaze with:
     1 cup powdered sugar
     3 tablespoon milk
     1/2 teaspoon vanilla
     1/2 teaspoon butter flavoring

Now that I really look at this recipe, I don't know if I ever remember seeing a "butter" cake recipe or "butter" flavoring.  Guess that is something that I am going to have to look for the next time I am at the store.  Curious if they still have those.

Next time you need a cake for company or to take to a pot luck, give this one a try.

Hummingbird Cake

This is from the recipe drawer of Maxine.  Hummingbird Cake...it is certainly a traditional, southern dessert.  This is my sister's favorite cake.  And since her birthday is this month, I thought this recipe would be appropriate. I remember my mom making this cake, but only on very special occasions.

3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 tsp. soda
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 - 8 oz. can crushed pineapple
2 cups chopped bannana
1 cup nuts

1.  Sift dry ingredients together.
2.  Add all others
3.  Stir until mixed well - do not beat
4.  Bake in 10" tube pan 350 degree oven 1 hour 10 mins or until cooked.  Cool in pan.

Frosting

2 - 3 oz. cream cheese - softened
1 stick margarine
1 tsp. vanilla
1 box confectionery sugar

Since I knew that this was my sister's favorite cake, and I have actually made it for her a couple of times from a recipe my mom gave me, I thought I would look up her recipe and see if there was very much of a difference.  What I found was an almost identical recipe...the only differences were these:

*2 cups of nuts instead of 1
*Bake in 3 layer cake pans instead of a tube pan.  Bake for 25 to 30 minutes.
*Basically double the frosting recipe:  2 - 8 oz packages of cream cheese, 2 sticks of margarine, 2 tsp. vanilla and 2 boxes of confectionery sugar.  This will be enough to frost the three-layer cake.

By the way... I can highly recommend this cake, but be careful... it is very rich!

Mandarin Orange Cake

This is from the recipe drawer of Maxine.  This is one of those recipes that you imagine Maxine got from a friend at work.  How can we tell?  It is written on a notepad from Southwestern Bell Telephone Company where she worked for many years.  When someone brings a great dish to a work potluck, where do you write the recipe or have them write it for you?  More than likely in this day, they either send it to us in an email or by text.  Just another little detail that gets lost from the recipe.

1 box yellow cake mix
1 can Mandarin oranges w/juice
2 eggs
1/4 c. oil (in the second half of the 20th century, if it doesn't say, the oil is most likely vegetable oil)

Mix and pour in greased floured pan.
Bake 425 degrees 30 min. 9 x 13
Break up oranges; mixer or blender

1 sm. box instant vanilla pudding
1 sm. can pineapple w/juice
9 oz. carton Cool Whip (I don't think that you can buy a 9 oz Cool Whip; probably 8 oz)

Mix and spread.
Set in fridg (refrigerator) for 2 days
Optional - pecans on top

One thing I would always suggest when making a hand-written recipe is to read it all the way through before you begin.  You may find little notes, that give you better directions farther down in the recipe.  For example, it isn't until after we get the baking directions, that it tells us we need to break up the oranges with either a mixer or blender.  If we just started making it we would have whole orange segments in the batter.  Now I am not saying that the cake would not taste good... but it would be one of those occasions when you would have tweaked the recipe and it would start to be different...not wrong... just different.

Applesauce Cake

This is from the recipe drawer of Maxine.  Don't you love to see a recipe that looks like this... stained with ingredients and difficult to read... you know that this recipe has been made over and over... a winner for sure!

Maxine gave me this recipe several years ago and told me that it was her Grandma Schlaeffli's recipe.  I can tell that this is not Maxine's handwriting, so I am guessing that it may actually be written by Grandma Schlaeffli.  What a treasure!

1 1/2 cups applesauce
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup raisins
1 cup nuts
1 egg
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons soda, dissolved in a little hot water

Bake about 45 min. or more
375 degrees

So here lies the problem with many of these handwritten recipes from way back when.  There are no instructions.  So what we need to do is rely on our own knowledge of other recipes... mixing the wet ingredients, then the dry, and finally adding the dry to the wet.  This would be my first way to try this recipe.  But it may be one of those that you might have to make a couple of times and try out a couple of ways to see how it works best for you.

The other thing that I like to think about is the age of the recipe.  Maxine's Grandma Schlaeffli was probably making this recipe at the turn and in the first few decades of the 20th century. I would imagine her making this without the use of an electric mixer, so you might want to just try mixing this batter together in a bowl with a wooden spoon.  Along those same lines, she might have used whatever nuts she had available, so you could try it with pecans one time, walnuts another time, etc.  See which you like better.  I'm sure that this is the way we ended up with untold numbers of different recipes for the same items... everyone doing just one little trick different to make it their own.  Maybe some day it won't be Grandma Schlaeffli's Applesauce Cake...  your granddaughter may call it Grandma (insert your name here) Applesauce Cake.  No greater tribute of respect than having food named after you!