I hate to think badly of our patron who provided all these recipes that I consider the “farmers” recipes because of the Farmer’s Record booklet, but this one has some misspellings, missing information and such an odd note at the end….was she getting a bit up in years? I am going to guess that the amounts are cups.
What do you all think??
Cho(co)late Cake
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sweet milk
1/2 cup chocolate
1/2 teaspoonfull soda
1/tablespoonful baker ??
Make them stiff
Gram's Recipe Box 
I’m not much better, so I really can’t comment lol
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She is talking about the egg whites – make them stiff before adding them to the batter – makes for a lighter cake :-)
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Ah, now that makes sense! Thanks Karen!
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You are probably right but the recipe doesn’t have eggs written on it.
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My first thought is that the note is related to one often seen on older bread recipes: add enough flour to make the dough stiff. Also, when I see a cake recipe that uses no eggs, I think “war cake”.
It’s also possible that the baker was using her own shorthand or really did leave out an ingredient or two by accident.
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the last item…the one that says baker ???? My one grandmother made her p’s like that too..that last item is baking powder… most likely double acting depending on the year could have been single acting if this was an old enough recipe…It would be anyone’s guess on how much eggs and flour…but if she is beating them stiff…it might be some type of chocolate sponge cake…You probably would have made the wet…sifted the flour into the batter and then added egg…with the egg whites going in last to give it more lift…
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