Our patroness – Irene Bartz, who attended the Girl’s Trade School in 1938 or so – was a prodigious recipe collector. I spent a couple days scanning the entire book due to its increasing fragility. Each time I handled it, another piece seemed to fall off. So, I made the decision to scan everything and then put the book away for good. I don’t want any more pieces of the pages to break off and thereby take a crucial measurement or word with it. I scanned 76 pages and came away with almost 300 recipes. Some are much like this one.

This recipe was probably on the Pillsbury’s Best Flour package. Even today, companies print recipes of what you can make with their products, right on the packaging. It’s one part being a good neighbor and two parts brand placement. If you read a recipe that specifically states “Pillsbury’s Best Flour” or “Mazola Oil” in it, regardless of what you know about food prep, you might be more likely to purchase the brand mentioned in the recipe. Maybe they have something different that makes the dish turn out “just so.”

I’ll transcribe the cake recipe, but I think you can read well enough I don’t need to transcribe the frosting recipe.

Orange Blossom Cake

2 2/3 cups flour

2 1/2 t baking powder

1/2 t salt

1/4 t soda

2/3 c shortening

1 3/4 c sugar

3 eggs, separated

1 1/2 t grated orange rind

1 c orange juice

1 t vanilla extract

1. Sift dry ingredients together
2. cream shortening thoroughly; add sugar gradually, beating until fluffy
3. Add egg yolks one at a time, beating well after each addition
4. Add grated rind to orange juice. Add sifted dry ingredients, alternately with liquid, to creamed mixture. Beat well.
5. Beat egg whites until stiff, but to dry; fold into batter. Add flavoring.
6. Bake in greased layer pans, lined with waxed paper, in moderate oven. Cool.
7. Put layers together and cover top and sides of cake with marshmallow frosting. Garnish top with marshmallow halves or “flowers” and candied orange peel. To make “flowers” cut each marshmallow in half through rounded side, then with scissors, cut out 4 pie-shaped wedges, without cutting through center.