I hope everyone had a nice week off celebrating American Independence, or just enjoying yourselves. In the spirit of summer, today’s newspaper recipe is for an Orange Cake, sounds lovely. It came from Mrs Le Roy Mohnke at 1680 S. Pearl Street. I believe this was in Milwaukee, WI. Just for fun, I did a quick Ancestry search and found not only Le Roy Mohnke, but also a number of other Le Roy Mohnkes with variations on the spelling – Leroy, LeRoy, Monk, Monke, etc. Interesting! One possible match was for Le Roy Mohnke born in 1895, married to Elizabeth in 1920, and then a Le Roy Mohnke Jr born in 1928 and married to Delores. The fun (or funny) think about genealogy is that it can often draw you in the wrong direction – there are a surprising number of Le Roy / Leroy Mohnke / Monks. In this instance however, I think it is a match to each other at least. There’s no telling if Elizabeth or Delores wrote this recipe for Orange Cake, or when.

Orange Cake

Beat 5 yolks for 5 minutes, add 1 cup of sugar gradually, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, juice of 1/2 lemon, 1/2 orange, and 1 cup flour which has been sifted with 1/4 teaspoon baking powder. Beat egg whites stiff. Fold in lightly. Bake in 3 layers in moderate oven.

Filling

Boil 1 cup water, juice of 1/2 lemon, 1/2 orange, and 1 teaspoon cornstarch. Dissolve in 3 tablespoons water. 1 egg yolk, 1 teaspoon butter. Put between layers.

Orange Cake

5 eggs, separated

1 cup sugar

1/2 t vanilla

Juice of half a lemon

Juice of half an orange

1 cup flour

1/4 t baking powder

1 cup water

Juice of half a lemon

juice of half an orange

1 t cornstarch dissolved in 3 T water

1 egg yolk

1 t butter

Beat 5 egg yolks for 5 minutes, gradually add sugar, vanilla, and the first 1/2 of the juices. Sift flour with baking powder, then add. Separately, beat the egg whites stiff. Fold into the cake mixture gently. Bake in 3 layer tins that have been sprayed with baking spray or greased and floured. 350º until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool completely before assembling.

For the filling, boil together water and the second 1/2 of the juices, along with the cornstarch dissolved in the water. Add to this 1 egg yolk slightly beaten and the butter. When firm, spread between the layers.