Pineapple Upside Down Cake (Mable Haas)

by Mrs Marvel

Good ol Mable Haas had quite a few treats in her cookbook. I have seen lots of vintage recipes for pineapple upside down cake. It must have been “the thing” for quite some time. It doesn’t sound good to me, but I know lots of people like it. The way this recipe reads is probably the way Mable thought, meaning she went through the process in a less organized manner than most recipes are written. It makes this somehow more endearing and homey.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake (Mable Haas)

1/4 cup shortening

1 cupful brown sugar

1 can pineapple

Melt the shortening in a 10 or 12 in pan. Spread brown sugar evenly over bottom of pan. Cover the sugar with well drained pineapple. And then cover the pineapples with the cake batter as follows.

3 eggs

5 tablespoonsful of pineapple juice

1 cup gran. sugar

1 cup flour

Add sugar to the beaten egg yolks.

1 teaspoon B powder.

Then mix in pineapple juice and the flour sifted with the baking powder. Fold in the beaten egg whites. Pour this batter over pineapple, sugar and shortening. Bake in moderate hot oven for 30 to 40 minutes.

Dough nuts (Mrs Figley)

by Mrs Marvel

The dough nut is considered a thoroughly American food, although it is similar to the Dutch “oil cake” popular in the 18th century. In New Amsterdam, er, New York around 1809, Washington Irving described the nuts of dough fried in hog’s fat in his History of New York. This is considered to be the earliest written reference to the sweet treat that can be found in street corner shops nationwide and also around the world. Frying some dough in fat is not the unique part, it is in the shape – the disc with its center punched out. There are a variety of claims as to how the dough nut got its distinctive appearance, but really no one knows. Generally they are sweet, but you can make them savory with spices, as they are made in India.

Mashed potato dough nuts are a homey version of the hi falutin dough nut of today. They are a good use for the extra mashed left over after Thanksgiving dinner, or just a different way to make them. If you make your mashies with onion or garlic, these would be a savory dough nut. Once you mix the ingredients, roll the dough out to about 1/2″ thickness and use a cutter to cut out dough nut shapes. Fry in fat until browned on both sides and drain on paper towels. You can sprinkle them with powdered sugar while still hot for a really traditional treat. Enjoy!

Dough nuts (Mrs Figley)

1 cup mashed potatoes

2 eggs

1 1/2 cup flour sugar

1 cup sweet milk

2 tablespoons butter and lard

3 teaspoons baking powder

flour to make a soft dough

Puffed Rice (Elda Hartman)

by Mrs Marvel

I have never seen a recipe for puffed rice, and this one is sketchy on the information at best. You will also notice that it doesn’t mention rice or puffed rice in the ingredients. The closest recipe I could find in my research was for a puffed rice candy from 1920. Based on similar ingredients, I am going to assume this is for puffed rice candy, and I will add the instructions to make that treat. My additions will be in italics.

To Make Puffed Rice (Elda Hartman)

6 c puffed rice

1 cup of sugar

3/4 cup of water

1 tablespoon full of butter

2 tablespoons molasses

1 tablespoon vinegar

a little salt

Toast rice until crispy at 350 on a cookie sheet then set aside. In a pan mix sugar, water and vinegar and bring to a boil for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and add butter and molasses. Return to heat and bring back to a boil. Boil until mixture reaches hard ball (turns crispy in water). Mix in toasted puffed rice and stir until all coated. Press into a flat pan then press down on the rice to flatten it and cut into squares while still hot.

Chocolate Cake (Alice Rhoads)

by Mrs Marvel

Yet another chocolate cake recipe…can there ever be enough?

Chocolate Cake (Alice Rhoads)

2 cups brown sugar

1/2 cup butter + lard

2 eggs

1 cup sour milk

1/2 cup cocoa

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 cup flour

1 teaspoon vanilla

cream butter and sugar. Add eggs. Beat well add cocoa. Put baking soda in sour milk. Stir well add to cake mixture. Add flour + vanilla.

Fudge Squares (Mabel Haas)

by Mrs Marvel

Here’s another from Mabel Haas, who seems to like chocolate. :-)

Fudge Squares (Mabel Haas)

4 squares chocolate

1/3 cup butter

2 eggs

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup Kellogs All Bran

1/2 cup nut meats

1 teaspoon vanilla

Melt chocolate over hot water. Add butter. Beat eggs until light add ot butter to chocolate, then add the rest of the ingredients. Bake bout 20 minutes hot oven 380 cut in squares.