Chocolate Cake (Mrs Paden)

by Mrs Marvel

Day three of the chocolate cake recipes…are you feeling full yet?  :-) Again, I don’t know who Mrs Paden was, but assume a friend from church. This is an unusual recipe, calling for vinegar. Also, I’m not quite sure what she means about “alternate.” If I get around to trying it I will let you know. Unfortunately, my family is suffering from the quantity of baked goods lately, so I might have to cut back, or at least take most of the goodies to my office, give them to the neighbor, anything!

Chocolate Cake (Mrs Paden)

2 heaping tbsp Crisco –>

1 c sugar –>                           Mix together

1 egg –>

2 heaping tbsp cocoa –>

1 tsp soda

1 tbsp vinegar

1 1/2 c flour – salt – vanilla } alternate

1 c cold water }

Bake about 350

Chocolate Cake (Ethel Ogden)

by Mrs Marvel

There can never be too many recipes for chocolate cake, in my opinion. Here’s a nice recipe for chocolate cake from Ethel Ogden. I assume this was a friend from church.

Chocolate Cake (Ethel Ogden)

1 tbsp butter – generous

1 cup sugar

Cream

1 egg, beat in whole

2 tbsp cocoa –>

pinch salt –> Sift together

1 3/4 c flour –>

3/4 cup sour milk

1 tsp soda dissolved in 1/4 c boiling water

vanilla

Bake 45 min in 350 oven

Devil’s Food Cake

by Mrs Marvel

Today we are going to start with some cake recipes. For those of you who thought Devils Food Cake only came from a Betty Crocker box, here is a relatively easy looking cake recipe that probably tastes a whole lot better. It may be a bit labor intensive because there are several steps, but something tells me you should try it! Note, the cakes of chocolate are surely bakers unsweetened chocolate, and for lighter cake you could try cake flour. Depending on the quantity of batter, you could bake this in 8x8s, 9″ rounds or a 9×13. If you make it in a 9×13, be sure to watch the cook time so the middle bakes thoroughly. Enjoy!

Devils Food Cake

1/2 cup butter

2 cups brown sugar

Cream

3 egg yolks (unbeaten)

1/2 cup boiling water –>     mix and add to the

3 cakes of [bakers] chocolate –>       foregoing

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups flour

1 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 cup sour milk –> together

1/2 tsp soda –>

Beat well and add 3 egg whites, beaten stiff.  375.

**Gramma A, please look at that number for the egg whites and tell me if you think it’s 3 or 8. It looks as thought she wrote over a 2 and 8 doesn’t sound right at all.

Pickles (sweet)

by Mrs Marvel

I’ve just returned from my trip to Tennessee, where all things can be found pickled. I saw in a store a jar of watermelon pickles, regular pickles, pickled okra, pickled onions, and yes some other pickled things that shall remain nameless. So I figured I would post another of the pickle recipes that Gram had.

This is not her handwriting. It is possibly the handwriting of Louise Roueche, who supplied the recipe.

Pickles (sweet) – Louise Roueche

300 small pickles

Wash and dry. Put in large crock – 2/3 cup salt. Pour boiling water to cover and let stand over night. Drain and wipe dry. Return to crock.

1/2 gal cold vinegar

4 tbsp mustard, salt & sugar

1/2 cup mixed spice *

Sit in a cool place. Weigh 3 lbs sugar. Add a handful each day for 9 days until all sugar is used.

* I am guessing this refers to pickling spices. In my research I found that the usual ingredients are cinnamon, mustard seed, peppercorn, cloves, allspice, dill seeds, mace, bay leaves and ginger. These can be placed into a cheesecloth bag or simply mixed into the pickle juice.

UPDATE: This is a photo of Madeline Roueche, daughter of Louise Roueche.  Louise and Alice Sternberg (Gram’s mother) were good friends,  and Madeline and Gram became good friends.  Madeline was a doctor, which in the 30s was uncommon. Madeline and Gram had the same taste in glasses.

Caramel Cookies

by Mrs Marvel

Some time back, I posted the recipe for Mrs. Owens’ Caramel Cookies. At the time, my friend Jodi thought they sounded great and made them for her family. They raved about them and I made a mental note to make them sooner than later. Fast forward and it’s the last night of my vacation visiting my best friend in Tennessee (lovely country, btw). We wanted to spend the entire day baking, but really only wound up with a few hours after all the kids went to bed. Go figure.

We decided to make the caramel cookies, and boy are we glad we did!

We creamed the first three ingredients before adding in the rest.

Tara’s little mixer cost 6 bucks today and it was worth about 5, ha ha. So, after we creamed the first three ingredients, we added the flour (which almost burnt out the motor on the mixer) and the other items.

We dropped them as instructed on the recipe card, and per Jodi’s recommendation baked them for 10 minutes at 375.

The cookies turned out crispy on the edges and soft in the center. Just out of the oven and warm they are to die for! Tara suggested larger chunks of pecan or less than 1 full cup of finely chopped pecans; she also wants to try this recipe with mini chocolate chips. We loved them and this will go into my arsenal of favorites! I hope you will try them some day.