Dates Cake

by Mrs Marvel

Perhaps a cake for your dates? I think that’s just a mistake, but she called it Dates Cake so I will too! I will cobble together a method under the ingredients. Keep in mind this has no oven temperature or cook time, so it’s just a guess.

Dates Cake

1 pkg dates

1 cup water

Come to boil

1 egg

1 tbsp butter

1 cup sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 cup flour

Chop dates, then add them to the water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. In a separate bowl, beat the egg, butter and sugar together. Sift the baking soda with the flour, then add to the sugar mix. Beat to combine, then add the dates, beat well. Bake at 350, start checking at 20 minutes, then check for doneness every 5 minutes after until a knife comes out clean.

Sana torte

by Mrs Marvel

Maybe that says “sand” torte, I can’t quite be certain. There are lots of recipes for sand torte, but none for sana torte that I could find. What is a torte, you may ask? I wondered the same thing. In a nutshell, a torte is a fancy cake. As in, multiple layers, jam, icing, glazes, etc. They are often smaller than a standard cake, and the finished presentation rivaling the British Baking Show. There is also confusion about whether a cake and a torte are just interchangeable words for the same thing (yes depending on the region), or if they are distinct items different from one another (yes, depending on the region!). Tortes are often made with less flour, little to no leavening – relying on whipped egg whites for lift, and often with liquor, fruit, jam, nuts…. I am still confused as to what it is, but who knows, maybe this is good and I just need to trust the chef?

And, as with many recipes in this book, this one has sketchy instructions that can be confusing.

Sana Torte

3/4 lbs butter

1 lb powdered sugar

7 eggs – first the yolks then the whites beaten stiff

Mix with 1 glass brandy

1 pkg potato flour

1 tsp vanilla

3/4 tsp baking powder

1 1/4 hour bake, stir at 1 hour

Radio Prize Recipes

by Mrs Marvel

Before there was television, we had radio. Beginning in the 1920s, commercial radio programming became more available and radios were listed in department stores and catalogs as the latest “must have” appliance. Starting at around $60, a household could have a radio that would last them for many years. Keep in mind, $60 in 1920 is equivalent to almost $800 in 2019! The parts and equipment necessary to make a radio had not been miniaturized and not every house even had electricity needed to power a radio. As time progressed, the technology became better, miniaturized and improved, as tech is wont to do. As the 1940s approached, prices had dropped to around $10 for a radio! I can’t be certain when these radio prize recipes were printed (and Irene had LOTS of them!), but we will say around the 1930s-1950s.

Radio prize recipes were the way to get your recipe out to the masses. Beginning with Ida Bailey Allen aka Ida Cogswell, radio stations broadcast cooking shows that included much of what we have available to us today, just without the visuals. Mrs Allen was the first radio cooking show host. She kicked off her program in the mid 1920s, and soon it was popular enough that it ran for two hours a day. By 1932 she had syndicated her program, and in the 1950s she became the first TV chef in America. Suffice it to say, Mrs Allen influenced millions of housewives in America during the 20th century.

This undated column includes 5 recipes, and shows us that the winners received between $1-$5 for their recipe, plus the pride of having their name in the paper and on the radio. Isn’t it interesting they printed the address of the winner? That would never happen today.

The recipes are out of order due to the column having been cut to fit onto the page. They are: First Prize Orange Layer Cake, Second Prize Sour Cream Nut Cake with Sour Cream Nut Frosting, Third Prize Jiffy Jell Torte, Fourth Prize Angel Sunshine Cake, Fifth Prize Paradise Cake. I’ll write out the first prize recipe for you. As printed in the newspaper it leaves something to be desired. I’ll try to make it a little more complete. These days I would not use an egg white icing but they sure are glossy and lovely. I’d probably use buttercream instead.

Orange Layer Cake – as printed in newspaper

5 eggs

1 1/2 cups sugar

Juice of one orange

Grated rind of the orange

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

Whites of the 5 eggs

1/2 cup hot water

Beat yolks well and add sugar, then add juices of orange mixed with the 1/2 cup of hot water and part of the rind, flour sifted well with baking powder, fold in the beaten whites of the 5 eggs, bake in layers in moderate oven.

Lemon Filling – scald 1 cup of milk, 1/4 cup of sugar mixed with a tablespoon of cornstarch. Beat 2 yolks of eggs and gradually pour milk on the eggs, cook in double boiler stirring constantly, flavor with juice of one lemon.

Icing – whites fo 2 eggs, well beaten, 2 cups of powder sugar and add rest of orange peel.

 

Say what?  Here you go – –

Orange Layer Cake

For the cake:

5 eggs, separated

1 1/2 cups sugar

Juice of one orange

Grated rind of one orange

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 cup hot water

Beat egg yolks well and add sugar. Combine the orange juice, 1/2 the grated rind and the hot water. Pour into the egg/sugar mix. Sift flour with baking powder, then add to the mix. Finally, beat the egg whites until stiff and carefully fold into the mix. Bake in 2 8″ rounds at 350. Start with 20 minutes and check for doneness every 5 minutes after that. Allow to cool completely before assembling the cake.

For the filling:

1 cup milk

1/4 cups sugar

1 tablespoon cornstarch

2 egg yolks, beaten

Juice of 1 lemon

Scald milk (bring nearly to a boil then allow to cool), then add sugar and cornstarch. Stir until sugar & cornstarch are absorbed. Pour beaten egg yolks into a double boiler, then gradually pour the milk mixture over them. Combine, then add the lemon juice. Cook, stirring constantly until it thickens. Allow to cool.

For the icing:

2 egg whites

2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 the grated orange peel

Whip the egg whites stiff, then add the powdered sugar and orange peel. Mix well and ice over cake.

Doughnuts #2

by Mrs Marvel

This is a ‘bonus’ in that I didn’t cut off the Almond Torte recipe under the doughnut recipe. I just felt like it’s such a sad little waste to lose the edges of these pages, and therefore the recipes.

Doughnuts #2

3 egg beaten

1 cup sugar

1 cup milk

3 cups flour

3 tsp baking powder

1 tsp nutmeg

vanilla

2 tbsp lard

Probable method: combine all except lard. Melt lard. Make doughnut shapes and fry.

Cake

by Mrs Marvel

Nothing like keeping it simple! This is a very basic recipe for a vanilla white cake. The penmanship is much nicer than some of the entries, and I wonder if this is a recipe written early in our collector’s lifetime. Maybe even when she took her classes in cooking. It is interesting that the filling is a lot like cornstarch pudding.

Cake

4 eggs – beat light

2 cups sugar

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 cup hot milk – 2 level tablespoons butter in milk

Vanilla

Frosting

2 cups brown sugar

5 tablespoons water

Boil 5 minutes only, add a lump of butter and vanilla. Beat until cold.

Filling

2/3 cup water

2/3 cup sugar

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon corn starch. Boil until thick.