Georgia’s Kitchen: Cake

Georgia Diehm

Keota, Iowa – Today is my 6oth birthday. The years have gone by quickly! I was given some good advice from a young lady whose Grandmother told her just to enjoy each day & each moment as they come. I might add that we can enjoy remembering special times from days gone by, too.

My birthday brings back memories of Mom baking each one of her 11 children any cake we wanted for our birthday. Many of my siblings can remember the cake they chose for their birthday, but I can’t. I probably chose different ones from year to year because I jokingly said,” I like them all!” We didn’t get presents because the kids were plentiful but the money wasn’t. But she tried to make us feel special by giving us a little special attention on our day. Today I can see the love that she had & shared with us. And that is priceless.

A cake I remember her making quite often when I was a child was one of her own creations that she called “Marble Cake”. She made a plain white cake from scratch (a mix would do). Then she took several small bowls and divided the batter into them. She used several food colors & made each bowl of batter a different color. She made one bowl of batter chocolate. Then she dropped the batter by big spoonfuls in any pattern that she desired until all the batter was used.It made a very pretty and colorful cake. She always frosted it with white frosting but any kind would do. She had fun making it and us kids really enjoyed eating it! Enjoy these recipes:

Cockeyed Cake
1 1/2 cups sifted flour
3 Tbs cocoa
1 tsp soda
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
5 Tbs cooking oil
1 Tbs vinegar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup cold water
Put your sifted flour back in the sifter, add to it the cocoa, soda, sugar, & salt and sift this right into a greased square cake pan about 9x9x2 n. Now make 3 grooves or holes in this dry mixture. Into one pour the oil, into the next the vinegar, into the next the vanilla. Now pour the cold water over it all. Beat it with spoon until its nearly smooth and you can’t see the flour. Bake at 350 for 1/2 hour.

Ice Cream Cake
Make a good sponge cake, bake 1/2 in thick in jelly pans & let them cool perfectly cold. Take a pint of the thickest fresh sweet cream. Beat until it looks like ice cream. Make very sweet & flavor with vanilla. Blanch & chop 1 lb. of almonds. Stir into cream and put between layers. Keep cool. Use same day.

Boiled Sponge Cake
1 cup loaf sugar, crushed & powdered*
1/2 cup water
the yolks of 5 eggs
the grated rind & juice of half a lemon
1 cup sifted flour
the whites of 5 eggs
Boil the sugar & pour into a fine stream on the yolks of the eggs beaten thick & yellow colored. Beat constantly for some time. Then set the dish in cold water & continue beating until the mixture is cold, adding while beating the juice & rind of the lemon. When cold, fold in 1/2 the whites beaten stiff & the flour, then the rest of the egg whites. Bake in un-greased tube pan until golden (about 1 hr.) Let cool in inverted pan.

Note*: The housewife of the 19th century got their sugar in a loaf and they had to work at getting the sugar as fine as they could. The finer the sugar, the better their end product.