Spice cake request results in bevy of delicious recipes

loading...

We have been in spice cake heaven. Nine recipes came in, and what a beauty contest it was.

But first: We have a couple of apologies and corrections to take care of. First off, I added 1 more cup of sour milk than necessary to the Graham Rolls recipe of March 11. That was my error, not Betty Mills’; she sent in a flawless recipe.

Then last week, March 18, our friends in the Bangor Daily News typography department accidentally lopped off most of the Oyster Pie assembling instructions, which I now give you here:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and grease a 2-quart casserole. Prepare the potatoes and carrots ahead of time, boil your eggs, peel and chop them and have them ready. Chop the onion and green pepper. Drain the oysters, reserving the liquor to add to the milk later.

Melt the butter in a saucepan, and when it bubbles, whisk in the flour. Mix together the warm milk and the oyster liquor and add to the butter and flour, and whisk it till smooth, cooking it over a medium heat until the sauce has thickened somewhat. Add the oysters and cook until the oysters’ edges curl, about two to three minutes. Add the vegetables and mix all together. Add nutmeg, parsley, salt and pepper to taste.

Pour the mixture into the casserole and put the pie crust on top, crimping it to the edge of the casserole. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes, until the crust is brown and the filling is bubbling.

My apologies to all of you who suffered confusion or annoyance.

Now back to spice cake. Looking over these recipes showed me that there are different species of spice cake. One is the Old-Fashioned Spice Cake, a flour-sugar-butter-egg-and-spices sort moistened with sour milk. Another is the Gild the Lily kind, made with lots of eggs, sour cream, four kind of spices, utterly grand and luscious. Then there is the Spice Cake with Other Stuff in it, including honey or applesauce or cocoa, whose first cousin seems to be that fascinating cluster of eggless, milkless, butterless cakes. I think it will be lots of fun to share all of these with you, but we will have to have a Spice Cake of the Month Club for a while to get the worthies into print. I decided to start out with the basic Old-Fashioned Spice Cake.

We had three entries in this category. Barbara Piper from Troy, Mrs. Elaine Lowell of Prospect Harbor, and Mary Richard of Bangor sent along their recipes. All called for cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves as the spices of choice. Mainly they varied in the proportions of sugar, shortening and flour. When it came down to the taste test, though, it turned out that cloves made the difference: More cloves lent a “spicier” flavor.

Now, I am a nutmeg person, myself, and I always grate it fresh. So I liked Mrs. Lowell’s cake, which has a whole teaspoonful of nutmeg in it, plus a teaspoon of cinnamon, and 1/4 teaspoon of cloves. Mrs. Lowell, who is 91 and still cooking, bless her, wrote that her spice cake recipe came from her mother’s collection. That makes it over 100 years old. Mary Richard’s cake has the charming name of Golden Glow, and called for 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon of cloves, and 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg.

It turned out that most of the taste testers liked Barbara Piper’s Spice Cake. Even though it had less total spice, the balance of cinnamon and cloves with nutmeg gave the impression that it was a spicier cake. Go figure. If you are a nutmeg aficionado, use Mrs. Lowell’s spice proportion. Or make one up for yourself.

I decided I wanted an orange icing on it, and the one that follows is from an old Fanny Farmer cookbook. Barbara Piper’s recipe fill a 9-by-13-inch pan, but you could make it into two 8-inch layer cakes if you wanted. Barbara wrote that she has used this recipe for a long time, and is one of her family’s favorite cake recipes. She said, “I hope you and your readers enjoy it.” We did, and I hope you do, too.

Looking for …

Anonymous from somewhere in Maine, whose “most used spices are basil, oregano, parsley, cinnamon and nutmeg,” asks: “I’ve wondered if any of your readers would share a recipe for veal scallopine Calabrese. I’ve been searching for years.”

Send queries or answers to Sandy Oliver, 1061 Main Road, Islesboro 04848. E-mail: tastebuds@prexar.com. For recipes, tell us where they came from. List ingredients, specify number of servings and do not abbreviate measurements. Include name, address and daytime phone number.

Old-Fashioned Spice Cake

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon cloves

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups sugar

2/3 cups butter or shortening

2 eggs

3/4 cup sour milk

1 teaspoon baking soda dissolved in the milk

1 cup floured raisins, optional

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease and flour a 9-by-13-inch pan. Sift together the dry ingredients and set aside. Cream the butter and sugar. Beat in the eggs. Add dry ingredients alternately with milk and beat until batter is smooth. It is a stiff batter. Spread in the pan. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the center is firm and a tester inserted comes out clean. Let cool before icing.

Orange Icing

1/4 cup butter, melted

1/4 cup orange juice

Grated zest of one orange

2 cups or more sifted confectioner’s sugar

Mix the butter and juice together in a bowl, and beat in the confectioner’s sugar until icing is a spreadable consistency. Beat in the zest.