Prelude: I am a proud Canadian. When the Culinary Historians of Canada (CHC) invited food bloggers to participate in the “CHC Canada 150 Food Blog Challenge”, I knew that I wanted in! What a great way to celebrate and honour Canada’s 150th birthday by featuring a different Canadian dish or discussing a topic which reflects on what it means to be Canadian. For November, the Culinary Historians invited bloggers to post about the foods associated with war and remembrance, including soldiers’ rations, homefront cooking and rationing, as well as other foods that help us remember those we’ve lost. For those reasons, I am sharing a Vintage Spice Cake with Toffee Frosting from a treasured cookbook.

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The cake itself is unique in that it does not have eggs, butter, or milk, yet, it is very moist and flavourful due to the use of abundant spices and a mixture of raisins, sugar and boiling water. The fragrance of this cake when baking is unbelievable. It was originally called “The Economy Spice Cake” and you will learn about its history as you read further. When I was researching the frosting for this cake, the term used in the recipe title was ‘Sugarless Cake Frosting.’ It utilizes a reduction of sweetened condensed milk, which is not sugarless at all, however, the term ‘sugarless’ was used during WWII in terms of sugar ration points – the sweetened milk was indeed viewed as ‘sugarless.”  I am including this authentic recipe as written for that period.

The recipe is from The Watkins Cook Book (The J. R. Watkins Co.) circa 1940 and is the only cookbook that my Mom ever owned.   The recipes from that era are very brief with minimal instructions, which is characteristic of cookbooks of that period. I have quite a few in my vintage cookbook collection and I marvel at the brevity of the recipes. Given the precise details of today’s cookbooks, the recipes of that era are a significant departure.  For example, oven temperatures were provided in terms of ‘moderate or slow oven’ and baking times were often not provided, primarily because ovens were fuelled by wood or coal and often inconsistent temperature-wise. Every young lady was taught cooking, baking, sewing and other important and necessary life skills from their mothers and their grandmothers. They were expected to master these skills, whether from memory or the cookbooks of the day.

During times of war, the rationing of supplies often meant that the lack of ingredients made for some ingenious recipes. Would you have thought that you could make muffins from leftover oatmeal or a pudding from dry cake crumbs or for that matter, a cake without eggs, butter or milk? These recipes were cleverly developed when times were tough and the pantry was bare. There were sections in the Watkins Cookbook such as Sugar Substitutes; How to Meet the Butter Shortage; How to Save Fuel in Cooking; How to Put Up Fruit; Stretching Meat; Economy Desserts and much more.

Housewives were expected to do their part in the war effort by conserving and saving during the rationing – in other words, they wasted nothing!   They were affectionately known as ‘housoldiers’ (house soldiers). My Mom even had a little dress made by her Mother from a flour sack. She is the smallest little girl in this photograph (below).

Another part of the war effort was the growing of ‘Victory Gardens,’ which were widely encouraged so everyone on the homefront would not go without. Mom remembered that they had a large vegetable garden mainly growing root vegetables that were easy to store. As well, it was not uncommon for families to share a chicken coup in the backyard for eggs and meat, or a cow to two for milk and butter.

It is interesting to note that the vintage recipes researched for this article used different terms such as ‘milkless’, ‘eggless’, ‘butterless’, and ‘sugarless’, (unlike today where similar terms are used for the purposes of dietary restrictions) during the war, they were necessary due to shortages. In this post, I utilize the modernized terms; for example: ‘dairy-free’, ‘egg-free’, etc.

Despite all the unique features of this Vintage Spice Cake recipe, the end result is delicious, moist and easy to make and a great addition to any coffee or tea time offering.

Vintage Spice Cake with Toffee Frosting

Yield: 1 pan (9 x 9 inch) cake pan – approximately 9 portions of cake

CHEF TALK:  When working with this vintage recipe, I tried to stay true to the written recipe, adapting it to include more precise temperature and baking time, as well as clarifying the method.  Adapt further, if you wish to substitute coconut oil for the lard or try using unrefined sugar such as maple syrup or honey.  The cake is lovely with a light dusting of icing sugar.  The unfrosted cake also freezes well.  Enjoy!

CAKE INGREDIENTS

WET INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup boiling water
• 1 cup raisins
• 1/3 cup lard
• 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

DRY INGREDIENTS:

• 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour or gluten-free flour blend
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
• ¼ teaspoon ground allspice
• ½ teaspoon salt

METHOD:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (325°F if using convection setting).
2. Prepare a 9” x 9” cake pan by greasing it and lining with parchment paper.
3. In a small saucepan or low frying pan, boil the sugar, water, lard, and raisins together for about 3 minutes until the sugar is well dissolved. Add vanilla extract to the mixture. Put aside and leave to cool thoroughly.
4. Sift flour, baking powder, salt and spices together. Add to the above-cooled mixture.
5. Pour the cake batter into the prepared cake pan. Bake in a moderate oven for 25 minutes or until a thin skewer or toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs remaining.
6. Cool the cake on a rack and frost if desired with Toffee Frosting or alternatively, dust with icing sugar.

TOFFEE FROSTING

INGREDIENTS:

• 2/3 cup of sweetened condensed milk (1/2 of a 300 ml can)
• Pinch of salt
• ½ teaspoon lemon juice or vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
• ½ Tablespoon – 1 Tablespoon hot water

METHOD:

1. In a shallow frying pan, combine sweetened condensed milk, salt, and lemon juice.
2. Over medium heat, stir the sweetened condensed milk with a spatula or wooden spoon until it starts to thicken (about two minutes).   Add the vanilla extract and hot water. If the mixture is too thick, add a bit more hot water until the frosting is of spreadable consistency.
3. Frost the cake and refrigerate until serving.

TO SERVE:

1. Cut the cake into 9 snack size or 12 smaller portions. Enjoy with fresh fruit, if available.
2. Cake can also be served without frosting if desired.   Dust with a little icing sugar.

Vintage Spice Cake with Toffee Frosting

Here is your visual step-by-step procedure on how to make A Vintage Spice Cake with Toffee Frosting:

LEARNING TIPS:  

Please CLICK the link above to access my UrbnSpice LEARNING TIPS, which are listed alphabetically on the Learning Tips blog post under the following subheadings:

• Preparing the Pans
• Parchment Paper
• Cutting the Cake
• The Simple Spatula
• Oven Temperature Accuracy
• Extracts
  __________

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If you try this recipe for Vintage Spice Cake with Toffee Frosting, please leave me a comment below with your feedback. Just be sure to tag @urbnspice and #urbnspice so I am sure to see it,

You can find me on social media (see links below). Enjoy! 

Denise Paré-Watson

The Urbnspice Chef

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SOURCES:

Recipes: Wartime Canada

Original Home Front Original Recipes from the Great War

17 recipes from WW11

Recipes from the Homefront

Sweetened Condensed Milk

Retail Prices of Food during World War II

Wartime Canada – eating

Wartime Canada – food is everyone’s business

Wartime Rations

Food Rationing PEI

Food and Rationing

20 Wartime Recipes

Homefront Glossary