Recipes from Aunt Flora -- Cowboy Bread

Cowboy Bread

2 ½ cup flour
2 cups brown sugar
¼ cup margarine
1 teaspoon salt
¼ cup shortening
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 ¼ cup buttermilk [used the milk/lemon juice substitution]
3 eggs

Cut in flour, sugar, salt, shortening, and margarine. Cut until crumbly.

Remove ½ cup and save for topping.

To remaining mixture add baking powder, soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Mix thoroughly.

Add buttermilk and eggs, and mix until batter is smooth.

Pour well-greased pan. [used another 13x9 standard pan, since no guidance]

Sprinkle remaining crumbs on top.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 mins. [NOPE, more like 30-40 minutes. At 20 minutes, it wasn't finished and still soupy in middle. Baked an additional 15-20 mins. until firm on top, and cake tester came out clean.]

In theory, this sounds like a coffee cake. We'll see what the IT boys say it tastes like.

Later post-script: It never made it to IT. The "bread" made a pit stop in my office where it disappeared in two days. I had a single piece, and it was like a denser coffee cake. I may make this again, and add some nuts and diced dried fruit to the batter, and oatmeal to the topping and see how it turns out.

Recipes from Aunt Flora -- Crazy Cake

Crazy Cake

2 cups flour [white]
1 1/3 cup sugar [white]
1 tablespoons cocoa
1 1/3 teaspoons soda [baking]
2/3 teaspoons salt
8 tablespoons oil [used olive]
1 1/3 cup water
1 ¼ teaspoon vanilla
1 1/3 tablespoons vinegar [white, distilled]

Sift dry ingredients into mixer.
Make 3 indentations in dry ingredients.
Pour oil in one, vinegar in one, water and vanilla in one.
Mix well and bake for 25-30 minutes at 325 degrees.

None of my measuring spoons is in thirds, so I was guess-timating on the quantities.

Because no pan size was listed, I used my standard 13x9 pan and started off at 35 minutes as the batter was thin. The timing was just right.

I may frost this with a thin powdered sugar glaze and take it in for the office to tell me what it tastes like. A cake with no eggs!? Maybe more like brownies.

Later that night -- I had the munchies, so I had to taste test the cake, right!? No frosting needed. It's super moist and light and fluffy. Luckily I do have some self-restraint. My colleagues may get some ... eventually.

Recipes from Aunt Shirley -- White Cake

I may have mentioned earlier that I grabbed a bunch of recipes from the great-aunts when I saw them back in August. This one is from Aunt Shirley, another of Grandma Ollie's younger sisters. When we lived in Utah, Aunt Shirley and the late, greatly missed Uncle Preston lived in our congregation and were like surrogate parents and grandparents to us all. Since she was my other granny, I'm including this in the Grandma Recipes.

Also, Aunt Shirley is the only living person who I will allow to use a certain nickname (and you are seriously kidding me if you think I'm telling you what it is).

White Cake

2/3 cup shortening (Crisco-butter flavored)
1 1/2 cup sugar (white)
2 eggs
2 2/3 cup flour
1 1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla

Cream sugar, shortening, eggs
Add dry ingredients with milk (and vanilla) (to the rest of mix and beat well until there are no large lumps)
Place in a well greased 13x9 baking pan
Bake 350 degrees 30-35 minutes (or until a test of the middle comes out clean)
Let cool well or overnight before attempting to frost

Why do people persist on using cake mixes from the store. What is so hard about this recipe? There's not so many ingredients that it's over whelming, nor too many steps for little people to help.

My only confusion at the outset was which baking pan to use. I defaulted to the standard 13x9x2 to be on the safe side. Since it was for work, I figured that if it came out slightly thinner, it would be fine.

To be entirely truthful, I had planned to cheat by using store-bought chocolate frosting. My original plan was to frost it after it made it to the appropriate office.

Then I decided to leave them with the can and a knife and let people frost at will.



I finally grabbed piece of this at the end of the next day, and it was still super moist. The cups of milk and not underbaking it kept it from drying out. It actually almost didn't need the frosting.

But you always need a helping of chocolate frosting ... ALWAYS.