When I first began my baking career, the old gas oven I used had a non working thermostat. No matter what temperature I would set the thing, it started off around 275°F and ended up at 325-350°F an hour or so later. I never let this stop me from baking cakes, cookies and especially bread. It was a great learning experience that taught me to watch what was baking and take it out when **just right**! The only thing a timer will get you is an over/under baked cake..

1917 war cake. INGREDIENTS WOULD HAVE BEEN THUS

Firstly only the monied people would have afforded this during those years in the UK and Europe here is the recipe

Crisco was not around then Lard was used for most things
as butter was in short supply in Uk and Europe

1 cup of golden syrup
1 cup of water
2 cups of plain white flour
1 tablespoon of lard
1/2 teaspoon of ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon bicarb of soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

enjoy making it

Beat

Hi Beat,

Lard, lard blends, butterine, oleomargarine, and Crisco were available in 1917 (Crisco was actually put on the market in 1911).

Anywhere cows were being kept, there would have been butter available, although many shortages were attributed to wartime.

-- CM

Hi everyone. I'm nearly 50, and I never saw Crisco until I was in my 20's. So I think it depends where you were brought up. We would have had those blocks of lard or just cooking margarine, whatever was cheapest I guess. My Mum was a great cook! Everybody thought so. But as for corn syrup, we would have used 'cockie's joy' - golden syrup or even treacle. but golden syrup was cheaper. I lost my Mum's recipes when we last moved... so I'll try both of these recipes! Thanks to both of you I'll stay happy cooking.

In the late 50's my mother made this cake. She called it Eggless, Milkless, Butterless cake. I thought it was a very tasty spice cake and not a poor people's cake as she had explained. Times were difficult.
Finances were very limited for our family.

Ok, I do not think they used corn syrup but used molasses instead if sugar was scarce corn syrup wouldnt be available either. And they used lard instead of crisco. Course country people had cane syrup and eggs and lard.

1st of... the average temperature for baking cakes is 350 to 375°F

2nd off typically you mix dry ingredients together and wet ingredients together then pour wet to dry slowly.. ONLY mix well enough to make dry mixture wet.. there will be some lumps ( like brownies- do not over mix)...

3rd off corn syrup was invented in 1886... so they did mean corn syrup.

and I would agree ground cloves would be used. ( however if you are not familiar with this taste- usually on hams- it is a strong flavor so start with less taste the batter and go by how it tastes raw- which is okay since there are no eggs in it)

it states a 1/2 of clove but of what ...im 25 and loves to cook so maybe clove is something thats older people know of rite off hand but i dont

Hi Lachelle,

Cloves are a spice. Look for it in the spice section of the supermarket.

-- CM

I haven't tried this recipe yet, but I plan to. On a side note, I am assuming the cloves are meant to be ground cloves and not whole, which could be confusing for a novice cook.

You give the ingredients but not the directions, size of pan, or oven temperature and time. Can you please help?

Hi Jean,

This is typical of recipes of the period. Old recipes assumed that that the person baking the cake knew common cake mixing and baking procedures, and often only listed the ingredients needed, in the order they are added.

No temperature was given because ovens didn't normally have thermostats, and you baked your cake in the oven at the temperature it was at, or opened or closed a vent to regulate temperature or added more fuel.

A hotter oven would bake the cake more quickly than a cooler oven, which would take longer; so you judged when the cake was done by experience, and by using the "broom straw" test - similar to a toothpick test used today; when a single broom straw inserted in the center of the cake was clean when removed, the cake was done. Since no time or temperature is given (because the broom straw test is used instead) the size of the pan no longer matters (they would have used any pan they had available rather than purchasing specially sized pans for each different cake).

Bake this cake at 350-375°F until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, or about 30-35 minutes. A standard bread loaf pan should be the right size.

-- CM