I am 80 and ate a lot of this cake as a kid. Ours came from the A&P in Lodi, Ohio. I do not remember any cocoa taste in the old one, but they were very dark. Therefore when I try this recipe, I will only add 1- 1 1/2 tbsp. of cocoa. After trying to find the original recipe for years and all turned out NOT to be -- I was getting pretty discouraged. Sure hope this is it. And I will bake it in loaf pans. The real ones had only top icing. Also, I am going to mash the raisins after soaking. Don't recall whole ones in the original. Sandra L.

Please try experimenting with a little molasses. I believe it makes it much closer to the original.

I have been trying to find a recipe for this cake. I tried molasses, it was horrible! I will try this recipe next! It will make number 4.

A bakery (now out of business) used to make the Spanish Bar Cake. My mom worked at that bakery and got the recipe, but is has been lost over the years. I do remember mom telling me that when the bakery made cakes to decorate, they would trim off the tops (white, yellow, and chocolate) to make them flat for decorating. The bakery used those trimmings by mashing them together into a dense mixture then using that mixture to add to the Spanish Bar Cake, to make it dense. It also had a heavy dose of cinnamon. Wish I could remember more about it. SPC is my absolute favorite cake of all time.

I had one shot to make the perfect Spanish Bar cake for my Mom's birthday, which was today! I had a couple recipes to choose from, and I had never had Spanish Bar before, much less baked one myself, so I decided to go with this recipe solely on it's nearly unanimously positive reviews, especially since people were saying it reminded them of the ones they had eaten as children. I had asked my Mom what kind of cake she wanted, and she kind of wistfully mentioned Spanish Bar, like she used to enjoy as a child, this spicy store-bought cake. So, I whipped it up, brought it over, and my whole family loved it! Mom tasted it and said it really was like the ones she remembered from her childhood, in fact better! (Not even exaggerating, my mom and I both like to bake from scratch and are not afraid to give constructive criticism on the results of our endeavors). I'm so glad I found this recipe, cooks.com made our day!
No alterations except I omitted the walnuts. I used Pillsbury's cream cheese icing recipe to ice it. Kept it cold until serving time. Beautiful. 😊️😊️😊️

Haven't made this recipe yet but remember it so fondly from the A and P back in the 50s. We four kids fought over it. Didn't go far 'cause our dad loved it too.
You have made my day!

I also like to add 3/4 cups of raisins.

where can I buy these in wisconsin

Can no longer buy A & P Spanish bar cake. That's why everyone is thrilled to have recipe. A & P stores closed years ago.

The frosting that was originally on the cake was a whipped light frosting and I know there was no cream cheese in it. As a child, I hated cream cheese tang on my tongue and I almost cringe when I hear folks say they are convinced it had it. It was then much later when the hard crusty lines going down it frosting showed up and ruined the original. I suspect that there were whipped egg whites in the earlier frosting that gave it lightness and probably the bakers decided it was best for shelf life to go to the crusty one. When the crusty one came along, it was ruined for me. Now as a baker, I'm on the trail of the original ultra whipped and melt in your mouth one that was a little sweet. To me the Spanish bar cake was one could eat instead of a meal because the sugar was low in cake and frosting.

Totally agree. The A&P cake was frosted with a light, white sugary frosting. It was definitely NOT a cream cheese based one. No nuts, but dark, spicy and whole raisins.

I served this as one of our Thanksgiving desserts. Everyone raved about it, but particularly those of us who remember the old A&P Spanish Bar Cake with great fondness. My brother-in-law proclaimed, "This doesn't just taste like Spanish Bar Cake, this IS Spanish Bar Cake!" I baked it in two loaf pans and split the loaves into two frosted layers (definitely butter cream!), just like the A&P version - that was a hit too. Thank you so much for a great recipe and for a lovely trip down memory lane.

Thank you so much for sharing this recipe!! As far as I'm concerned, this is THE recipe for the Spanish Bar Cake my mother used to bring home from the A&P store in Wilmington, NC (with the exception of the walnuts... which I omitted because they were not in the original recipe). I made it tonight. I didn't have the full amounts of applesauce & sour cream that the recipe called for, so my cake turned out a bit dry which is a shame because I remember how amazingly moist the cake is supposed to be. I will definitely make this again and use the full amounts of each ingredient as listed. And the buttercream icing is absolutely the right icing!!!

How long did they bake the loaf pan version?

Loaf pans.