Rhubarb Upside Down Cake

a piece of Rhubarb Upside Down Cake

And when it came to the pie–Mr Perry, a neighbor of Laura’s parents, tasted his first. Then he lifted the top crust, and reaching for the sugar bowl, spread sugar thickly all over his pie. “That is the way I like it,” he said. “If there is no sugar in the pie, then every fellow can sweeten his own as much as he likes without hurting the cook’s feelings.”
Mr Perry had made the meal a jolly one. [ ... ] Everyone laughed and talked and was very friendly, but Laura felt mortified about her beans and her pie without any sugar in. She had been so hurried when she made the pies; but how could she have been so careless? Pieplant was so sour, that first taste must have been simply terrible.
–The First Four Years, Laura Ingalls Wilder

Schatzi: I wondered for years what “pie plant” was, only to discover it was simply rhubarb! Spring time in the Pacific Northwest is rhubarb time, and I promised myself (and Maiya!) a rhubarb upside down cake. Unlike poor Laura, I didn’t have to worry about remembering to sweeten the tart rhubarb since upside down cake is characterized by a gooey layer of sugar and butter on a moist yellow cake. Though it’s a decidedly homely dessert, it is a satisfyingly sweet-tart finish to any springtime meal.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cake

Schatzi: Someone on a forum I frequent was looking for a pumpkin chocolate chip cake, and some of the other members suggested to him that I would be a good resource. Now, I’d never made one before, but I was willing to try out a recipe or two to help an IFHYer out, so I looked around online. I found a few that seemed promising, and decided upon this one from the New York Times. Instead of a frosted layer cake, however, I decided to alter the recipe slightly for a Bundt pan, feeling that would take a little less effort for a novice baker. I also added a smidgen of vanilla, and I might try it again with brown sugar instead of all white. I left out the pecans this time since my roommate is allergic to tree nuts, and because they’re hellav expensive right now, and I need to hoard the ones I’ve got for pecan pie.
The resulting cake was spicy, moist, and delicious. It hasn’t even been around for twenty-four hours and it’s almost gone. Eli is having a hard time restraining himself.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cake

Hot Fudge Pudding Cake

Sylvia Lovegren dates the popularity of the pudding cake to the Forties, though that popularity declined in the Sixties when all things old-fashioned were scorned for space age chic. My mother used to make a chocolate pudding cake very similar to this one, differing only slightly in how the ingredients were put together, but my sister has her recipe box, so I used the recipe Lovegren adapted from 1946’s The California Cookbook. Their spongy, cakelike tops floating over thick, gooey sauces make pudding cakes perfect for a cold, wet fall or winter when served right out of the oven. The Oregonian’s FoodDay printed some “upscale” versions last spring, which I cut out to try sometime.Men and children are especially fond of this hot fudge pudding cake.

King of Pound Cakes or, Elvis’ Favorite Pound Cake

Schatzi: I was fairly young when I began my love affair with pound cake; I must have been in second or third grade. The first one I ever had was a Sara Lee frozen pound cake, and I still enjoy them today—especially peeling off the soft brown crust and saving it to eat last. I could easily put one of those away in one sitting, I’m sure, though I have never tried it. It is pound cakes that I fantasize about eating, and pound cake recipes are my pornography.

When I want to bake a cake, I gravitate toward pound cakes, and often must force myself to try something else. I’ve baked any number of them over the years, and several are now permanently in my repertoire, (see Brown Sugar Pound Cake and Eggnog Pound Cake), but I am always looking for new recipes. I’ve also always dreamt of baking Miss Sarah Pringle’s pound cake—the one with thirty-six eggs, thirty-six eggs!—mentioned in LM Montgomery’s Anne of Windy Poplars, but I haven’t yet happened across a recipe for anything like. It is my tragedy. (Considering the number of eggs, and what I’ve observed in old recipes, I believe Miss Sarah’s pound cake was closer to a “great cake” than a standard pound cake. But one never knows.)

Rosy Chiffon Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

the finished (and partially eaten) product

Schatzi: The Rosy Chiffon Cake recipe I found at Slashfood combines two great twentieth century American cakes: the chiffon cake and the mystery or surprise cake. Chiffon cake was invented in 1927 by Harry Baker, who refused to divulge the method to his invention, a cake that crossed the lightness of a sponge cake with the richness and moistness of a butter cake. Using vegetable oil instead of butter, along with five egg yolks, and an egg foam made with cream of tartar and the whites of eight eggs results in a very light, feathery cake. The Harry Baker’s cake grew in popularity in Hollywood, appearing on the Brown Derby menu and at catered events, until he sold the recipe to General Mills in 1947, at which point “General Mills’ food chemists and home economists fine tuned Baker’s somewhat unstable recipe for eleven months,” and in 1948, headlines in Better Homes and Gardens, Ladies’ Home Journal, and McCall’s announced “The first really new cake in 100 years!”: Betty Crocker’s Orange Chiffon Cake. [i]

Chiffon cakes became hugely popular as the result of intensive marketing campaigns selling cake flour and salad oil, and new recipes appeared constantly in various magazines. The lack of butter meant a cake lacking in flavor, and it was simple to adulterate the cake to create new flavors. Favorites included lemon, orange, maple pecan, spice, and chocolate.[ii] The chiffon cake is still a favorite back home, with places like the Dee Lite and Zippy’s (among others) selling guava, lilikoi (passion fruit), haupia (coconut), and rainbow (guava, lilikoi, and lime) varieties. I do plan on trying my hand at a guava or haupia cake sometime soon.

According to Sylvia Lovegren, cooking with condensed soups took off during the Twenties, first for savory dishes such as aspics or sauces, then for treats such as cakes. The tomato soup cake recipe she published dates from 1925, and was published by Campbell’s Soup. Continuing the condensed soup fashion, mystery or surprise cakes were enormously popular during the Thirties, and remained well-liked enough that a tomato soup cake was included in the 1964 Joy of Cooking.[iii] I was intrigued by the idea of a tomato soup cake (although I loathe tomato soup, a fact which does not endear me to many), but the Campbell’s recipe published by Lovegren did not appeal, despite the addition of cream cheese frosting. Luckily for me (and you!), I came across the Rosy Chiffon Cake recipe while trolling the Internets for vintage cake recipes, and I knew that would be the cake I made.