Nut Cake - Fruit Cake Without The Fruit!

wff_ng_7 said:

Today I'm going to make a nut cake for the holidays. I think of it as a
fruit cake without the fruit. Instead of having a mixture of candied fruits
and nuts in the batter, it is all nuts and no fruit. But it is similar in
nature in that there is comparatively little batter and mostly the good
stuff! ;-)

My mother made this cake for about 40 years, and I've picked up the recipe
since she can no longer make it. I don't know where she got the recipe, but
I presume it was out of a magazine in the early 1960s, or even late 1950s.
One of the things that to me indicates its age is the use of the term "very
slow" oven, in addition to specifying a temperature.

During the 50s many still used solid fuel stoves (wood/coal) or gas
stoves with no thermostat, more typical was an external thermometer,
usually mounted on the exterior of the oven door and usually not
numerical.. just marked slow/med/hot with a few dots inbetween to
interpolate. Electric stoves were still not popular... homes weren't
wired to accomodate electric stoves, it would cost as much to upgrade
the service and run a line as to buy a stove, still does. Imagine,
folks could cook and bake without computer chips. These days folk's
cooking skills are about on par with their math skills, all they know
is to push calculator buttons, don't ask them to do math with paper and
pencil... and don't ask them to cook a 50¢ burger without a $40
electronic probe... imagine some pinheads need a $6,000 blast furnace
stove to roast a $3 chicken, figures... when they need a $130 pot to
heat a 40¢ can of beans... they need a $70,000 kitchen when the most
complicated thing they cook is Lean Coozine.

Quoted message said:

The cake keeps pretty well, like a fruit cake, and can be frozen. Obviously
it is relatively expensive to make due to the quantity of nuts, but I love
it. It's one of the things I've looked forward to at Christmas for so many
years.

I've scanned in the recipe, so you get to see it in all it's glory as a
faded magazine clipping:

http://mysite.verizon.net/bcp_public/nutcake.jpg

There are a few options in the ingredients, but my mother always made it
with walnuts, rum, and vanilla extract.

It's like my mother's date nut loaf, were baked in 1lb coffee cans...
we called them "breakfast bombs"... is there still a 1lb coffee can, I
think now it's more like a 10 ounce coffee can.

Sheldon

Sheldon said:

During the 50s many still used solid fuel stoves (wood/coal) or gas
stoves with no thermostat, more typical was an external thermometer,
usually mounted on the exterior of the oven door and usually not
numerical.. just marked slow/med/hot with a few dots inbetween to
interpolate.

When I was a kid in the 1950s, we moved to a new suburban neighborhood on
Long Island where there were still pockets of the old time residents of the
area. On our block was a much older house with a woman in her 80s living
there. One of the things I remember very clearly was her kerosene cook
stove, as the smell from it was quite strong. I'm certain it didn't have a
thermostat on the oven; she probably had to turn the burner up or down to
regulate the temperature.

Quoted message said:

It's like my mother's date nut loaf, were baked in 1lb coffee cans...
we called them "breakfast bombs"... is there still a 1lb coffee can, I
think now it's more like a 10 ounce coffee can.

I checked some my brother gave me recently (I don't use canned coffee). It
is down to 12 or 13 ounces. I save them for other uses, but not baking. I do
miss the metal lids they used to have, with the keys you used to open them
with. But times change. I guess people below a certain age wonder how this
line from "Margaritaville" is even possible:

"Stepped on a pop-top
Cut my heel had to cruise on back home"

Pop-tops aren't what they used to be! ;-)

--
( #wff_ng_7# at #verizon# period #net# )

"wff_ng_7" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:P1Xpf.17425$l25.15601@trnddc03...

Quoted message said:

Today I'm going to make a nut cake for the holidays. I
think of it as a fruit cake without the fruit. Instead of
having a mixture of candied fruits and nuts in the batter,
it is all nuts and no fruit. But it is similar in nature
in that there is comparatively little batter and mostly
the good stuff! ;-)

My mother made this cake for about 40 years, and I've
picked up the recipe since she can no longer make it. I
don't know where she got the recipe, but I presume it was
out of a magazine in the early 1960s, or even late 1950s.
One of the things that to me indicates its age is the use
of the term "very slow" oven, in addition to specifying a
temperature.

The cake keeps pretty well, like a fruit cake, and can be
frozen. Obviously it is relatively expensive to make due
to the quantity of nuts, but I love it. It's one of the
things I've looked forward to at Christmas for so many
years.

I've scanned in the recipe, so you get to see it in all
it's glory as a faded magazine clipping:

http://mysite.verizon.net/bcp_public/nutcake.jpg

There are a few options in the ingredients, but my mother
always made it with walnuts, rum, and vanilla extract.

--
( #wff_ng_7# at #verizon# period #net# )

I've converted your recipe for easier reading of the rest of
us..

-= Exported from BigOven =-

Nut Cake

Recipe By:
Serving Size: 10
Cuisine:
Main Ingredient:

-= Ingredients =-
2 lbs Pecans ; walnuts/almonds or mix
6 lg Eggs
1 1/2 cup Butter
2 cup Sugar
3/4 cup Milk
1/4 cup Brandy ; or rum
1 tsp Vanilla ; or almond extract
3 1/2 cup All purpose flour ; sifted
1 tsp Cream of tartar

-= Instructions =-
Grease and line the bottoms and sides of a 10" tube pan with
oiled brown paper.

Chop nutes coarsely and put in a large bowl.

Preheat oven to 275 degrees.

Separate eggs.

Beat butter till creamy, add sugar gradually continuing to
beat till smooth and creamy. Add egg yolks slightly beaten
while continuing to beat thoroughly.

Mix milk, alcahol and extracts and add alternately with
flour .

Beat egg whites to foamy stage and add cream of tartar.
Continue to whip till whites hold a peak.

Add to nuts and mix well with your hands, then fold in to
batter gently.

Pour into pan and bake for 2 1/2 to 3 hours.

Cool 30 minutes before removing from pan and transferring to
a wire rack.

Remove paper carefully .

Sprinkle the top with Icing sugar if you like.

** This recipe can be pasted into BigOven without retyping.
**
** Easy recipe software. Try it free at:
http://www.bigoven.com **

MoM

MoM said:

I've converted your recipe for easier reading of the rest of us..

Thanks... I'm not very good at transcribing things, though this one
shouldn't have been too hard for me! ;-)

--
( #wff_ng_7# at #verizon# period #net# )

"wff_ng_7" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:5Ffqf.11887$CL.5061@trnddc04...

Quoted message said:

MoM said:

I've converted your recipe for easier reading of the rest
of us..

Thanks... I'm not very good at transcribing things, though
this one shouldn't have been too hard for me! ;-)

--
( #wff_ng_7# at #verizon# period #net# )

Quite welcome. I wanted to add it to my data base so I
covered to things at once.

I don't suppose you know where the recipe came from?

--
Helen in beautiful Fergus, Ontario Canada ~~ RVTOBFREE
www.mompeagram.homestead.com/

MoM said:

Quite welcome. I wanted to add it to my data base so I covered to things
at once.

I don't suppose you know where the recipe came from?

I have no idea other than it appears to be from a magazine clipping from the
late 1950s or early 1960s. The paper is the slightly glossy heavier stock
used for magazines as opposed to the newsprint used for newspapers. The
portion of the back I can see (it's glued to a sheet of paper) has some
Christmas holiday artwork on it, so I presume it came out of a November or
December issue of whatever magazine it was in.

You can make one addition to the ingredients list if you wish, as I tried
something new this time. I didn't have any brandy or rum in house, and since
our neighborhood liquor store closed about a year ago, I didn't feel like
going out to get any. In my liquor stock I found something I thought
suitable... Cointreau. So I put 1/4 cup of that in rather than the specified
brandy or rum. The cake (with walnuts) tastes quite nice with that in it,
better than brandy or rum. But probably not worth the additional expense. I
got my 750 ml bottle relatively cheap though, on sale at $21.99, quite a
deal compared to what some stores charge for it.

Though this substitution worked, I wouldn't try it with something like
Jägermeister!

--
( #wff_ng_7# at #verizon# period #net# )

"wff_ng_7" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:CFSqf.84949$fY5.13616@trnddc02...

Quoted message said:

MoM said:

Quite welcome. I wanted to add it to my data base so I
covered to things at once.

I don't suppose you know where the recipe came from?

I have no idea other than it appears to be from a magazine
clipping from the late 1950s or early 1960s. The paper is
the slightly glossy heavier stock used for magazines as
opposed to the newsprint used for newspapers. The portion
of the back I can see (it's glued to a sheet of paper) has
some Christmas holiday artwork on it, so I presume it came
out of a November or December issue of whatever magazine
it was in.

You can make one addition to the ingredients list if you
wish, as I tried something new this time. I didn't have
any brandy or rum in house, and since our neighborhood
liquor store closed about a year ago, I didn't feel like
going out to get any. In my liquor stock I found something
I thought suitable... Cointreau. So I put 1/4 cup of that
in rather than the specified brandy or rum. The cake (with
walnuts) tastes quite nice with that in it, better than
brandy or rum. But probably not worth the additional
expense. I got my 750 ml bottle relatively cheap though,
on sale at $21.99, quite a deal compared to what some
stores charge for it.

Though this substitution worked, I wouldn't try it with
something like Jägermeister!

--
( #wff_ng_7# at #verizon# period #net# )

I'll keep that in mind. Thanks
MoM