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Moravian Spice Cake

jgifford
By: jgifford
Posted 02/08/12 • Last updated 02/08/12 • 284 views • 12 comments

Posted by jgifford

I found this in a collection of Civil War era recipes. I've tweaked it a little since the original recipe produced a very heavy, dense cake. It works well for cupcakes also and the brown sugar makes for a smooth, lightly-crusted top which is perfect for decorating. The taste is not unusually strong, so I would suggest using a light frosting.

Ingredients:

Amount Ingredient
1 1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup oil
2 eggs
1 1/2 cup sour milk
1/2 cup water - optional
1/2 tsp baking soda dissolved in the milk
3 cups AP flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp butter flavoring
1/2 cup chopped nuts - optional
1 cup raisins - optional

Directions:

This is so easy - - place all ingredients except nuts and raisins in your bowl and mix well, then stir in nuts and raisins. This makes a thick batter, so if you want you can add the water. This recipe will make 2 full 8" rounds or 2 dozen cupcakes. Bake at 300 (or less, but no higher) and check after 1 hour. I found it took about 1 hr, 15min.

Comments (12)

bobwonderbuns 2/8/12 at 4:35pm
Question: When you say "sour milk", is that buttermilk?
landylou 2/8/12 at 6:43pm
That would be a yes.
jgifford 2/9/12 at 7:49am
Sour milk is not buttermilk. You can leave milk out overnight or add 1 teaspoon of lemon juice to it to make it sour.
ickworthpark 2/9/12 at 11:27am
Buttermilk is what's left after you have made butter. It is sour but would have a low fat content as the fat has been converted into butter through churning.
fearlessbaker 2/10/12 at 2:48pm
This looks like an interesting cake. Has Anyone else made it. Which milk is used here, sour milk or buttermilk. My mom used sour milk which is totally different. Thanks,FB
lucy74 2/18/12 at 8:50pm
sour milk is plain yogurt
jgifford 2/20/12 at 12:46pm
Sour milk is sour milk. It was used very often as an ingredient before there was buttermilk, sour cream or yogurt. Sorry, I guess I'm showing my age since I didn't think using sour milk as an ingredient would lead to any questions. To me, it's not that unusual. :)
jgifford 2/20/12 at 1:28pm
Back when more people drank milk straight from the cow and refrigeration wasn't what it is now, milk went sour very fast. Instead of throwing it out, they discovered that it didn't adversely affect the taste of cakes, pancakes, batter for fried chicken, etc. As long as it was cooked, it was fine. I grew up using sour milk for cooking so this didn't seem strange to me. Milk can be left out overnight or a teaspoon of lemon juice can be added to sour it.
angiecares 2/21/12 at 4:05am
If this recipe works good for cupcakes, wonderful! thanks for sharing
michelefarrow 5/9/12 at 2:08am
Looking for something different to bake so going to have a go at this today. Familiar with using sour milk etc in baking so won't be entering the sour milk/buttermilk debate :-) Thanks for sharing.
MMueller 11/24/12 at 8:16am
I would love a cake that's heavy and dense like you described the original recipe to be. Any chance you would pm me the original un-tweaked recipe?
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