Hi All:
I just made up my grandmother's recipe for a Reta cake. This was a very old recipe and many items had to be forgotten. This is made with 2 cups of all purpose flour. 2 tsp of cream of tartar. 1 tsp of soda dissolved in hot water. no idea on how much. 1 cup of milk 1/2 cup of shortening. and 1 egg. I made this a little while ago. I added some vanilla, and cinnamon but it tastes pretty boring. I thought of adding some almond extract and perhaps some nutmeg. This recipe is over 100 years old so help with this is needed.
Please don't ask me how to mix this I had to figure that one out myself

In general flavorings are always very personal. You can add more vanilla, up to 2 teaspoons almond or most anything you want. Good luck and do let us know how it turns out.
I have/had? a cookbook with some 1/2 dz 100+ yr old recipes. I do remember once trying at least one of them but it was so long ago I don't remember anything else about it.

There is a great website about old recipes, fun and interesting. If you poke around, you might hit on some recipes that mirror your own. It is heritagerecipes.com. Good luck!

Thank you. That will give me an idea. My grandmother's book and recipes have been handled alot and the pages are torn. I am thinking when my mom received the book it was hard to read. Oiy I am not happy about this cake, but seeing how I am just beginning I am taking it as a lesson learned

After much searching around. I found out that Reta cake is a shortcake recipe. No wonder why it didn't taste so good. I can't stand shortcake