Michigan Cookbook recipe: Spice cake

Yesterday I made ‘spice cake’ (page 239) from the Michigan Centennial Cookbook.

Although the directions don’t specify how to mix that first set of ingredients, I creamed the butter and sugar, then added the egg and some of the flour, then added all the rest of the dry ingredients along with the raisins and water. I only waited perhaps 5 minutes between taking the raisins off the stove and adding it to the mix, so the batter ended up quite hot. I poured it into a greased 8” cast iron pan and baked; it only took about 30-35 minutes, presumably due to the different pan. (The recipe doesn’t specify which kind of nuts to use, so I used rough-chopped pecans.)

Then I started making the frosting. It’s basically candy: sugar, butter, and water boiled to the soft ball stage.

After it hit 240 degrees, I pulled the pan off and watched it, stirring to cool it more. My plan was to spread it as soon as it had thickened up a bit. However, I’m not much of a candy maker, and there was a very fast phase transition from “runny syrup” to “thick paste” to “almost solid”:

I threw the whole thing under the broiler to get it soft again and spread it around into something a little more pleasant to look at:

And here’s the result:

The cake is delicious, moist, tender, with a great combination of gentle crunch from the pecans and little pops of soft juicy flavor from the raisins. Having tried it both the night of baking and the next morning, I think the spice flavors really intensifed nicely overnight. The frosting is fine as candy but it’s not really necessary on such a lovely cake, and it took more time & effort than the cake itself! I think the cake is perfect for Sunday morning coffee cake without frosting, and I intend to make it as such in the future.

Here’s the cake recipe rewritten in a more modern style:

Spice Cake

• 1 cup raisins
• 1 cup water
• ¹⁄₄ cup butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg, unbeaten
• 1 ¹⁄₂ cup flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• ¹⁄₂ tsp nutmeg
• ¹⁄₂ tsp ground cloves
• ¹⁄₂ cup chopped nuts (pecans, walnuts, etc.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Boil the raisins in 1 cup water for about 3 minutes, remove from heat. Cream softened butter and sugar together, then beat in the egg. Add remaining dry ingredients and the raisin/water mixture and stir to combine. Pour the mixture into an 8x8” pan and bake 45 minutes at 350 degrees, or bake 30-35 minutes in an 8” cast iron skillet.