Recipe box contest

I thought I'd start the year with a post responding to the recipe box contest over at Mason-Dixon Knitting.

Here's a picture of my (oh so boring) recipe box:









And a recipe from it that's from one of my great grandmothers. I got this from a cousin of my mother's quite a while ago. I always lose track of that part of the family, because both great grandparents were widowed at least once and had children from more than one marriage (if I remember right), so there are all these half siblings to try to keep straight. This is exacerbated by the fact that there was a large age difference between my great grandmother and great grandfather (I think it was at least 40 years).

Marilla's Thanksgiving Cake
Cream 1 cup shortening and 1 cup sugar together. Add 1 cup raisins, 1/2 cup shredded coconut, 1cup blackberry jam, 1 cup nuts. Combine 4 cups flour, 1 teaspoon allspice and add this alternately with 1 cup milk into which 1 teaspoon soda has been stirred briskly until it foams to the creamed fat and sugar. Bake in a greased pan until it tests done in a "moderate" oven. Frost with Boiled Frosting (1 cup butter, 1-1/2 cups milk, 2 cups sugar boiled to soft ball stage stirring constantly, beat while cooling to spread consistency).

I will post a disclaimer that I have not tried this recipe, which should be evident by the fact that I haven't put an actual value on the oven temperature. My knowledge of baking makes me think that "moderate" from the early part of the 20th century should be about 325-350 F, but feel free to do your own research to confirm this.

I have much progress to report on knitting, spinning and weaving, but I'm going to save that for another post. I've had the last week off, so it has given me a bunch of time to get some things done and make good progress on others.