Baking, 1917 Style

As we learned last week, with the entry of the US into World War I, voluntary food conservation came into being in order to not only provide food for American troops heading over to fight in Europe, but also relieve severe food shortages for European civilians. The Food Administration encouraged homemakers to be frugal and to do without; the women’s magazines jumped in and began to publish recipes that reflected the new frugality.

And so this week, I present...recipes! I haven’t tried any of them—too busy getting ready for April (hint, hint). But I think I might try this first one some time, because....well, chocolate and potatoes? Carb heaven. It’s from a Royal Baking Powder ad in the July 1917 issue of McCall’s Magazine:

Potato Chocolate Cake
¾ cups shortening
2 cups sugar
½ cup chocolate
¾ cup milk
2 ½ cups flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
5 teaspoons Royal Baking Powder
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon allspice
1 cup mashed potatoes
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup chopped nuts
½ teaspoon cloves

Cream shortening, add sugar, melted chocolate and mashed potatoes, mix well. Beat eggs separately and add yolks to the first mixture. Add milk and dry ingredients which have been sifted together. Beat well. Add nuts, vanilla, and beaten whites of eggs. Mix thoroughly and bake in greased loaf tin in moderate oven one hour. (The old method called for four eggs)

This one (from a Royal Baking Powder ad in June 1917’s McCall’s) is less tempting—I’m not a fruitcake fan—but I just love the recipe name. Makes you jump up and say, “yum!”, doesn’t it?

Or not.

Eggless, Milkless, Butterless Cake
1 cup brown sugar
1 ¼ cups water
1 cup seedless raisins
2 ounces citron, cut fine
1/3 cup shortening
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups flour
5 teaspoons Royal Baking Powder

Boil sugar, water, fruit, shortening, salt, and spices together in sauce 3 minutes. When cool, add flour and baking power which have been sifted together. Mix well, Bake in loaf pan about 45 minutes. (The old method called for three eggs)

And finally, from an article in September 1917’s The Delineator entitled “More French Recipes”, is a recipe from a B. Simmen of Ruschlekom, Switzerland:

War Cake
1 cupful granulated sugar
2 teaspoonfuls cocoa
2 cupfuls milk
2 cupfuls flour
1 tablespoonful melted grape jelly
1 egg
1 or 2 teaspoonfuls powdered cinnamon
1 teaspoonful baking soda
Nuts

Take the granulated sugar and add to it the egg. Then beat together and add the cocoa, cinnamon, and the fresh milk or cream. Add the milk or cream very slowly. Mix in the flour. Dissolve the bicarbonate of soda in one tablespoonful of melted grape jelly.

Butter a high baking-pan, as this dish bakes better in a high pan rather than a shallow one.

Shell some nuts and put them over your cake. This dessert is inexpensive and will keep for several days.

I rather like how the recipe’s author neglects to mention baking the cake!

Bon appétit!

It’s Name that Book Time again...

Aaaaand it’s time to play everyone’s favorite game, help Marissa come up with a possible title for her new book because she’s reeallly bad at titles.

This one is forthcoming from Entangled Publishing some time in the first half of 2014 (the first round of edits is in, and I hope to have a release date for you soon!) There are some slightly different rules in play this time, though. For one thing, this isn’t a young adult story or set in 19th century England—it’s an adult contemporary fantasy set in Boston with some slightly spicy content. Here’s a blurb...

*****

It’s been two thousand years since the fires burned out on the altars in the temples of Greece. So what’s a god to do?

Teach, of course.

Theodora Fairchild has had it with teaching Latin to apathetic middle school students and enrolls in the Classics program at prestigious John Winthrop University to get her Ph.D. and pursue a serious academic career. Falling in love with brilliant but mysterious visiting fellow Grant Proctor isn’t what she expected to find on the syllabus—at least she thinks they’re in love...nor is her flirtatious relationship with the charming head of the department, Julian d’Amboise.

Soon Theo finds she's been assigned a new major—divinity! She’ll need to learn how to be a goddess fast in order to rescue herself and Grant from Julian’s clutches. After all, Julian’s track record with his women was spectacularly bad—they generally ended up turning into cows or burning to a crisp...and Grant’s last meeting with the department chairman left him chained to a mountaintop for thirty thousand years having his liver pecked out by an eagle. Drugged Riesling, power shopping with Aphrodite, and an eerie labyrinth all make an appearance as Theo struggles to win her eventually happily-ever-after fate—with a twist.

*****

So what do you think, dear readers? The tone of the story isn't terribly comedic though it does have its light, tongue-in-cheek moments...but nor is it dark and gritty because I just don't do dark and gritty. I’m trying to avoid titles with the word “god” in them or other overtly religion-associated words since we don’t want the algorithms at on-line booksellers to assume this book should be listed under Christian Romance and possibly offend innocent readers. But mythological or classical references are definitely a possibility.

Anyway, have fun trying...no suggestion is a bad one, because it might inspire the perfect title. And most of all, thank you!