Munchie Monday: Spice Cake

Spice cake has been around for centuries and enjoyed throughout the world in various forms. This historic Macculloch-Miller family recipe, with the combination of spice cake and chocolate, seemed intriguing. Google chocolate spice cake today and you will get a list of recipes dating from the 1880s to the present day. Ingredients in these recipes can range from orange juice and dark brown sugar to buttermilk and cinnamon.

Lauren Cabral, writer for backthenhistory.com, touches on a possible explanation for the late 19^th century spice cake with chocolate in her 2023 post, “The History of Devil’s Food Cake”. People had been enjoying the light and airy angel food cake since the 1830s and by the late 1800s they were looking for a dense, dark-colored cake in response. Molasses, chocolate, and spices were used as ingredients to create a darker cake.

This recipe for Spice Cake is in the same handwriting as the recipe for the Chocolate Layer Cake with Filling which is marked with the initials, “F.H.K.”. These initials are most likely those of Frances Hitchcock Keasbey (1862-1939), great-granddaughter of George and Louisa Macculloch and the daughter of Anthony Quinton Keasbey (1824-1895) and Edwina Louisa Miller (1826-1888).

Original Recipe

½ cup butter

1 cup molasses

½ cup sugar

1 egg

3 cups flour

1 heaping teaspoon soda dissolved in hot water

2 teaspoons of ginger

1 of cloves

4 teaspoons of cocoa or chocolate

¼ teaspoon of salt

Bake in moderate oven & cover with chocolate icing if desired

 

Adapted Recipe

½ cup butter, softened

1 cup molasses

½ cup sugar

1 egg

3 cups flour

1 teaspoon of baking soda dissolved in ½ cup of hot water

2 teaspoons of ground ginger

1 teaspoon of ground cloves

4 teaspoons of cocoa powder

¼ teaspoon of salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugar. Add egg.  Add molasses. In a separate bowl sift flour, ginger, cloves, cocoa, and salt. In a small bowl dissolve baking soda in hot water. Add dry ingredients to the molasses mixture, alternating with the hot water mixture when the batter looks dry. Grease bundt pan very well with shortening and a little flour. Pour cake batter into the bundt pan. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes. Check cake with toothpick in center. When toothpick comes out clean, the cake is done.

Macculloch-Miller Family Chocolate icing recipe (adapted):

2 squares of baker’s chocolate (2 oz.), grated

1 cup of sugar

2 tablespoons of milk

1 egg (optional)

1 teaspoon of vanilla

Grate chocolate. In one pan mix the cup of sugar with milk on the stove on low heat. Stir until dissolved. This should be a thick consistency. Using a double boiler, with a metal pan over a pot of boiling water, heat water until boiling. Turn off heat and melt grated chocolate in metal pan. Add thick sugar mixture and one lightly beaten egg (optional) to the melted chocolate. Let cool. Once cool, add vanilla. This icing recipe is thinner than the frosting or icing we typically use today.

 

Links to similar vintage recipes:

Vintage recipe which includes cinnamon and nutmeg and buttermilk rather than molasses 1880 Chocolate Spice Cake (With Icing) Recipe – Food.com

Short history of devil’s food cake The History of Devil’s Food Cake (backthenhistory.com) and longer interesting history of devil’s food cake History of Devil’s Food Cake | Scrumptious Bites (cheryls.com)