Banana Cake

Lately I've been a bit down in the dumps and not having as much fun with life as I should. But i have been baking a lot of stuff. I made a three layer cake for my MIL's birthday, which was actually more like 6 layers, but stacked together it was three layers decorated with fondant, plus a cupcake made into a shoe for the topper. Fun to try for the first time, and it was delicious if I do say so myself. Top layer was chocolate/and vanilla chai with cream cheese filling, then the middle was chocolate, with chocolate frosting , then the lower layer was white cake, with vanilla butter cream. Yummy!
My grandmother was always taking treats, squares, buns what-have-you any time she went to a gathering, church meeting, or visited anyone.
Today I've skipped ahead in her cookbook to bring you all a recipe she has marked as Delicious 
Banana Cake . I suspect that it is banana bread, but it`s not the same as my recipe for banana bread, so I'm writing it out for you anyway.   It calls for sour milk, so I think i would do the vinegar in milk trick to make that, or use sour cream.


Banana Cake (advocate)
 2 eggs
1 cup white sugar
1/2 C shortening
4 Tablespoons sour milk
1tsp soda
2tsp baking powder
2 1/2 cups Flour
pinch of salt
vanilla (she didn't say how much, i'll say 1tsp max)
2 tsp cornstarch
and LAST add 3 bananas mashed fine
Do not be alarmed if batter is stiff. It will be ok.


and as always, no length of time or temperature is listed, cause this was cooked on a wood stove...but i'd say 350-375 for 20-30 minutes, or until you smell it and it looks done!

Simple Bread

Simple bun recipe

• 2 tablespoons margarine melted (i put this in a measuring cup then pour the hot water over it to melt it, then add the egg and milk to it)
• 3 tablespoons white sugar
• 1/2 cup hot water
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 packet yeast (approx 2 1/2 teaspoons)
• 1 egg, beaten
• shake of salt
• 5 cups all-purpose flour

Mix 2 1/2 cups of flour with the yeast, sugar and salt in a large bowl. 

Meanwhile mix hot water to margarine, to melt it, then add the egg and mix.  Add liquids to drys/ Add flour a bit at a time until it pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Continue to knead in flour until it forms an elastic dough.  Cover with plastic wrap and leave to rise until doubled in size. If using quick yeast, you can just let it rest 10 minutes at this point, then shape into balls and let rise until doubled.

If you have the time, let it rise first until doubled in size. Then shape into balls, and re-rise about 35 minutes. Preheat oven to 375-400 degrees. Bake for 15 minutes or until  lightly brown on top, or makes a hollow sound when tapped.

Add butter /margarine to tops when removing from oven.

Enjoy!

Tea Biscuits

The last few weeks, we have been battling illness around our house, so I haven't had a chance to update any of my blogs. I have had a chance to serve a ton of soup and lots of biscuits. So this recipe is rather appropriate for this time of the year- Tea biscuits 2 cups Flour 3 teaspoon Baking Powder 3/4 tsp salt 1 Tablespoon sugar 1 egg 2 Tablespoons shortening 1/3 cup water A good hot oven. No additional instructions have been included, but I'm going to guess that it's mix it all together then you could drop it by spoonfuls onto your baking sheet. If the mixture seems to have a little more doughy texture, then I would suggest rolling and cutting out with a cup prior to putting them on the baking sheet-. 350 to 375 should be good, and then when they look done, they probably are! I would estimate 8-11 minutes. Pair these up with a tasty homemade stew or chili and voila a perfect fall meal

Chocolate cake

I haven't yet had occassion to try any of these recipes so I'd be interested in hearing if anyone tries them. I copy them as I read them, exactly. So for example, the statement at the bottom of this, that *this makes a delicious icing. Well, truly i have no idea,those are Grandma's words, but it sounds tasty to me! Chocolate cake- purity receipt 1 cup cream 1 cup White sugar 2 Cups sugar 2 tsp Butter 1 teaspoon B powder 4 Tablespoons good cocoa 1 teaspoon vanilla 2 eggs pinch of salt 1/2 tsp soda Mix sugar, butter and cream together. Then mix cocoa with a little boiling water. Beat eggs separate, then beat all together. Bake in moderate oven 25 minutes Icing Four tablespoons cocoa mix with boiling eater, add icing sugar, a little melted butter and cream. *this makes a delicious cake icing.

Toronto Cake

Chilly days make me feel like baking. Warming up the house with the smells and warmth of freshly baked goods- so satisfying! For today's recipe I have chosen a recipe that my Grandmother got from a Mrs Ed Collar. Her notes say it is very good, so hopefully she's right! Toronto Cake followed by the recipe to ice it 1/2 cup butter 1/2 cup dark syrup 1 cup white sugar 3 egg yolks (keep whites for icing) 1 tsp cinnamon 1 tsp soda 1tsp vanilla 1 tsp spice 1 cup sugar mix 2 small cups flour (sadly she forgot to write down what comes next, then again, the recipe is quite old, so maybe the stove temp had nothing to do with it back then! I'm going to take a stab at it and say mix it all together and cook it at about 350 til it seems done. Icing whites of 3 eggs 1/2cup white sugar (mix these two together) 1 cup chopped raisins 1/2 cup chopped walnuts mix with icing an spread between slices or over cake

Cold meat relish-aka Indian Sauce (by May Morrow)

Fall is upon us and you may be left wondering what to do with your garden's bounty. Of course in the old days there wasn't really as much of an opportunity to run to the store when you ran low on relishes, etc, so there are plenty of recipes for home made pickles/relishes, jams and preserves. I think a lot of people have probably never had fresh relishes or sauces made for them, so why not try a few recipes out this fall,and treat them your friends to a basket of homemade preserves? Cold meat relish- 24 Ripe tomatoes 24 Large apples 10 onions 2 red peppers 1/2 cup salt(small 1/2 cup) 1qt vinegar 1 lbs brown sugar 1/4 mustard. Boil tomatoes , apples,onions and peppers till they mash through a sieve, then add 1 qt vinegar, sugar, small 1/2 cup salt, mustard. Boil 20 minutes. It's not written in the recipe, but I'm going to guess they mean boil it, then hot seal/can it in the jars for storage.

Homemade Yeast

Today's recipe is not something I would ever have thought of making, and in this time of conveniece not many would really. But hey, who knows maybe one day there will be a worldwide yeast shortage and I'll have to cease buying the handy little packs put out by Fleishmans, so here it is- a recipe on how to make your own yeast. (and assuming that you have yeast cakes on hand, which must have been abundant back in 1901 or so) Put 1 yeastcake in a quart sealer 2Tablespoons sugar and lukewarm potato water at noon or after. Salt required for a baking of bread. -1 Tablespoon. 2 Mashed potatoes. Let rise till needed. Drain off the liquid leaving the sediment in the sealer for a starter (the starter was underlined, I take it that it's important) adding sugar salt each time with the potatoes and water, and one yeast cake occassionally,. So, what has this first foray into the recipes of the past teach us? People should actually explain what they are talking about! Not everyone will know what on earth you are mean,you really won't live forever to explain it to us- and we don't all have the same baking lingo-cause you know, times change- the whole imperial /metric thingy is another case in point. This recipe begins with it being a given that I'd know to boil potatoes in some quantity to have the potato water ready. Likely 100+ years ago, everyone already knew that.Me, Mom of the modern era? While, I need a bit more specifics to get me started...

Grandma's Cookbook-

When my Grandmother passed away, I became the recipient of several of her cookbooks-
She kept every recipe she ever tried, complete with notes on what she had to change, how good it was, and if she didn't like it, she left it written in, but X'd it over so she wouldn't accidentally rewrite and reuse the same bad recipe. She made notes in the margin about who it was from, when she got it, and if they got it somewhere else. She also sometimes noted who they'd eaten it with, or at what occasion. To me it's a like a little chronicling of her life and involvement in various groups and activities. I was pleased to see some recipes she'd gotten from my maternal Grandma in there too- She passed away when I was only 10, so it was kind of neat to stumble across them.
In the earliest recipe book of hers that I have found so far-, she wrote in her brother Vincent's school book- an old hard cover thing, tied with strings it's so old. In it there are a variety of articles written down for school- how to deal with cabbage worms,how to store eggs, that type of thing.
And then, treasure! Some are recipes handed down to them from her grandmother! So, my great great Grandmothers' recipes, some with notes stating that she in turn got them from her aunt or mother.
Pretty fun in my opinion cause suddenly I'm holding a bit of hopefully tasty family history in my hand in the form of recipes from the mid-late 1800's. My grandmother spent all her life residing in the Manitoulin and Greater Sudbury area, so her earliest recipes used readily available items to rural northern ontario. Through the war years the recipes take on a little more stark quality, as ingredients and money became more scarce-
In the interest of playing nice and sharing, and 'cause let's face it- I'm not likely going to be coming to you live on the food network any time soon-I'll be posting recipes here for people to peruse.
Please keep in mind that I haven't tried the majority of these recipes of course. I wish I had the time to though and someday I hope to work my way through them all, one bite at a time. Er, I mean a bit.

Welcome to our recipe site!

This section of the website will be dedicated to sharing old recipes that we have, that look tasty, look weird, piqued my curiousity, and just make me wonder how people survived before fridges and grocery stores.! Check back as we'll be updating it as often as possible thanks