War Cake

[LadyEvenstar]

Does anyone have a good recipe for what used to be called War Cake? I believe it was made from simple ingredients and didn't use a lot of things that were scarce during the war. My grandmother's mom used to make it when she was young. This would have been during WWII but granny believed it was from a recipe her mom had already had so it may well date back to WWI.

Granny has said often that the one thing she'd love to have for Christmas is her mom's War Cake one more time. She loved the cake so much that Great-Grandmom made it for her as a holiday gift every year and Granny ate it as her Christmas breakfast. I'd love to find a good recipe and make it as a gift for Granny. I know it wouldn't be the same as her mom's because she said even after her mom gave her the recipe (which she has lost over the years) it never came out the same. I just thought she might like it anyway because Granny loves cake of any kind and she might appreciate the effort and that I made it with the girls.

I found some recipes on Google but wondered if anyone on here had heard of this and had a recipe they liked. Not that anyone on here would be old enough to remember this time period but perhaps someone might have an old family recipe or something.

Thanks for any suggestions anyone might have!

 

[HouseElf]

My son did a school project last week, this is a site he used to support his paper (was a history/cooking class):

Wartime Recipes

HTH

 

[Ahorsesoul]

1942 War cake recipe

Ingredients:

1/2 cup shortening (bacon grease can be substituted)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon of other spices: cloves, mace, ginger
1 cup chopped raisins or other dried fruits such as prunes or figs
1 cup sugar, brown or white
1 cup water
2 cups flour, white or whole wheat
1/4 teaspoon soda
2 teaspoons baking powder

Directions:

Boil sugar, shortening, raisins, dates, salt and spices for 3 min.
Remove from heat and let cool. When cool, add flour, baking soda and baking powder that have been sifted together; beat well. Pour into a greased 9x5 inch loaf pan and bake at 350degrees for 45 min.