War Cake Re-Revisited

Marion Cunningham’s recent remarks on war cake struck an immediate response. My grandma made that cake but called it Hoover cake. It was one of those economical cakes often made during the Depression. When grandma boiled up the sugar, raisins, water, Crisco, etc. just before bedtime and left it to cool overnight, the spicy smell assured us we would have a tasty cake the next day.

Grandma died in 1948 and everyone thought that everyone else had the recipe. No one did, but years later I found it in my 1946 edition of “Joy of Cooking,” where it was called economy spice cake. We bake ours in a tube pan and serve it unfrosted. It keeps well and is often called “a man’s cake.”

--GLORIA WALTON, La Mesa