Grandma Griffith’s Hot Milk Sponge Cake



Grandma Griffith’s Hot Milk Sponge Cake

By Charlie Burke



My mother, like most moms of her time, viewed making meals as an important responsibility and had the usual schedule of casseroles, pot roasts and other fare of the mid-twentieth century which were filling but not very exciting. Working full time and having a tight budget certainly constrained her creativity, but I remember good food which was very much like meals neighbors and relatives served.

A few of her recipes, usually for deserts, were very good and were not seen on other tables. Invariably, she would say that she had been given the recipe by “Grandma Griffith”, a locally famous cook in Riley, Ohio who befriended my mother when she and my father moved there after being married in 1938. We moved back to New England when I was very young, but I recall meeting her when we visited when I was eight years old. I recall a very old, warm, smiling woman in a white apron busy making pies, exactly as I had envisioned when my mother had spoken of her.

Ripley, Ohio, located on the Mason-Dixon Line and across the Ohio River from Kentucky, had its cooking influenced by the South, and the many wonderful deserts my mother recalled having there reflected this. One simple such desert was this hot milk sponge cake, which my mother made as long as I can remember. It was a family favorite, and became a favorite of our sons, Kevin and Michael.

In later years, when I had the opportunity to cook for her, my mom usually brought this cake to our house. After she died, we found the original recipe in an old cookie tin on a yellowed index card, written in a young bride’s hand and labeled “Grandma Griffith’s Hot Milk Sponge Cake”. I was surprised by the simplicity of the recipe for this slightly crusty, moist and flavorful cake, but perhaps I shouldn’t have been. Grandma Griffith was nearly eighty years old when my mother met her, so this recipe may well have been given to her in the 1870’s!

One nine inch cake:

2 eggs

¼ teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

½ cup milk

1 tablespoon butter

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Heat milk in a small pan until it just starts to boil. Add butter to milk, stirring until melted. Keep milk warm.

Beat eggs until light in color; add sugar, salt, vanilla and continue beating until mixed.

Add baking powder to flour and stir to distribute.

Add flour and milk alternately to the egg mixture with mixer running. Begin and end with flour; add milk in a thin stream.

Pour into a buttered 9” cake pan. Cook at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes.

Leave in cake pan for 10 minutes and then turn out onto a cake rack.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

Often, simple is best, and this little cake certainly has passed the test of time. Served in the summer with fresh fruit or at other times with home made preserves or jams, it is a great desert for all occasions. I’m sure both my mom and Grandma Griffith would approve of my passing the recipe along.

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download