If you’re a home cook and history buff, there’s a strong chance you’ve looked through the Old Recipes Subreddit. And if you’re unfamiliar, we’ve covered lots of those recipes ourselves. You’ll mostly encounter recipes and tricks from the past century—there’s a particular affinity for the 1940s and 1970s, I’ve noticed. But every now and then something even older pops up, like this Gilded Age-era “economy cake” recipe from a Great-Grandma Agusta Pasewald Sutton.
According to Reddit user Team143, Great Grandma Agusta was born in 1873 and wrote this recipe down before the turn of the last century. “She kept her recipes in a little booklet she wrote before 1900,” the post reads.
What exactly makes this case economical? Take a look at the ingredients: Just about everything comes from a pantry, and we’re guessing Great Grandma Agusta dried out her grapes to make raisins herself. Rather than eggs or milk, this cake utilizes lard, which was relatively easy to obtain at the time.
This recipe harkens to a later development, wacky cake, and possibly inspired other Depression- and World War II–era dessert recipes. The result is a simple spice cake that won’t break your budget.
How to Make Great-Grandma Agusta’s Economy Cake
Ingredients
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup water
- 1 tsp. baking soda, dissolved in [a little] warm water
- 2 cups seeded raisins
- ⅓ cup lard
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 teaspoon grated nutmeg
- 2 cups flour, with ½ teaspoon baking powder sifted through.
- Vanilla or chocolate icing
Directions
Heat water, brown sugar, raisins, lard, cloves, and nutmeg over medium-high heat. Let boil for three minutes. Let cool completely—otherwise, as one Reddit user notes, “the flour turns into hot, gummy clumps.”
Stir in baking soda dissolved in warm water (this will prevent clumps) and flour with baking powder sifted through.
Transfer mixture to a loaf tin and bake in a “rather slow oven,” or between 300 and 325 degrees F, for an hour or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool completely, then top with vanilla or chocolate icing—you can use frosting if you like, but from an economical standpoint, a simple icing makes much more sense.