{"id":359,"date":"2025-10-28T20:25:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T20:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/?p=359"},"modified":"2025-10-28T20:25:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T20:25:13","slug":"this-great-grandmas-125-year-old-cake-recipe-is-making-a-comeback-on-reddit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/?p=359","title":{"rendered":"This Great-Grandma\u2019s 125-Year-Old Cake Recipe Is Making a Comeback on Reddit"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

If you\u2019re a home cook and history buff, there\u2019s a strong chance you\u2019ve looked through the Old Recipes Subreddit<\/a>. And if you\u2019re unfamiliar, we\u2019ve covered lots of those recipes ourselves. You\u2019ll mostly encounter recipes and tricks from the past century\u2014there\u2019s a particular affinity for the 1940s and 1970s, I\u2019ve noticed. But every now and then something even older pops up, like this Gilded Age-era \u201ceconomy cake\u201d recipe<\/a> from a Great-Grandma Agusta Pasewald Sutton.\n<\/p>\n

According to Reddit user Team143<\/a>, Great Grandma Agusta was born in 1873 and wrote this recipe down before the turn of the last<\/em> century. \u201cShe kept her recipes in a little booklet she wrote before 1900,\u201d the post reads.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

What exactly makes this case economical? Take a look at the ingredients: Just about everything comes from a pantry, and we\u2019re 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.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

This recipe harkens to a later development, wacky cake, and possibly inspired other Depression- and World War II\u2013era dessert recipes. The result is a simple spice cake that won\u2019t break your budget.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

How to Make Great-Grandma Agusta\u2019s Economy Cake <\/span> <\/h2>\n

Ingredients<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

    \n
  • 1 cup brown sugar<\/li>\n
  • 1 cup water<\/li>\n
  • 1 tsp. baking soda, dissolved in [a little] warm water<\/li>\n
  • 2 cups seeded raisins<\/li>\n
  • \u2153 cup lard<\/li>\n
  • 1 teaspoon ground cloves<\/li>\n
  • 1 teaspoon grated nutmeg<\/li>\n
  • 2 cups flour, with \u00bd teaspoon baking powder sifted through.\u00a0<\/li>\n
  • Vanilla or chocolate icing<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Directions<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

    Heat water, brown sugar, raisins, lard, cloves, and nutmeg over medium-high heat. Let boil for three minutes. Let cool completely\u2014otherwise, as one Reddit user notes, \u201cthe flour turns into hot, gummy clumps.\u201d\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

    Stir in baking soda dissolved in warm water (this will prevent clumps) and flour with baking powder sifted through.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

    Transfer mixture to a loaf tin and bake in a \u201crather slow oven,\u201d 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\u2014you can use frosting if you like, but from an economical standpoint, a simple icing makes much more sense.\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    If you\u2019re a home cook and history buff, there\u2019s a strong chance you\u2019ve looked through the Old Recipes Subreddit. And if you\u2019re unfamiliar, we\u2019ve covered lots of those recipes ourselves. You\u2019ll mostly encounter recipes and tricks from the past century\u2014there\u2019s a particular affinity for the 1940s and 1970s, I\u2019ve noticed. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":360,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kitchen-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}