War Cake is one of the first cakes (or maybe the first one), that I ever baked. After our wedding, once I landed in the United States, I had all the time in the world. So watching television and going to the library was my only two pass time until I got my driving license. This recipe for the War Cake is from the food network and made by Sara Moulton. The name of the cake caught my attention and this was an eggless recipe. I was not using eggs those days and until recently I did not even know how to crack open an egg without creating a mess. Now I bake with eggs and I am getting a little comfortable dealing with it, but still, when I have to crack several eggs like to make meringue or something, it makes me a little nervous.
What is a War Cake?
The cake is called the war cake because this was made during the wars. There was a lot of rationing of ingredients during war times and certain ingredients were hard to get. This cake was made with ingredients that were easily available without rationing. The harder-to-get ingredients were mostly milk, butter, egg, and sugar. This cake uses none of those ingredients. Often this cake is also called the depression cake that was commonly made during the Great Depression. One more similar recipe is this depression-era peanut butter bread. This recipe uses a similar concept and uses peanut butter for the protein component in the bread.
Boiled Raisin Cake | Poor Man’s Cake | Depression Cake
This cake also is known as boiled raisin cake, where the term boiled refers to the boiling of the raisin with sugar and spices to get a syrup base for the recipe. The origin of this cake is the US and this dated way back to the American civil war. It was baked often during the great depression times and hence the name Depression Cake. Since the ingredients used to bake the War cake are nothing fancy and are affordable by not-too-wealthy people as well, it is also called the Poor man’s Cake. The texture of the cake is quite dense, but the raisins give it a nice texture. Also, the spices in the cake are not overwhelming and it works great as a tea /coffee time cake. Considering that this cake was made during the wars as dessert, it is not a bad bake at all. Preparation time – 15 minsCooking time – 1 hrDifficulty level – easy
Ingredients to make War Cake – makes a 10-inch tube cake
Raisins – 1 lb (about 2 ½ cups) Packed light brown sugar – 2 cups Water – 2 cups Vegetable shortening – 4 tbsp Salt – 2 tsp Ground cinnamon – 2 tsp Ground cloves – ½ tsp All-purpose flour – 3 cups Baking soda – 2 tsp
Procedure to make War Cake
Combine the brown sugar, raisin, water, shortening, cinnamon, cloves, and salt in a large saucepan. I used both golden and dark raisins.
Bring to a boil over medium heat. Cook for about 5 mins stirring frequently until it forms a syrupy kind of texture.
Take it off the flame and let it cool down to room temperature.
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease and flour a 10-inch tube pan. In another bowl, whisk together the flour and the baking soda.
Once the raisin mixture has cooled, fold in the dry ingredients.
Spoon the mixture into the greased pan and bake for 45-50 mins or until the toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. If the top seems to be browning too quickly, cover it with aluminum foil and continue baking until the center is entirely baked.
Cool for 5 mins in the pan and then invert onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Do not be tempted to slice until it cools entirely.
Serve with whipped cream or dusted with some confectionary sugar. We like it as is since the cake itself was sweet enough for us.
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