Cooking Attempt #1 - Fudge Cake (Quick 'n Easy)

For our first Cookin' It Old School attempt, we tried out the "Fudge Cake (Quick 'n Easy)" recipe, compliments of WASHINGTON ALL-PURPOSE FLOUR:

First things first, we gathered up all of our ingredients.


In place of unsweetened chocolate we used Ghirardelli's 60% Cacao semi-sweet baking chips (since we had it on hand), and we used a light cream instead of milk. The first step of the recipe is preparing the chocolate mixture. The recipe calls for you to mix the chocolate with sugar and water over heat, to create a smooth sauce. I found that the chocolate and the water didn't mix very well, and I felt like we lost a lot of the cocoa flavor; next time we do the recipe, we're going to try it with milk instead.

While Matt worked on the chocolate, I blended together the dry ingredients.

Added the cream and butter.

And beat that all together.

Next, Matt slowly added the chocolate and we blended the whole mixture together.

Until smooth.

Normally you need two 9 inch layer tins, but we didn't have cake tins, so we decided to make do with cupcakes. This cut our cooking time down to about 20-25 minutes, so if you go this route, plan accordingly.

Matt poured the batter.

Here they are, all about half full.

In at 350 degrees.

So, while the cupcakes were baking, we decided we needed an icing. Originally we were going to a glaze that required powdered sugar, but realized we didn't have any! So we resorted to a traditional buttercream icing, just butter, sugar and a couple other things (I'll post the real recipe again when I find it).

The cupcakes came out looking lovely and smelling amazing, but we decided to try another method of icing before we used our buttercream, namely putting a marshmallow atop so it will melt over the treat. What we didn't realize is that you're supposed to put the marshmallow on about two minutes before the baked good is ready to come out of the oven (so it will melt while they're still cooking).

Suffice to say, the marshmallow didn't melt, but Matt decided to dress up the cupcake a little so it wouldn't be sad.

Kobe was getting impatient with how long we were taking, so we decided to finish up and put on our buttercream.

And this is how they came out!


Stay tuned for more!

Dandy Dinners

On a night like tonight, you just have to have a dandy dinner. Besides, it's "M'm! M'm! Good!"

Burglars Will Want Your Pie

While your pie is in the oven, please read about how to bug a burglar. Oh, and don't display your merchandise, bake while wearing clothes. ;)

Appalachian Power Co.

December 1976. A good Christmas for scalloped Turkey.

When in Rome...

...Make pie.

Thank You Hunt's Tomato Sauce

Hunt for the Best! Hunt's saves dinner. Everyone grab your skillet!

White Fruit Cake

We all need to know how to make fruit cake. How else do you disappoint relatives at the holidays?

Walnut-Chocolate Pound Cake

Walnut Chocolate Pound Cake, circa 1950s from The Roanoke Times.

Butch's Beef and Potato Loaf

As far as we can tell, these recipes came from the Looney residence in Roanoke, VA. I believe the woman was Ada and this is her husband, Butch's recipe for Beef and Potato Loaf.

If you try it out, leave a comment. Here's the translation:

Ingredients:

4 cups sliced potatoes
1 tall cup onions chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper

Mix 1 pound ground beef
3/4 cup of milk
1/2 crackers
1/4 cup of catsup
1/4 cup onions
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon of pepper

Spread over potatoes and bake at 350 degrees for one hour

Handwritten Pumpkin Bread

The first of a slew of hand written recipes. I can't wait to try this and will write more when we have. If you try this out, leave a comment about the recipe!

Here's the translation:

Ingredients:
3 cups of sugar
4 whole eggs
1 cup Crisco oil
1 1/2 cups of Pumpkin
2/3 cup of water
3 1/2 cups unsifted flour
2 teaspoons of soda
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg

Beat together. Add 1 cup chopped nuts. 1 cup white raisins. Fill pans 1/2 full. Bake 350 degree about 1 hr. Check with a toothpick. (3 Loaves)

Got A Food, Need A Spice

You've seen Better Homes & Gardens around, they still exist (looks like they've partnered up with Walmart most recently). They've been around forever. This spice and herb chart is from around 1950 (possibly 1948 - we have another H&G cutout from that year). It's pretty cool, offering a breakdown of what foods work well with what spices.

Good Things to Eat from 1957

Good things to eat, compliments of your favorite baking soda product! Circa 1957.

Introduction

Hi. We're Matt and Morgan. Recently we were given a box of cookbooks and a collection of recipes that were found at an auction down in Roanoke, Virginia. Some are from old cooking magazines, others are written by hand, on paper, on shopping lists, on the back of birthday cards. We decided to try and cook a few of these recipes, as someone went through all the trouble of collecting them. We also wanted to make those recipes available here, for you!