Molasses is an underutilized sweetener. According to Spruce Eats:
It was a very popular sweetener in the United States during the early 20th century, though it’s used less often today.
That’s a pity. Molasses can provide a delightful rich, earthy, sweetness, with hints of caramel, which enhance many foods.
When browsing through hundred-year-old cookbooks and magazines, I often see recipes that call for molasses. I recently came across a recipe for Molasses Orange Cake embedded in a Brer Rabbit Molasses ad in the November, 1925 issue of Ladies Home Journal, and decided to give it a try.
I served this cake to a group of friends. I’m originally from Pennsylvania, and one person said, “Is this one of your Pennsylvania Dutch recipes?”
It’s not, but the cake has the delightful, satisfying, hearty, richness typical of Pennsylvania Dutch desserts.
The cake was moist and flavorful with a hint of orange and nuanced spicy undertones of allspice and ginger. The recipe calls for grated orange peel, which provides bold bursts of citrus. The cake is topped with a light dusting of sugar and cinnamon. This recipe makes an 8-inch square cake. Since the cake is rich, I cut the cake into fairly small pieces and it can easily provide 8 to 10 servings.
Here is the original recipe:
I used butter rather than shortening when making this recipe. I also did not dissolve the baking soda prior to adding it batter. And, I saw no need to strain the juice from the juiced orange, since it only had a small amount of pulp, and the grated orange peel already provided some texture, so a bit more was not an issue.
Here’s the recipe updated for modern cooks:
Molasses Orange Cake
1 orange
1 cup molasses
1/2 cup butter melted
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon ground ginger
Topping
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
Preheat oven to 350° F. Grate the peel of the orange using a light touch to minimize the amount of white pith. (I used a box grater.) Set the grated peel aside. Then, cut the orange in half and juice.
Put the orange juice, molasses, melted butter, eggs, milk, all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, baking soda, allspice, and ginger in a mixing bowl; beat until smooth. Stir in the grated orange peel.
Put the batter in a prepared 8-inch square pan, and put in oven to bake.
While the cake is baking, combine the sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.
Bake cake for 35 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove the cake from the oven and sprinkle the sugar and cinnamon mixture over the top of the cake. Return cake to oven and bake for an additional 5 minutes.
Cake can be served warm or cold.
This definitely sounds like something one of my grandmothers, both Pennsylvania Dutch, would make. I remember lots of molasses being used while I was growing up in Eastern Pennsylvania. I have fond memories of helping my maternal grandmother make shoo fly pie, and talking about molasses always brings that to mind.
It’s nice to hear that this post brought back some good food memories. Shoo fly pie is such a lovely, iconic Pennsylvania food.
Same as Lynn my Mom and grandmother from PA made us the very best goodies.
There are some wonderful foods (and some wonderful cooks) that are closely connected with Pennsylvania. .
I have grandmas cook book which I cherish.
You are so fortunate to have your grandmother’s cookbook. Old family cookbooks are not only repositories of beloved recipes, but also of wonderful memories.
Yes I keep saying I want to have it replicated. One brother has already passed and I have two that cook still alive time is now. I want it in her handwriting. She was Hungarian/Croatia I believe.
You should get the cookbook replicated. It sounds really special. I did a family cookbook a few years ago, and made copies for relatives. They really liked it.
I want to do that. I will search on line for those who do it though since I am taking off work for the winter. Maybe I can plan on doing them myself with a program by scanning grandma’s writings 🙂 thanks
I no longer buy brown sugar because I made my own with molasses and white sugar. This one is now on my todo list.
I’ve never made my own brown sugar, but it would be fun to try. Your comment reminded me that I read somewhere that commercial brown sugar is often really just white sugar with molasses added back in.
Yep…. And its just as easy to add it back in. I no longer make it up ahead . Just throw the white sugar in
1 cup minus 1 tablespoon and add back 1 tablespoon Molasses. To be honest I don’t bother to take out the tablespoon sugar and just glug in the molasses. It glugs very slowly.
Wow, that’s easy. I going to make some.
I’ve had cake like that, but not with the orange. It sounds like a good addition.
The orange juice and peel add a lovely, but subtle, flavor to the cake.
Sounds very much like shoe-fly cake with orange added. I will definitely try this one as the citrus sounds like a wonderful addition.
The orange is a nice addition. The cake itself is similar to shoo-fly cake (without the orange), but instead of the crumb topping, it is sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar.
My grandmother used to make something like this – it had a citrusy twist!
It’s good to hear that this recipe brought back some warm memories.
This sounds wonderful! As I love molasses! Sounds like a cake that would go great with coffee!
It’s perfect with coffee.
Why do you think the original recipe had the baking soda dissolved in milk? Do you think that might have helped activate it, that is, make it easier for the chemical reaction to start?
Yes, I think that the baking soda was dissolved in warm milk or water to help activate it. Dissolving it first can help ensure that the baking soda is evenly distributed throughout the batter, and that there are no bitter lumps of it in the finished baked good. Modern baking soda is very reliable and often is not dissolved prior to adding to the mixture. That said, some cooks still dissolve baking soda before adding to the other ingredients to help ensure the best quality of the baked good.
It is interesting to see how things are different now from a 100 years ago. I had never dissolved baking soda in a recipe. I never knew it could be unreliable.
this sounds really good. I will give it a try one of these days!
sherry
I think that you’ll like this recipe.
This sounds really tasty!
It’s yummy.
Love the addition of the ginger… Lucky friends!