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Old nut-cake recipe is still a spooky favorite
By Lisa Abraham
Beacon Journal food writer
Published on Wednesday, Oct 28, 2009
It's time to stick your head in that bag of candy and inhale the sweet scent of Halloween.
What is it about Halloween that makes candy smell so much better than any other time of the year?
A box of Valentine's chocolates is nice and an Easter basket is reason to rejoice, but neither will tickle your sinuses the way a trick-or-treat bag will. It must be something about that blend of sugar, chocolate and salty snacks that combines to form the perfect eau de parfum de Halloween.
When my husband and I first moved into our home, I decided to pass out full-size candy bars for Halloween to celebrate. That was before I realized how many kids would be knocking on our door. We've since gone back to snack size. But I like to think that in some small way, we contributed to some child's Halloween memories — ''Remember the year that really cool couple moved into the neighborhood and gave out those huge candy bars? . . . ''
Or maybe not.
My mother told me she might not be home for trick-or-treat this year and might simply give the kids in her neighborhood some money instead. I did not tell her my theory that handing out money for Halloween officially makes her an old lady. I'm not sure she'll care.
When we were growing up, there was an old woman on our street who gave out pennies each year. She would have them stacked 5 cents high on the arm of her easy chair, which you could see from the porch. This was in the day when 5 cents actually bought a candy bar, so it wasn't a bad deal, but there was something spooky about her in that house counting out her stacks of pennies.
Other neighbors would give out apples, which of course became taboo when rumors of razor blades and straight pins took hold.
My husband always talks about the neighbor at the end of his street who would bake tables full of cookies and cupcakes all decorated for Halloween.
If she didn't know you, she would drop a waxed paper bag with a few cookies in your Halloween sack.
But if she knew you, she would invite you inside to look at her in-home bakery and select what you wanted — as much as you wanted — from the tables of baked goods.
I love hearing my husband tell this story. Just the thought of it seems so dreamy, so Hansel and Gretel — tempting goodies and the lure of going into an unfamiliar house at the same time.
But then the left side of my brain shook off the fairy tale and had to ask, ''How could you get cupcakes home without them getting all smushed in your bag?''
''We always went there last so we could carry them home at the end,'' he explained. When it comes to baked goods, my husband has years of practice figuring out how to maximize the experience.
Halloween will send many of us to the kitchen to bake up a treat for family, co-workers or school parties.
My mother used to make a recipe that we called Witch's Cake that was a spicy cake baked inside a coffee can. The cylinder shape was then covered in cream cheese frosting and sliced into circles for serving.
Only recently did I learn the recipe made the rounds in the early 1970s after it appeared in a children's book, The Old Witch and the Polka Dot Ribbon, by Wende and Harry Devlin, published by Parents Magazine Press in 1970.
I'm not sure you can still find one-pound tin coffee cans for baking. Most coffee these days comes in bags or plastic pseudo-cans. But I'm sure this recipe will work just as well in small loaf pans or even a 9-by-13-inch pan.
Until next week, have fun in the kitchen toiling over your own bubbling caldron, and have a happy Halloween.
OLD WITCH'S MAGIC NUT CAKE
For the cake:
3 eggs
1 (1 lb.) can pumpkin
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup water
21/2 cups all-purpose flour
21/4 cups sugar
11/2 tsp. baking soda
11/4 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. nutmeg
3/4 tsp. cinnamon
1 cup yellow raisins
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
For the icing:
4 oz. cream cheese
3 tbsp. butter
1 tsp. vanilla or lemon juice
1/2 (2 lb.) box confectioners' sugar
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Beat together eggs, pumpkin, vegetable oil, and water. Mix together remaining cake ingredients and add to wet ingredients.
Pour batter into three buttered one-pound coffee cans and place in oven standing up. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 15 minutes until a straw from a witch's broom inserted in the cake comes out clean.
Cool the cakes.
Make the icing by beating all icing ingredients together with a mixer.
Turn the cakes on their sides and frost with icing. Sprinkle cakes with additional chopped walnuts.
Makes 3 cakes.
— The Old Witch and the Polka
Dot Ribbon, Wende and Harry
Devlin (Parents Magazine
Press, 1970)
Lisa A. Abraham can be reached at 330-996-3737 or labraham@thebeaconjournal.com.
It's time to stick your head in that bag of candy and inhale the sweet scent of Halloween.
What is it about Halloween that makes candy smell so much better than any other time of the year?
A box of Valentine's chocolates is nice and an Easter basket is reason to rejoice, but neither will tickle your sinuses the way a trick-or-treat bag will. It must be something about that blend of sugar, chocolate and salty snacks that combines to form the perfect eau de parfum de Halloween.
When my husband and I first moved into our home, I decided to pass out full-size candy bars for Halloween to celebrate. That was before I realized how many kids would be knocking on our door. We've since gone back to snack size. But I like to think that in some small way, we contributed to some child's Halloween memories — ''Remember the year that really cool couple moved into the neighborhood and gave out those huge candy bars? . . . ''
Or maybe not.
My mother told me she might not be home for trick-or-treat this year and might simply give the kids in her neighborhood some money instead. I did not tell her my theory that handing out money for Halloween officially makes her an old lady. I'm not sure she'll care.
When we were growing up, there was an old woman on our street who gave out pennies each year. She would have them stacked 5 cents high on the arm of her easy chair, which you could see from the porch. This was in the day when 5 cents actually bought a candy bar, so it wasn't a bad deal, but there was something spooky about her in that house counting out her stacks of pennies.
Other neighbors would give out apples, which of course became taboo when rumors of razor blades and straight pins took hold.
My husband always talks about the neighbor at the end of his street who would bake tables full of cookies and cupcakes all decorated for Halloween.
If she didn't know you, she would drop a waxed paper bag with a few cookies in your Halloween sack.
But if she knew you, she would invite you inside to look at her in-home bakery and select what you wanted — as much as you wanted — from the tables of baked goods.
I love hearing my husband tell this story. Just the thought of it seems so dreamy, so Hansel and Gretel — tempting goodies and the lure of going into an unfamiliar house at the same time.
But then the left side of my brain shook off the fairy tale and had to ask, ''How could you get cupcakes home without them getting all smushed in your bag?''
''We always went there last so we could carry them home at the end,'' he explained. When it comes to baked goods, my husband has years of practice figuring out how to maximize the experience.
Halloween will send many of us to the kitchen to bake up a treat for family, co-workers or school parties.
My mother used to make a recipe that we called Witch's Cake that was a spicy cake baked inside a coffee can. The cylinder shape was then covered in cream cheese frosting and sliced into circles for serving.
Only recently did I learn the recipe made the rounds in the early 1970s after it appeared in a children's book, The Old Witch and the Polka Dot Ribbon, by Wende and Harry Devlin, published by Parents Magazine Press in 1970.
I'm not sure you can still find one-pound tin coffee cans for baking. Most coffee these days comes in bags or plastic pseudo-cans. But I'm sure this recipe will work just as well in small loaf pans or even a 9-by-13-inch pan.
Until next week, have fun in the kitchen toiling over your own bubbling caldron, and have a happy Halloween.
OLD WITCH'S MAGIC NUT CAKE
For the cake:
3 eggs
1 (1 lb.) can pumpkin
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup water
21/2 cups all-purpose flour
21/4 cups sugar
11/2 tsp. baking soda
11/4 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. nutmeg
3/4 tsp. cinnamon
1 cup yellow raisins
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
For the icing:
4 oz. cream cheese
3 tbsp. butter
1 tsp. vanilla or lemon juice
1/2 (2 lb.) box confectioners' sugar
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Beat together eggs, pumpkin, vegetable oil, and water. Mix together remaining cake ingredients and add to wet ingredients.
Pour batter into three buttered one-pound coffee cans and place in oven standing up. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 15 minutes until a straw from a witch's broom inserted in the cake comes out clean.
Cool the cakes.
Make the icing by beating all icing ingredients together with a mixer.
Turn the cakes on their sides and frost with icing. Sprinkle cakes with additional chopped walnuts.
Makes 3 cakes.
— The Old Witch and the Polka
Dot Ribbon, Wende and Harry
Devlin (Parents Magazine
Press, 1970)
Lisa A. Abraham can be reached at 330-996-3737 or labraham@thebeaconjournal.com.
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