Grandma Elaine's Cake

I’m sharing a very old recipe with a bit of a twist on it.  It reminds me of a fruit cobbler/coffee cake/bread pudding/dump cake.  It is all those yummy cakes in one. You can pick what flavor you want.  My sister gifted me a bag of rhubarb yesterday so I think I’m going to make a simple syrup (one part water and one part sugar) and make a Grandma’s rhubarb cake and take it to mom today.  You could do this with any fruit you like or use canned fruit as the original recipe calls for.  Then you can then own it and put your name on it.

Canned peaches or apples would be great.  I’d add a bit of cinnamon if I used either of them though.  The original recipe called for pineapple, but I don’t care for it as much as other fruits, so tweaked it a couple of times.  It also called for margarine and I’ll always use butter over margarine.  It had an incredible amount of sugar in it, so I also took out some of the sugar and you will not notice it.  I’ve tried to note where I cut or changed ingredients in case you want to go with the original recipe.  Make sure you read the entire recipe completely before proceeding.  It hopefully assures you that you will not fail in the making the dish.

It made the house smell incredibly good.  I tested it to make sure my tweaks improved it before placing it on my blog.

Cake

1 cup sugar (called for 1 ½ cups in original recipe)

2 cups  flour

1/2 tsp. salt

2 eggs

1 tsp. baking soda

1 lg. (20 oz.) can of fruit of your choice in its own juice (including juice)*

1/2 cup brown sugar (called for 1 cup of brown sugar in original recipe)

1 cup chopped pecans (optional, depending on your fruit choice)

Milk Topping

1 cup evaporated milk

1/2 cup sugar (original called for 1 cup and I would cut it in half or use condensed milk)

1 stick of butter (I cut to ½ stick of butter)

1 tsp. vanilla

Mix the sugar, flour, salt, soda, eggs together (see my note below).  Add your fruit last so you do not break up the fruit.  Pour into a 9 x 13 inch pan. Sprinkle the top with brown sugar and chopped pecans. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes.

Cook the evaporated milk, sugar, butter and vanilla until the mixture comes to a rolling boil.  Here is a tip.  This is basically the recipe for condensed milk.  You can use a can of condensed milk and save some work.  That is what I did.  Heat a 14 oz. can of condensed milk and butter for 1 minute in the microwave.  Stir in the vanilla.  You make the decision based on what you have in your pantry or cupboard.

After the cake has been baked and still hot out of the oven, pour the milk mixture over the entire cake.  Then refrigerate the cake. This is an extremely sweet, dense, and moist cake.  It would be great over coffee or tea with friends.  

*Using Your Own Fruit and Not Canned

2 cups of fruit

1 cup of water

1 cup of sugar

This should really be step one if you are using fresh fruit so it can cool before making the cake.  If you are making fresh apples or peaches add a tsp. of cinnamon.  Make sure when you heat the simple syrup that you do it just until the sugar melts.  You do not want to over cook the fruit and have it fall apart.  You may want to throw the fruit (if it is small like raspberries) in at the last minute.  You can use frozen fruit also.  Make sure that it has cooled when you add it to the batter with eggs or you will scrabble your eggs.  Make sure you add the delegate fruit like raspberries after you have the batter completely made and fold in carefully to keep the berries from dissolving.

What fruit do you want to use?  They all sound good:  raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, rhubarb, apples, peaches, cherries, or pineapple. 

Note:  I made mine in 2  9 X 9 inch pans so only cooked it for 25 to 30 minutes.  I also used condensed milk rather than make the original milk mixture.  I heated the condensed milk and butter in the microwave for 1 minute and then stirred it to incorporate the butter.  I added the vanilla last and poured over the 2 cakes. 

One cake is for mom and the other one is for my returning son and his family who got home from vacation today (less one piece because I had to taste test to make sure it was edible).   Aren't they beautiful?  By the way they are very edible.  I'll be making this again.  

Be happy and may God bless you and yours.