Sunday, March 26, 2006

Maxine Saar's Devil's Food Cake

1-1/2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup cold water
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup cocoa
1 cup hot water

Directions:
Mix together sugar, flour, soda, and salt. Blend in shortening until mixture is crumbly. Stir in cold water. Beat the eggs and add them to the batter. Stir in vanilla. Stir cocoa into hot water and add to batter. Pour into greased and floured 9x13" cake pan. Bake at 350° until cake tests done (about 30 minutes.)

Notes:
Maxine Saar contributed this recipe to the Jolly Neighbors Extension Club of Rose, Nebraska, for a hand-written cookbook that they made during the early 1960's. I have expanded the directions a little because all the recipes were greatly condensed to fit on one side of a 3x5" recipe card. Marion and Maxine Saar were neighbors who lived in the Duff Valley and Maxine was my mother's first cousin. I attended country grade school through 4th grade with their children: Mark, Gary, Gwen, and Mike.


Another great Easy Recipe

Love At Home

There is beauty all around
When there's love at home.
There is joy in every sound
When there's love at home.

Roses bloom beneath our feet,
All the earth is a garden sweet,
Making life a bliss complete,
When there's love at home.

-- John Hugh McNaughton (1829-1891)