Mrs. Foster’s Cake Recipes

These recipes include Soda Cake, Nut Cakes and Raisin Cake by Mrs. W. D. Foster.  The recipes are from 1873.  Sadly, the recipes don’t contain much detail about baking them.  I have included some links that should be helpful if you want to attempt to make one of these recipes.  If you do, let me know how it turns out!

I recently shared an article by Mrs. Belle De Graf about making cake.  She ran a newspaper column in the San Francisco Chronicle for several years.

I have a measurement conversion page that I update as I find information from specific places.

When trying to decide what size pan to make these recipes in, I found a great resource at Sally’s Baking Addiction that you will want to look at.

I won’t be posting printable recipes until I have made any of the cakes in this post.  It would be too difficult to give any more detail that what I have shared without actually making the cakes.

Soda Cake

1 cup butter, 2 of sugar, 4 of sifted flour, 4 eggs–whites and yolks beaten separately, 1 cup milk, 1 teaspoon cream-tartar mixed with the flour, ½ teaspoon soda dissolved in a little water, and put in last; flavor with lemon.

Mrs. W. D. FOSTER

Nut Cakes

2 cups sugar, 1 of sour cream, 2 of sour milk, 4 eggs, salt, and season to taste, 2 small teaspoons soda, flour enough to roll out nicely–not too stiff.

Mrs. W. D. FOSTER

Raisin Cake

1 cup each sugar, butter, molasses, sour milk and chopped raisins, 2 eggs, 4 cups flour, 1 teaspoon each of soda, cinnamon, cloves and allspice, half a nutmeg.

Mrs. W. D. FOSTER