Two great cakes from an old recipe book

I picked up this book in a used-book shop downtown a couple of months ago. My copy was printed in 1969, but the original edition dates back to 1938. The former title was Thoughts For Food. (That $51 price tag is pesos, not dollars, and it wasn’t the price tag that counted; the book actually cost 10 pesos.)

I’ve made two recipes from it so far, and they were superb. I updated them a bit; reduced the salt and sugar, added some whole grain flour, etc.





  



Filled Coffee Cake

Ingredients
1/4 cup butter
2/3 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, separated
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla

Filling/Topping
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 Tbsp butter, melted
1/4 to 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

Method
Grease and flour a 9×9" cake pan. Combine the filling ingredients (except for nuts) and mix well. Stir in nuts, set aside. In another bowl, beat egg whites to medium-stiff peaks and set aside. In another bowl, combine flours, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat butter with brown sugar. Beat in egg yolks and vanilla.  Add flour mixture alternately with milk. Fold in the egg whites.
Spread about 2/3 of the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle all but about 2 Tbsp of the filling evenly over, then carefully spread over the rest of the batter, and finally sprinkle the remaining filling evenly over top. Bake in a preheated 350 ºF (175 ºC) oven until done (40–55 minutes). Cool completely. Cut into squares and serve from pan.

Chocolate Spice Cake

 
Ingredients
1/3 cup butter
2/3 cup brown sugar
3 eggs, separated
3 oz (85 g) semi-sweet chocolate, melted and cooled to lukewarm
1 cup strong coffee (2 tsp instant + 1 cup water)
1/2 cup raisins
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp cloves
(optional: about 1/2–3/4 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped)

Method
Grease, flour, and line with parchment or wax paper two 8×4" loaf pans. Toss the raisins with about 2 Tbsp of the flour. Combine remaining flours, baking powder and soda, salt and spices and set aside. In another bowl, beat the egg whites to medium-stiff peaks. In another bowl, beat the butter and sugar, and beat in the yolks. Stir in the chocolate. Add the coffee alternately with the flour mixture. Fold in the egg whites and raisins (and nuts, if used). Divide between the two prepared loaf pans and bake in a preheated 350 ºF (175 ºC) oven until done (45–60 minutes). Cool about 15 minutes in pan, then carefully invert, unmold, peel off paper, and finish cooling on wire racks. Slice to serve.

Comments
I didn’t try the lemon icing that is suggested in the original recipe. The cake was already excellent without any embellishments.