1958 Date Cake

Recently, when scrolling through pictures on my laptop, I came across a folder of my mom's artwork. The above drawing was included. My mom is an accomplished artist who uses many different media to create her art. This drawing was done with graphite pencils of different grades and was completed during the early 1990's when she was taking art classes at the university where she was employed.

The professor gave her an "A" for the piece, and the drawing was later featured exclusively in a university-wide newsletter covering women's history month. She had the drawing professionally framed and it has been hanging in my parents' dining room ever since. It is difficult to take a picture of the drawing under glass, but the image above captures the impressive shading and detail of her work.

The envelope shown in the drawing is a real envelope found among my grandmother Lydia's belongings when she died (too young) in 1987. You can see from the return address that it was sent to her by Julia Dragseth on December 4, 1958. Julia was Grandma's first cousin. (Read about Julia here and here).

The envelope was empty when it was found in Grandma's things. It might have been a Christmas letter given the date of the postmark. But we do not know for sure.

It seems that while the letter inside did not survive, the envelope was saved because of the date cake recipe on the back. In fact, we found several recipes in Grandma's collection that she handwrote on various pieces of scrap paper, including the back of other envelopes.

I can see her in my mind's eye sitting at the kitchen table, with her cup of coffee, laughing and talking with one of her sisters on the old, corded telephone. It's only natural that she would reach for the closest bit of blank paper to quickly take down the date cake recipe.

As for the back of the envelope, there really is a date cake recipe written in Grandma's handwriting. Only the ingredients are listed - no instructions. This is what I would expect from her having spent many hours in her kitchen watching her bake. I once wrote down exactly what she did when making her famous chocolate drop cookies because she had no recipe for this family favorite. I made her measure on that day and got it all down on paper. Someday I will post that recipe too.

Inspired by my mom's drawing and the 1958 "back-of-the-envelope" recipe, I bought some dates and made the cake.

After consulting my trusty Joy of Cooking cookbook, I discovered that there is a reason for the line Grandma inserted after the first three ingredients. These must be combined first and allowed to rest while the dates soften. Online, nearly all of the date cake recipes I found had a similar process for preparing the dates for the batter.

The thing that is different about the 1958 recipe is that it contains no sugar, no vanilla, no baking powder - all ingredients I saw in various recipes online and included in the Joy of Cooking Date Nut Bread recipe that I used for reference. No worries here, for my experiment, I made the cake faithful to the recipe Grandma jotted down.

It turned out nice! In consistency, the cake reminds me of a quick bread, like a muffin or a zucchini bread, because it is denser than a true cake. I like that it is not overly sweet since there is no added sugar. I also like that it is full of dates and walnuts, both of which are superfoods. Mine is made with Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free 1 to 1 Baking Flour because I did not have any regular flour. I think I would prefer the cake with regular flour. Overall, the taste might be described as plain, but that is ok. The cake is a throwback to a time when not everything was laden with sugar and extra flavoring. It is refreshingly basic in every way, and the perfect companion to coffee.

For those who might want to make the date cake, here is how I did it:

• Soak the dates in hot water and soda for at least 20 minutes and then whisk them to combine with the liquid but leaving some chunks.

• Mix the oil and egg and then add the date mixture.

• Mix the flour and salt in a separate bowl.

• Combine everything, including the nuts, to make the batter.

• Put the batter in a greased pan and bake for 35 minutes at 350 degrees until a toothpick came out clean.

• Let the cake cool before cutting. Note that the dates have more flavor the cooler the cake becomes. Enjoy!