Hickory Nut Cake

[Eleanor Rose]

(My Windowsill)​

I recently discovered the online Western History/Genealogy Central Library of the Denver Library. This site led me to Harriet Almira Scott Camp's recipe notebook. Harriet was born April 7, 1835 and married Leroy Newton Camp in 1854. During the Civil War, Leroy enlisted in Ohio's Company D in May 1864, but mustered out after three months. Around 1871, Harriet and Leroy moved their family from their farm in Tallmadge, Ohio to Cleveland. Harriet died in 1889 at the age of 53.

Harriet's notebook is thought to have been purchased around the time of her marriage. Written inside are almost 100 recipes. Some of Harriet's first entries include recipes for puddings, currant wine and preserved eggs that keep "sound and good for two years."

There are several recipes for pies and cakes with names like Jackson Sponge Cake, Cheap Cake, Railroad Cake, Pork Cake, Hickory Nut Cake and Lincoln Cake. There are cookies, too—and given the number of recipes jotted down, Harriet seems to have had a fondness for ginger cookies. There are unusual recipes as well. One is for a baked dish called "Mountain Dew."

Harriet's notebook documents not only her cooking, but the many ways she managed her family's household. There are instructions for "bleaching with chloride of lime," creating a "fluid for cleansing gloves, feathers, velvet," and dying cottons and woolens in shades of orange, blue, drab and scarlet. Harriet also kept recipes for home remedies she used to treat various illnesses.

Among the many entries, Harriet also chose to record a mishmash of passages in her notebook. This one especially caught my eye:

Don't try to be happy. Happiness is a shy nymph, and if you chase her, you will never catch her; but just go on in the way of duty and she will come to you. (Eliphalet Knott)

The recipe below is Harriet's recipe for Hickory Nut Cake.

"Cream one pound sugar and half pound butter; add five eggs, beaten separately, one cup sweet milk, one pound flour, three teaspoons baking powder, flavor with lemon, and bake in jelly-pans. For custard, place one pint milk in a tin pail and set in boiling water; add a tablespoon of corn starch dissolved in a little milk, two eggs, one-half cup sugar, two cups chopped hickory-nut meats, well mixed together to the boiling milk; stir, and put between the layers of cake, while both cake and custard are warm. This is excellent."

 

[mofederal]

Yes I would try it, but a small piece only. It look very good. Lots of sugar in that recipe, a pound. WOW!.

 

[nitrofd]

Here is a recipe for Hickory Nut Cookies from Tried and True (1894)

www.vintagerecipes.net/books/recipestriedandtrue/hickory_nut_cookies.php

 

[donna]

Thanks for site. My Granny made Hickory Nut Cake. I also bumped Hickory Nut Thread.