Sisters Alice (Wellesley '93) and Grace (Wellesley '94) Coombs ran the Wellesley College Tea Room for many years. The recipe for this wonderful cake, usually dated circa 1898, appeared in a cookbook that was published to raise funds for the college's 75th anniversary. Alice Coombs wrote that she had found the recipe in a Boston newspaper--so there is no telling how old it may be. It is still popular among Wellesley College alumnae, residents of the town of Wellesley--and anyone who enjoys a delicious dessert. This is the original recipe as it appeared in Favorite Recipes of Wellesley Alumnae (compiled for the Seventy-Fifth Anniversary Fund, 1875-1950):
2/3 cup butter
2-2/3 cups brown sugar, well packed
1 whole egg and 3 egg yolks, well beaten
4 squares unsweetened chocolate
2/3 cup boiling water
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2-2/3 cups sifted pastry flour
2/3 cup thick sour milk
1 1/4 teaspoons soda. dissolved in milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
Salt
Cream butter and sugar; add eggs. Dissolve chocolate in boiling water;
stir to consistency of thick paste and add. Add baking powder to flour; add
alternately with milk (and soda). Add vanilla and salt. Bake in two 9-inch
square pans in moderate oven. Fill and frost with chocolate frosting and
chopped nuts. (Serves 24.)
Alice G. Coombs, '93 (1893)
2/3 cup butter
2-2/3 cups brown sugar, well packed
1 whole egg and 3 egg yolks, well beaten
4 squares unsweetened chocolate
2/3 cup boiling water
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2-2/3 cups sifted pastry flour
2/3 cup thick sour milk
1 1/4 teaspoons soda. dissolved in milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
Salt
Cream butter and sugar; add eggs. Dissolve chocolate in boiling water;
stir to consistency of thick paste and add. Add baking powder to flour; add
alternately with milk (and soda). Add vanilla and salt. Bake in two 9-inch
square pans in moderate oven. Fill and frost with chocolate frosting and
chopped nuts. (Serves 24.)
Alice G. Coombs, '93 (1893)
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