Busy Day Cake

Have you ever had one of those busy days that starts in the morning and continues on all day long?? It seems the warmer the weather gets the more that is placed on my schedule. The days of yester-year were busy as well but they were a different type of busy. The home, yard and garden helped make the day busy.  With canning, cooking, preserving, jelly making and so many other summer jobs

Edna Lewis, a southern cook during the early 1900s. Nicknamed the southern Julia Child Edna wrote a cookbook titled The Tasting of Country Cooking. Edna grew up in Virginia were she lived and loved learning many stories to share later in life as well as recipes to place in her cookbook. 

Now back to the busy day , which is where we started before I drifted off to introduce the author of the recipe I am sharing today. A busy day cake may also be known as a sweet bread. The cake or bread was made of regular cake batter, measured out and stirred in a hurry so that the vegetables you were cooking for that day cooked on one end of the old wood stove and canning took place at the other end. A large biscuit pan would be the outlet for the batter which would be put inside the oven to bake.  The cake is simple in the form given but you can dress it up by cooking it in a bundt pan.

Busy day cake was cooked as it states on a busy day when there was not time to ice. The cake was simply cut into squares and served warm. The cake was often topped with fruit or berries left over from canning.

1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
1 1/3 cups sugar
3 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
nutmeg
1/2 cup milk, at room temperature

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Spray a 9-inch springform or deep cake pan with nonstick spray or rub it with butter. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Beat in the vanilla. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg. Add about a quarter of the flour mixture to the butter mixture, and stir by hand or beat on low speed just until blended. Add a third of the milk, mixing just until combined. Continue adding flour and milk, finishing with flour and stirring each time just until blended, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Scrape the batter into the pan and smooth the top. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until golden (if it’s browning too quickly, cover loosely with a piece of foil) and springy to the touch. Serve warm, absolutely plain or with fruit. Serves 10.