I baked this cake today and as the aroma wafted through my house it carried me back to a bitterly cold winter day in the January 1960.
I was born and raised in southwest Louisiana(Cajun country). Winter in the marshland is short, but it can be brutal. It was that year. There was ice in the mist that swirled around us as me an my two siblings made our half mile hike from the schoolbus stop down the lane to our home.
Momma had two babies and a dying father to care for, meeting us at the bus stop was not an option. She had better things planned for us. When we opened the back door, there stood momma with fluffy warm towels to dry us. Then she wrapped us in warmed blankets and brought us into the kitchen where the spicy smells of Gateau de Sirop(syrup cake) filled the air. Sitting at the kitchen table with big mugs of hot chocolate(and marshmallows) nibbling warm cake beat the heck out of riding in the backseat of mom's stationwagon, even if it did have a good heater
I am posting momma's recipe. I hope it makes a memory for you and your kids.

Gateau de Sirop

(Syrup Cake) or Masse Pain (as it is often called)
Note: This cake contains no sugar ½ cup vegetable oil
1 ½ cups Steen's Pure Cane Syrup
1 egg, beaten
2 ½ cups sifted flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ginger
½ tsp. ground cloves
½ tsp. salt
1 ½ tsp. soda
¾ cup hot water


Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 13 1/2 x 8 1/2inch pan.

Combine oil, syrup, and beaten egg. Stir until well blended. Mix and resift dry ingredients except soda. Add dry ingredients to the oil syrup, and egg mixture, alternately with the hot water in which the soda has been dissolved. Begin and end with flour mixture.

Pour into prepared pan. Bake 45 minutes
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
11-16-03, 10:19 PM
samantha
Thanks for the story and the recipe! Smile

11-16-03, 10:22 PM
Sherasi
Oh, I love your story.. the cake sounds marvelous.

I have a similar story. When I was a kid, we lived in Maine, way up North, about 5 miles from Canada. She used to hand make Traditional French Bread each winter, loaves of hot steaming bread, pieces dripping with butter.

We used to run loaves to the neighbors wrapped in foil and in between runs, we'd munch down scrumptious hot dripping slices. MMMmmMmmMMMmmm

11-16-03, 11:15 PM
Patricia
Great story Sherasi, I wish I could make bread, alas the art of good bread making eludes me.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: DorianGreyed,