I have been going through the cookbooks on my shelves, trying to whittle down the collection to only those that I either use often (which is a diminishing number now that I can just search on line) or that have special meaning.

One of the latter is “Book of Recipes,” published by The Sharon [Wisconsin] Women’s Club” in 1930. Not only does this provide a glimpse into what cooks of that day had for guidance in the kitchen; this particular volume has my mother’s comments about many of the recipes she tried. Even better, most of these comments also include the date she noted them.

Recently, I had 2 cups of naturally soured milk that I wanted to use up and decided to see if I could find a recipe that could use this. I’m not into pancakes–what first came to mind to use this much mik–so I thought I’d try looking for a cake recipe. What better place then, than this old cookbook.

It didn’t take long to find one that had my mother’s input. When she tried it in September 1941, she noted “we liked it.”

Obviously, I was going to make some modifications. The recipe called for lard, but butter was an easy substitute. The recipe also call for “1 cup fruit.” Fresh fruit? Dried fruit? What? My mom’s notes don’t say, so I decided to go with dates, as I have a large quantity of chopped dates that really need to be used up. Another modification was reducing the temperature from a “moderate oven,” which usually meant 350 degrees. to 325 degrees. That was both because I was using a glass pan and both the eggs and milk were cold straight from the refrigerator. For best results, I have learned to bring refrigerated ingredients 30 to 60 minutes at room temperature, but I didn’t have enough time to do that today.

At first I had thought I’d serve this with a caramel sauce, and that still might be a good option, but the plain “butter icing”–which is really just a powdered sugar icing made with butter instead of cream cheese fit what I had on hand. I did use a little lemon extract along with vanilla to heighten the lemon flavor overall.

It was the combination of these spices with the lemon that intrigued me, and it really does make a great flavor blend. I reduced the cloves just because that is not my favorite.

This made a lovely cake, not too high, with excellent keeping qualities. I’m thinking of making it with even more dates next time, perhaps a cup and a half. Maybe even will try it with some other “fruit”–maybe peaches or raspberries? I am thinking that it is unlikely this would have referred to plain old apples!

And finally, a note about sour milk. While homogenized, pasteurized milk that has started to thicken and/or smell “sour” is sometimes not good–especially if it has been that way for a few days or has a distinctly “rotten” smell!–it often can be used for baking or cooking in place of buttermilk. I really don’t know how to explain what “okay” sour milk smells like, so if in doubt, throw it out. For any recipe like this that calls for sour milk or even buttermilk, you can just put about 2 teaspoons of apple cider or white vinegar in the bottom of a one cup measuring cup and then fill it to the one cup line with milk. Allow it to stand for a minute or two and then use. You can also use 2 teaspoons of lemon juice instead of the vinegar–which might be a good choice for this recipe.