Ancestral Food challenge

We have always wanted to try making the "Dry Farm Cake" from the Sibbett cookbook that has a lot of recipes in it from dad's childhood. We learned a lot while we made the cake. First it is from Aunt Reva, who is Grandpa's sister and dad said that the name refers not to a dry cake but to a dry farm, or a farm without irrigation. The ingredients are really interesting--water, sugar, butter, a lot of coffee, and raisins that all get boiled, then flour is added. It made a really heavy, dark cake, which was really moist. But the taste... we are still undecided. To me it tastes like boiled coffee, which is not so good. Annemarie likes the cake more than I do, but she did say that when ever she has a piece of it, the first few bites are sort of like ---oh-- do I like this? But then she realizes that it tastes really good. Annemarie took it work to a friend who is a foodie. And she loved it! I am quite shocked.

As we were looking through the cookbook we also saw Aunt Inez's (another of Grandpa's sisters) recipe for mustard pickles. We had to ask dad questions about this recipe too because in the list of ingredients it called for 2 packages of brown sugar.Oh and I had to call Erin to ask her about canning them. And Erin you were right, they all sealed perfectly on their own! So these are really easy to  make and can! And they are really yummy. We both love the cauliflower in it.

For those of you who might want to try this recipe, here are some of the things we did. We cut the recipe in to a third and it made 6 quarts. We also didn't know what sort of brine to make, since in the directions it just says to soak it in a brine. So after looking at stuff on line we did 1/2 cup salt to every 2 qts of water and soaked the veggies overnight then drained. It is a bit salty, but we don't eat a lot of salt. When we make them again we will reduce the salt in the brine or rinse the veggies off after they brine. Also I wish the sauce to veggie ratio was a little bit more saucy, and I wonder if it is because the cucumbers we use now are so much bigger than the ones used when the recipe was put together. The more I cook the more I wonder why we don't just switch to weight measurements instead of amounts. Annemarie would say I care way too much about precision in the kitchen, but sometimes I can't help it (ahem... dad).

Our entry for the challenge is the Dry Farm Cake though. Before we made the mustard pickles we said the dry farm cake would be the one we enter, especially because we have wanted to make it since I saw the recipe. Oh and the recipe does say you can make it with water instead of coffee. If any of you try making it, let us know how it tastes!