Family Cooking Article Excerpt

Depression Cake

In between Christmas shopping and Thanksgiving turkey, I can’t help but think of Grammie Riley’s Depression Cake. Her Depression Cake was created during the Great Depression and consisted of a warm mixture of spices and nuts with dried dates, figs or raisins, depending on what the family could afford that year. Grammie’s recipe, like many of her recipes, was the product of altered recipes from various recipe books—all designed to fit the budget and the bellies of a large family.