Oh, that looks good!! I have it in the "pile" to try. So many recipes, not enough time!

Wish I could see it! Must wait until I get home....

Now you've got me wanting to make it and I'm trying so hard to not eat cake, etc. I agree that the cream cheese frosting is an improvement. Don't know if I could eat it made with shortning....or maybe I could. ;o)

Please, everyone - it is called Spanish Bar cake. That's what the A&P called it!

That does look delectable Ohiomom. I'll look for Teresa's recipe.

Sol

That's one I'm going to make A&P...I mean ASAP! I loved those cakes, they were a real treat. I have all the ingredients too.

Oh, I blame Teresa for a lot of things! Including spending too much money at Replacements.

Thanks Ohiomom.

I love Replacements!

WOW....Linda, what a fabulous looking cake, nice and gooey too!

I'll have to track down that recipe!

Michelle

Here are the recipes that Teresa posted:

Spanish Bar Cake

1/2 cup soft shortening
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 egg
3/4 cup molasses
1 cup boiling water
2 1/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves, optional
1/2 cup cut-up raisins

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Cream together shortening, sugar and egg. Blend in molasses and boiling water. Sift together remaining ingredients except raisins and stir into batter. Stir in raisins.

Bake in a greased and floured 9-by-13-inch pan for about 40 minutes or until tested done. (Begin testing after 30 minutes.)

Remove cake from pan. Cool on wire rack. Cut cake in half and frost as a two-layer cake.

Here's Sylvia Englert of New Kensington's version: "Everyone who remembers the cake from the A&P thinks this is pretty close."

A&P Spanish Bar Cake

4 cups water
2 cups raisins
1 cup shortening
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
4 cups flour
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)
2 eggs, beaten

Add water to raisins and simmer for 10 minutes. Add shortening and allow to cool. Sift together spices and flour, salt, sugar and baking soda. Add cooled raisin mixture and blend well. Add beaten eggs and nuts and stir well. Place into a 9-by-13-inch pan in a preheated 350-degree oven for 35 minutes, or until tester comes our clean. It can also be baked in a jelly roll pan for 25 minutes.

Frost when cool.

Frosting:
1/3 cup shortening
3 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons milk or cream
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

Beat till smooth and creamy.

Oh, now that's not fair - middle of the afternoon and feel like I'm needing a little bite of something good ..... I have a feeling that I'll be making it soon!

Cindy

Do you think we could sub butter in the first recipe?

(I knew shortning didn't look right when I typed it - LOL!)

Hi Teresa - I usually always sub butter for shortening in most cake/cookie recipes, so it sounds reasonable to me :)

Cindy

How could 2 people have such different ideas of what a ckae is?? The addition of 3/4 cup of molasses would make that cake very distinctive....and the bottom version has 2 cups of sugar and no molasses....and the sugar isn't even brown sugar...
So which is "the real thing"....and why do they call it "Spanish Bar"?
Looks like carrot cake and it got me a drooling for one of them!!

Teresa, after looking at both recipes, I would probably choose #1 due to the molasses...yum! I think a butter sub would be fine or at least 1/4 c. butter and 1/4 c. shortening.

Michelle

My question is how are both recipes use the same size pan.

The second recipe is too "high" to make a two layer cake, I think the first recipe would be more like "bars"....without baking it, I am not sure just an edumacated guess :)

Recipe #1 is correct in that they tell you to cut the 9x13 cake in half lengthwise and make a two layer cake that is 4.5" x 13". It's a 2-layer cake with icing in the middle, not bar cookies and not a 9x13" cake that you slice into bars. Or maybe you slice it in 4 bars that are 3"x9" and make two "bars"?

Now I'm thinking that much molasses in recipe #1 does not sound right for this cake. The second recipe would make a bigger cake in the pan and it has no molasses. Recipe #2 is what is given in most of the results on a google search.

The addition of applesauce sounds somehow right to me and the cocoa would make it real dark, which it certainly was. And the oil would make it moist, which it was too. I would have to make it in a 9x13 pan and cut it into bar-shaped layers and put frosting between the layers and on top to make it look like the Spanish Bar I remember!

There are a lot of people who loved this cake and remember it fondly!

"Here is the famous A&P Spanish Bar Cake recipe that was submitted on the internet by a guy named Tim. Its really good.

Spanish Bar Cake

How many of you remember the old Spanish Bar Cake from the A&P store? When A&P left the food business, so did the Spanish Bar Cake. Over the years I searched for the recipe and finally found it in an old news article. Now that it's tested and approved in my kitchen, I thought some of you might like to revisit history with this fine cake.

Spanish Bar

2 c. flour
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tbsp. cocoa
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. allspice

Add: 1/2 c. oil
2 c. applesauce
2 eggs
1 1/2 c. raisins

Mix first 8 ingredients together in an electric mixer; mix well. Add next 3 ingredients. Raisins should be added last. Bake at 350 degrees in 9x13 inch pan for 30-35 minutes; tube pan 40-45 minutes.

You can finish with a plain white icing or sprinkle with power sugar. I like both or as is."

I think this last recipe sounds more like it. I remember it as being quite dark....

Nancy

Don't you just love it when you can blame it on someone? LOL!

Looks delicious. Reminds of the spice cake my grandmother use to make. It seems to me that she put brown sugar in her icing.

Ann

Yes! Nancy and Ann! It was a very dark cake as I remember it. Maybe dark brown sugar in the cake batter? The icing on the top and between the two layers was definitely white, not a thick amount, fairly stiff, but the cream cheese frosting would taste great and be 'healthier' than a commercial white (aka shortening) icing..if icing can be healthy?

Just called my mom to tell her I was bringing over the ingredients this week and would she please make Recipe #3 for us to critique. She said she would, but that we should maybe not sub brown sugar for white as it can affect the texture. So we are going to test taste! So fun!

Teresa

I remember it dark, raisins, and the icing had lines...that's it, and that it was good!!!