A friend of mine picked up a Searchlight Recipe Book which I've wanted for a long time because my Mom used to make a really good spice cake. I'm not sure if it was this one but it's from around 1946. I haven't tried it yet but I don't remember it being in a loaf pan. This one would be a heavier cake.

SPICE CAKE
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup shortening
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup milk
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup raisins

Cream shortening & sugar. Add unbeaten egg. Add flavoring. Beat thoroughly. Sift flour, measure & sift with salt & baking powder. Add alternately with milk to creamed shortening & sugar.
Dredge raisins in flour. Add cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves & the raisins to the batter. Pour into a well-oiled loaf pan & bake in apreheated 375° oven for 35 minutes.~~

This one sounds more like the one she made:
SPICE CAKE
1/2 cup shortening
2 cups brown sugar
3 eggs, separated
2 cups sifted cake flour (sift then measure)
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 cup thick sour cream

Cream shortening & sugar together until fluffy, add beaten yolks. Sift dry ingredients together 3 times & add alternately with cream to first mixture, beating thoroughly after each addition. Fold in stiffly beaten egg whites. Pour into cake pan lined with waxed paper. Bake in a preheated 350° oven about 50 minutes. Makes one 9" square cake.~~ You could add raisins to this one, if you like by just dusting with flour & folding them into the batter.

Wow, all of these sound terrific. I love spice cake. One was served at a baby shower I attended and the hostess had the sense to cut really big pieces. :-)

Ginger, do you know if that Searchlight cookbook has a black cover? My mother used to have one also (she is 96 now) and I have been searching for one too. She said a salesman went around the neighborhood selling them and most of the women bought one!

Mary, did you try a Google search for your Searchlight cookbook? I bet something will turn up. Or Ebay? There's got to be one out there...... at least that's my motto for everything I'm looking for. :-)

Jen

It does, Mary. With red lettering on the cover.

It looks like this one but I'd do as Jenn suggested & check ebay or another google search for a better price than listed below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Searchlight Recipe Book

I have the Searchlight Cookbook also-got it when a favorite Aunt died. Hadn't really paid all that much attention to it until Ginger mentioned it. Looked up the Spice Cake and the second recipe that was posted is what I found but mine says to bake in a loaf pan and frost with 7 Minute Icing. Will have to look at it more closely now.
Thanks for the recommendation.
RL~

There were 2 versions, Roselin. At least in the edition I have. One used a 1 egg recipe. I should have been clearer. The 2nd recipe I posted was from my Mom's other cookbook. It was green but I lost the covers & can't remember the name of the book. It too was from the 1940's.

I was looking thru mine today and a lot of the cakes call for loaf pans-wonder if they were the same loaf pans as what we use today or if they used like 9" square pans-seems to me my mother in law used to call her 8" square pan a "loaf" pan. I found recipes for several other spice cake recipes in there-an applesauce one and one other that I don't recall at the moment.
RL`

Ginger, thanks a bunch for the recipes. I wonder if the first one is more like the one from The Cake Bible in that it is a pound-type cake baked in a loaf pan.

I posted this over on Cooking forum as well because I was not familiar with this section of the site so I want to thank you for posting those recipes. I'm adding them to my spice cake file. Strange that I don't seem to be able to find spice cake in any of my cookbooks. It is really going to be fun to try them all and I am quite sure I will try every one of them! :o)

Thanks for that link, although it doesn't seem like the cover on her book had the red lettering. The date would be about right. I'll ask her on my next visit at the nursing home, she is still pretty sharp. Now that I think about it, some of the book may still be at her house, hopefully no one threw it out ,it was in very bad condition with pages torn and missing.

Mary, I think there might have been an edition with a bronze colored lettering on the front too. I was thrown off by the red lettering also but the inside was as I remembered it, with the thumb indentations on the side for the different categories.

Zolablue, I'd love to hear what you think of them if you try them. I don't know why spice cakes aren't around much any more. They sure were when I was little.

Zolablue, just found this recipe in a old "Farm Journal's Country Cookbook" 1959 Edition.
Spice Cake (Women say it's a keeper; men beg to eat it right away)

1 cup milk
1/2 cup lard ...you could use shortening or oil I imagine.
1 tsp. vanilla
2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 tbs. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. allspice
1/2 tsp. cloves
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
2 eggs, unbeaten
Whip 2 tbs. milk with lard and vanilla; cream until light (2 min. at med. speed). Add sifted dry ingredients to lard mixture with 2/3 milk. Beat until smooth (2 min. at med. speed). Add remaining milk and eggs. Beat until smooth, about 2 minutes. Pour into 2 greased 8" layer pans. Bake in moderate oven (375) for 35 minutes. Cool and frost with Mocha Frosting.
Mocha Frosting-
1/2 cup butter
1 egg yolk.. could use egg beaters for safety
2 tbs. strong coffee
2 squares unsweetened chocolate
2 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
Cream butter, add egg yolk, coffee, & melteed chocolate. Mix well, gradually adding sugar. Blend until smooth. Makes enough for 2 (8") layers.

Mary, I love the Farm Journal cookbooks too-I use the Breads one a lot.