Pages 29 and 30 have been added and begin the dessert section. I’m amused that desserts are a separate section from cakes, cookies, ice cream, pies, puddings, and frostings. Cakes and cookies are an every day part of life, but orange custard? That’s dessert.
The picture of page 29 has a glitch in it which obliterates some of the text. I dug back into my storage archives and found that my original scan from way back in 1999 has the same glitch. Funny that I didn’t catch that at the time or immediately thereafter, only to find it 14 years later.
Pages 26 and 27 close out the cookie chapter and hold all of the candy recipes. If all of these sweets aren’t enough, don’t worry. The dessert section is up next.
So far there have been 3 recipes named “Divinity” - it’s interesting that sweet treats were associated with the term “divine”. These days most menus name their most decadent dessert with terms like “sinful” and “decadent”. I wonder when that changed.
Pages 23 − 25 have been added. Don’t be fooled, page 24 was intentionally left blank.
Page 23 finishes up the cake section with clipping from an old magazine (courtesy of the California Raisin Advisory Board) and another recipe for pound cake. Neither of these seem to have made it into the index. I’ve decided not to try to force any sort of organization onto the original book, since my purpose here is archiving. The search tool provides quick access to the content. When the entire thing is transcribed perhaps I can add a more complete index.
Page 25 begins the cookie section of the book. So far all of these recipes simply list ingredients. I suppose the cookie method must have been well known.
Apologies for the late update. I was traveling this weekend far away from the internet.
This week’s pages 21 and 22 include a number of cake recipes (yes more cake) a few of which seem to have been written by someone else. The handwriting and ink are totally different. Some of the recipes are credited, which isn’t unusual. Archie credited recipes from others.
It’s interesting though to see a completely different hand and format. I prefer the orderly, list based method Archie used over the more linear style of the others. One of the recipes is split awkwardly across two pages in the book. None of these recipes made it into the index — which leads me to believe they were added much later and crammed in on some blank pages where they would fit.
These recipes disrupt the lovely order of the book. I want to cheat and reorganize them better, put the recipe for Velvet orange chocolate cake all on one page, etc. But that’s not keeping with the spirit of archiving and transcribing. The book is the way it is, and I’m trying to preserve it, not improve it.
On a brief formatting note - I’m going to try using actual fraction characters in the text instead of dumb ascii shorthand. That is, instead of something like 1/2, you should see ½ (on these most recent additions). Modern browsers should display these fine. If I hear no complaints, I’ll update the rest of the site.
Pages 15 and 16 have been added to the site. An epic fruit cake recipe begins on page 15 and continues onto page 16 followed by a Queen of Hearts cake (which seems positively dainty compared to the fruit cake).
I’ve added the second index page (there are 8 total) as page 16 is linked there. It’s a sneak preview of recipes to come.
Pages 13 and 14 have been added to the site. Recipes include angel food cake, pound cake, apple sauce cake, fruit cake, and chocolate cake.
It’s interesting that some of these recipes only include ingredients, but no instructions. These recipes appear to be variations on a theme, like they are variations on other recipes — only differing in ingredients, but not technique.
One of the recipes comes from someone who’s surname I don’t recognize, “Alma Jeague” - I’m not sure if I’m transcribing it correctly and the name doesn’t ring a bell. Whoever she is, she puts brown sugar in her chocolate cake, which I approve of.
Pages 11 and 12 have been added. These pages continue the cake section with recipes for layer cake, cocoa cream cake, a ‘dixie spice’ cake, and a pecan cake (soaked in brandy).
So many cake recipes! I am reminded how important dessert is down South.