I enjoy making dishes from what I call Lost Recipes – dishes that were perfectly good and tasty but fell out of favor when newer, trendier foods came along. This one looks to be a treat although I will have to substitute walnuts or something else for the hickory nut meats. The squirrels and I race to see which of us can collect the hickory nuts first, and I usually lose.
I first found this receipt pasted in the front of a cookbook from just after the turn of the century, but when I searched a little I found several books in which it was published beginning in 1883.
“Cream one pound sugar and half pound butter; add five eggs, beaten separately, one cup sweet milk, one pound flour, three teaspoons baking powder, flavor with lemon, and bake in jelly-pans. For custard, place one pint milk in a tin pail and set in boiling water; add a tablespoon of corn starch dissolved in a little milk, two eggs, one-half cup sugar, two cups chopped hickory-nut meats, well mixed together to the boiling milk; stir, and put between the layers of cake, while both cake and custard are warm. This is excellent.”
There were many more receipts for Custard Cake, I really like this one from the Royal Baking Powder Co., 1898. I may have to make it for the nostalgia, my grandmother was born in January, 1898.
“Custard Cake. 2 cups sugar, 2 cups flour, 6 eggs, 1 ½ teaspoons Royal Baking Powder, 2 tablespoons hot water; beat the eggs well together; then add the sugar, and beat very light before adding flour, in which Royal Baking Powder is mixed; lastly, add hot water; bake in jelly-cake tins; when done, turn out, and when cool put following cream between. CREAM: 1 cup sugar, ½ cup flour, 1 pint boiled milk, 2 eggs; flavor to taste; when the milk boils, add eggs, sugar, and flour; after having well beaten them together, boil thoroughly; stir all the time, until it is quite thick.”
We wouldn’t want to wrap this up without a chocolate version, and this one came from 365 Cakes and Cookies: A Cake or Cookie for Every Day in the Year. I may have to make this one by the recipe for the Mister on Valentine’s Day and then slather the cake in chocolate frosting.
“Mix 8 tablespoonfuls of grated chocolate, 5 tablespoonfuls of granulated sugar, ½ cupful of milk; boil until it thickens and let cool. Then take 1 ½ cupfuls of light brown sugar, ½ cupful of butter, 3 eggs, ½ cupful of flour, and 2 teaspoonfuls of baking powder; pour into the custard and add 1 ½ cupfuls of flour and ½ cupful of milk; flavor with vanilla. Bake in layers.
Filling: 2 cupfuls of sugar, 2/3 cupful of milk, and a piece of butter the size of an egg. Boil until thick and put between layers.”
Blissful Meals Yall.©
Thehistoricfoodie's Blog 
But what is “sweet milk”? I’ve never heard of it in nearly 80 years. Am I missing out on something delicious?
It just means fresh milk, not buttermilk. Its a term not much in use anymore.
Thank you very much, theres nothing I enjoy more than fresh milk, though I doubt I’d like it straight from a cow nowadays, those days are long gone. 🙂
My mom never did, but my aunt used to buy milk fresh from the cow and I loved watching the cream rise. I aunt and uncle had cattle, but they were beef cattle and as I recall she bought the fresh milk from a neighbor. I’m glad you found the post interesting. Thanks for reading.