Family Recipe Friday - Hickory Nut Cake

(Annie Adam original handwritten recipe collection held by Karen Fox)

My step-grandmother (Mom's second hubby's mother) was a real Pennsylvania Dutch farm wife. Nana, as we called her, was a "wunnerful goot" cook and she was well known for her baked goods.This was one of my favorite cakes that she used to bake. I was a young adult when Mom remarried, but Nana and Pop-pop Adam always treated us kids as if we had always been among their own grandchildren. 

Nana's written recipes usually consisted of just an ingredients list, she didn't need instructions on how to make something beyond that. The directions in this recipe came from me following her around while she baked one of these and jotting down my own notes.

Hickory Nut Cake
(from the collection of the late Annie Adam 1918-1982)

Note: If hickory nuts are not easily available to you, this recipe is also quite good using black walnuts as a substitute.

1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
a lump of butter the size of a walnut
1 cup milk
2-1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup of chopped hickory nuts

Mix together in a bowl all the ingredients except the chopped nuts. When smooth, stir in the nuts. Bake at 350 degrees in 2 nine inch greased & floured cake pans or one 9" x 13" greased & floured pan for approx. 25-30 mins or until tester comes out clean.

After cooling, Nana would usually frost the cake with a vanilla buttercream or cream cheese frosting.

Enjoy!

Missing you Nana,
~Karen the AncesTree Sprite