1913 Blackberry Cake

* Cream sugar and butter.

* Add eggs, buttermilk and jam.

* Dissolve soda in a little warm water and add baking powder and spices.

* Add enough flour to make a thick batter, but not too stiff (2 to 2-1/2 cups flour is usually about right, depending on juiciness of jam or blackberry preserves used).

* Bake 30 to 35 minutes at 350 degrees in a sprayed 9-inch by 13-inch baking pan.

Makes 12 to 14 servings.


Source: NWI Times -
"The recipes are from Susan Gleason of Valparaiso, who saved them from her late grandmother's file, schoolteacher Elsa Riley-Jenkins, born in 1889 and died at age 99.

Raised on a farm near Ripley, W.Va., Elsa began teaching at age 18 during a time when female school teachers had to be unmarried.

She served her potato pie with a salad of "wild greens."

Earning her teaching certificate from Marshall College, Elsa taught in a one-room school in Mingo County, W.Va. where she was given this Blackberry Cake recipe in 1913 by a parent of one of her students."

(Also see Depression-Era Potato Pie)