Grammie's Brown Sugar Cake Recipe

I spent maybe half an hour today looking for a coffeecake recipe that looked decent, and I couldn't find anything that sounded good and used ingredients that I already had.  Then I remembered, yes, I had finally unpacked the cookbooks and random pieces of paper with family recipes on them.  And somewhere in that pile was Grammie's brown sugar cake recipe.

It is like a cake/coffeecake hybrid, with a brown sugar flavor in an old-fashioned cake form.  If I was ever asked what I wanted for a treat, I would ask for this cake.  I have no idea where the recipe came from.

So now I am sharing it here.  It is rich and goes a long way.

Brown Sugar Cake

2 cups flour

2 cups packed brown sugar

1/2 shortening

Combine.  Mix until crumbly.  Set aside 1 cup of mixture.

(I substituted the following today: 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour, 1 cup all purpose flour, 1 cup white sugar, 1 cup demarara sugar, 1/2 cup lard)

Add these remaining ingredients:

1 egg, beaten

1 cup sour milk (if you don't have sour milk, measure just under a cup of milk, then add cider or white vinegar to meet the 1 cup mark, let set for a few minutes, and it will sour)

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt (I used sea salt)

1 tsp vanilla

Blend well.  

Pour into a greased 8x8 pan.  Spread reserved mixture on top.

Bake at 350 for 30 to 40 minutes, until a cake tester or knife inserted into the center comes out clean.  My oven runs hot, and it took me 40 minutes, but keep an eye on it so it doesn't burn!

Of course I cut it when it was still piping hot, but you get the idea.  Best coffeecake ever.