Mamaw Ashby’s Gumdrop Cake


My Family’s FAVORITE Cake!

Cakes


Consider this my gift to you all here, for the many,
many PM's and emails of support. They mean so
much to me! I might warn you, it takes practice. The
first one I made didn't turn out as well as the second,
and they keep getting better with each one. Enjoy!

Mamaw Ashby's Gum Drop Cake

1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 cup applesauce
1 tsp baking soda added to applesauce
1 tsp vinegar
1 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped nuts
1 cup chopped gumdrops
1 cup peach preserves

Toss together all dry ingredients, (except the baking
soda to which you have put in the applesauce.)
Set aside.

Take about a tsp of the flour mixture and with the 1
cup of raisins and nuts, shake all of them together.
This will keep the raisins and nuts distributed through
the cake instead of them sinking to the bottom.

Now, cream together butter and sugar: add eggs, beating
just until mixed. Beat in applesauce, peach preserves
and vinegar, again, just until mixed.

Add dry ingredients, just until mixed; fold in raisins,
nuts and gum drops. Pour into greased and lightly
floured tube pan, or two greased and lightly floured
loaf pans. Bake at 325 degrees until lightly brown.
Mamaw used to use the old toothpick test - insert a
toothpick in the middle, if it comes out clean it's
done. Mamaw's recipe card says 1 hour, 15 minutes.
It takes at least an hour.

A Note from Catt...

The cake is easy, the icing panics me. But
the icing was the best part, with the peanut
butter....and there was a few times Mamaw
used what she called "canned cream"
which was evaporated milk -
and it turned out fine.


This type of cake goes over great at
bazaars, or church functions. I always
donate a jam cake, made from Mamaw's
recipe too, to our church holiday auction
and it gets at least $30. And remember, you
will need to practice a few times before
you make one to show, or give away.
But they are interesting, unusual, and
worth the extra work.


Gum Drop Cake Icing

2 cups packed brown sugar
2 tbsp butter
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 tsp soda
1 tbsp peanut butter

Icing Directions:

Put brown sugar, butter, cream and baking
soda into heavy sauce pan. Cook until it
makes a soft ball in cold water, sometimes for
me, this takes a good 15 minutes of a steady
boil. At this point, stir in peanut butter. Now,
this is where I get panicked. It is a trick to start
frosting the cake. I start, and it sometimes
starts to slide off, so using a spatula like they
use when frosting a bakery cake, I keep pulling
the frosting up the sides and on the top. I
use wax paper strips under the cake, so when
I'm done anything that smeared on the platter
goes when I pull the wax strips out. The icing
will get hard. I decorate mine like Mamaw and
Mom did, I slice cherries in half and put them
cut side down, on the cake all around it, or
down the middle if I have made loaf cakes.


Desserts ~ Cookies
Now Let’s share Cookies!


My mom loved this cookie at the holidays, and I have to admit it was not my favorite - until I was older and
could appreciate it. But it was fun back then, she would let us put them in the bag with the powdered sugar
and shake them. We made these as close to the holidays, otherwise my mom ate them all! They are my
daughter’s favorite cookies; while I worked she would help my mother bake them. Now, when I make
them, my daughter gets tears in her eyes and says she can just see herself back in my mom’s kitchen when
she was a little girl. That is the greatest compliment I, as a mother, could ever get. It simply does not get
any better than that.

Martha's Sandies

1 cup shortening - half shortening/half butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon ice water
1 cup chopped nuts
1 teaspoon vanilla
Mix together and chill 1/2 an hour. Pinch off and roll into small balls. Bake in 300-degree oven 30 - 35
minutes. Shake in powdered sugar while still warm.

This cookie does not appeal to everyone, but to me they are almost addictive. I can’t eat just one!

Martha's Jumbo Chocolate Chip Cookies

3/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup shortening
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 12 oz package chocolate chips

Cream butter and shortening, gradually adding sugars, and beating well at medium speed. Add eggs and vanilla,
beating well. Combine flour, soda, and salt, and add to creamed mixture, mixing well. Stir in chocolate
chips.

Drop dough by 1/4 cupfuls onto greased cookie sheet. Lightly press down.
Bake at 350 degrees for 17 minutes.


This is the best thing I have, without a doubt, eaten in my life. When my sister makes them and brings
them to my house, I forget the cheesecakes, cookies, fudge, and pies. I eat only these. But I think it is
what I am reminded of when I eat them. As I take a bite, I can see myself back in the late 60's and
early 70's.

I was in about the 4th grade I think. I had a teacher who was a little standoffish. Around thanksgiving,
I took a box with a new dessert my sister had made, called Oatmeal Carmelita's. My teacher at the end
of the day called me aside and told me she wanted to talk to my mother when she came to pick me up. So
she walked out with me to the car, and asked my mother to make some of those bars for her to mail someone,
she had someone very special. My mom agreed and my teacher said she would pay for all the ingredients,
and anything else she wanted to make was ok. So off we went, and my sister and mother got busy.
They baked cookies, made fudge, and then my sister made the Oatmeal Carmelita's. So when my mother
came to get me from school a few days later, my mom walked in with a big box of goodies. My teacher had
some money in her hand, and my mother was telling her the best way to package them. My mother was
somewhat of an expert, my brother had just returned from a few years in Japan in the air force.

After the conversation, my mother asked her whom she was sending these too. And I will never forget my
teacher’s response. She said, "My younger brother is in Vietnam. He will be there for the holidays, and a lot
of the guys are getting homemade things to share on Christmas Day. I thought there would be perfect for
him, because after all.........we worry about him, you know? My mother makes herself sick every time it is
on the news. We will miss him this year, and I want him to know how much we are thinking of him." The
tears welled up in my mother's eyes. She was lucky enough to have her son home, and her heart went out to
my teacher. As my teacher pushed the money in my mother’s hand, I watched my mother gently push the
money back, and she reached out and hugged my teacher. She would not take any money, and when my
teacher insisted, she told my teacher to instead save it for when her brother comes home, and buy him an
extra special Christmas gift. My teacher cried, and later told me what a wonderful mom I had.

As if I didn't know.

Oatmeal Carmelita's

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup quick cooking oats
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup margarine
1 cup chocolate chips
½ cup nuts (walnuts or pecans)
3/4 cup caramel ice cream topping
3 tbsp flour

Combine flour, oats, brown sugar, soda, salt and margarine. Blend well at low speed to form crumbs. Press
half the crumbs into an 11 x 7 inch pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Sprinkle with chocolate chips
and nuts. Blend caramel topping and 3 tbsp flour. Pour over chocolate chips and nuts to cover. Sprinkle
with remaining crumbs. Bake 20 - 25 minutes, until done.

And just to show you how darn cute I was, I called these "carmel eaters" when I was a kid.

__________________
Always be a first rate version of your self instead of a second rate version of someone else.[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
What the country needs is dirtier fingernails and cleaner minds.