NANA RANCK'S MOLASSES CAKE

MAKES ONE 9-INCH ROUND CAKE

This is another breakfast cake. The Pennsylvania Dutch were farmers in this country and breakfast was an important meal. The men worked several hours in the fields while the women prepared breakfast which consisted of meats, eggs and breakfast cakes. High cholesterol, but I guess they worked it off, because most of the old people I knew lived long lives. This cake is prepared in the same was as the Crumb Cake. Actually, it is an example of a dry-bottom Shoofly Pie. See Shoofly Cake for a variation without the pie crust.

INGREDIENTS

CAKE

3 cups all purpose flour

1 cup sugar

1 cup molasses

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 cups boiling water

CRUMBS

3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons shortening
1 pie shell, unbaked

Preheat oven to 350° F. Place pie shell into 9-inch pie pan. Combine flour, sugar, molasses, baking soda and boiling water; mix until well blended. Combine 3/4 cup flour, 1/2 cup sugar and 3 tablespoons shortening. Mix with hands until crumbs form. Put 1/2 of crumb mixture into pie shell. Pour in cake batter. Top with remaining crumbs. Bake 35-40 minutes or until cake springs back to the touch. Remove from oven and cool on rack.

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