Coffee Spice Cake with Mocha Butter Frosting

The cake stuck a bit to the bottom of the cake pan but it still tasted great!! The Mocha Butter Frosting had a wonderful coffee flavor.

As promised, this is the recipe for the Birthday cake I made for my son yesterday. The absolutely huge volume of recipes is called "The Encyclopedia of Cooking in 24 Volumes" and dated 1949...and let me tell you this is one heavy book!! Each category is it's own little booklet and I'm tempted to take out just the cake and cookie booklets to make it more managable! I really want to try some of the other cake recipes in the book such as, Spiced Devil's Food Cake and Sweet Potato Cake ! Sounds so good!!

The one issue I have with almost all the cake recipes I noticed is that they call for shortening rather than butter...was there a butter shortage back then? If anyone knows the reason, I'd love to know. I would like to try this recipe again replacing the shortening with butter but for now, this is the original recipe.

Coffee Spicecake: ( this is exactly the title)

2 1/2 c sifted cake flour

3 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. ginger

1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. cloves

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

3/4 cup shortening

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

1/4 cup molasses

3 eggs, well beaten

3/4 cup cold strong coffee

Sift flour, baking powder, soda, salt and spices together 3 times. ( I actually did this! )

Cream shortening with sugar until fluffy.

Add molasses and eggs and beat thoroughly.

Add dry ingredients and coffee alternately in small amounts, beating well after each addition.

Pour into greased pans and bake in 350 oven for 30 minutes. Makes 3 ( 8") layers.( I made mine in 2 (8") square pans.)

Mocha Butter Frosting:

1/2 cup butter

3 cups confectioners sugar, sifted

3 tbsp. cocoa

4 tbsp. cold strong coffee

1 tsp. vanilla

Cream butter. Add remaining ingredients and continue creaming until mixture is well blended and fluffy. Will cover tops and sides of 2 ( 8" ) layers.