1900 to 1916 Cake #9

Grandma's Mincemeat Cake with Caramel Icing

For many families in the early 1900's mincemeat signaled the end of the garden. Nothing was ever left to waste. When the cooler weather approached, the green tomatoes that were still on the vine were picked and ground and then cooked down into mincemeat, which can be preserved in a jar. Later, in the fall and winter, many families would use the mincemeat to make a cake and that is why this cake is associated with Thanksgiving time.

My Experience:

When I saw the name of this cake I thought that it sounded very unappetizing and I actually had no idea what mincemeat actually was. The only connection that I had with the term was my mom jokingly saying that she would, "make mincemeat out of me." I looked up the definition of mincemeat and it is a mixture of chopped dried fruit, distilled spirits and spices, and either beef lard or vegetable shortening. Many grocery stores only carry mincemeat near the holiday's, but I was able to find some after some searching.

The recipe is pretty straightforward. Combine the ingredients and bake two layers. As they cool, you make the caramel icing. The only tricky part is that the icing will harden super fast so I had to rush it a bit and there were still a few lumps in it, but who really cares if they get a few small lumps of confectioners sugar with their bite of cake:)

Neighbors reactions: "Wow, that's super rich. Yummy though!"

"My husband really liked grandmas mincemeat, he liked the maple."

"I loved the maple frosting! The cake was good, but not my favorite. But that icing!"

So the icing was the most popular part of this cake. It was interesting that they all called it Maple icing since it actually is caramel icing. I looked up how to make maple icing and it is very similar but it has maple syrup in it, this icing does not.