Baking Memories from Childhood

When I tried to think of something I could take my mother for her birthday, I came up with the idea of baking some cookies and some cake that would bring back memories of old times for her. So I made these and carried them to Ohio in my suitcase on the airplane. (Unfortunately Mom could not or would not taste any of these items, but we enjoyed talking about them and sharing them with others.)

I found my Grandma Gompf's recipe for a raisin cake with cooked caramel icing which she had always made for my mom and dad's birthday. (They shared the same birthday, March 8.) I have the recipe on a card in Grandma's own handwriting. So I proceded to make the cake to taste as close to the original as possible--I even bought some lard so I could follow the cake ingredients exactly!

Then I made two kinds of cookies: the snickerdoodles which we girls always devoured at our slumber parties, and coffee cookies, which my neighbor girlfriend Phyllis McCoy and I used to make at her house. I think that recipe may have come from her Grandma McKee. It called for a cup of cold coffee for flavoring, which the McCoys usually had sitting leftover in their coffeepot. Phyllis and I loved the cookie batter so much that we would sit and eat it with a spoon like pudding while we waited for each pan of cookies to bake.

While we were in Ohio this trip, we attended a high school musical, directed by my cousin Lori's music teacher husband. There we ran into the brother of my old friend Phyllis, and we got to meet one of his sons, who also remembered the taste of coffee cookies from his childhood! (His daughter was in the musical.) What fun to see those cookies remain a favorite through several generations!

Here is the recipe for Coffee Cookies:

1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 cup shortening (I use margarine)
2 eggs
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda in 1 cup cold strong coffee
4 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt

Mix and place on lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake in 350 degree oven about 7 minutes or until done. These are a soft cookie.