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Fruit and Nut “War” Cake (Vegan)
December 12, 2007 |
“War is, ” according to culinary historian Sidney Mintz, “probably the single most powerful instrument of dietary change in human experience.”
In the U.S. and Europe, war has shaped culinary tradition in discernable ways.
In the late 19th century, during the American Civil War, canned food was an important staple, which later became a sort of status symbol as it enabled a few to access out-of-season products, regardless of quality.
Some Civil War creations like ‘hardtack‘, which were part of the soldiers’ rations, were quickly abandoned after the war ended. The soliders absolutely hated these hard crackers (sometimes called “teeth-dullers” ), which transported well, but had often to be broken with a rifle “butt” or a “blow of the fist” to prepare for eating.
Other recipes like corn bread, jonny cakes and gingerbread gained in popularity.
Both the World Wars saw the creation of War Cake recipes using raisins and nuts. There’s an American World War I version that uses butter, and was baked to commemorate Fourth of July celebrations.
The version of War Cake as we know it today, though, was born in the 1940s, during World War II. There was widespread rationing across Europe and the U.S.
In 1942, in the U.S., each member of the family was issued ration books, and it was the homemaker’s challenge to pool the stamps and plan the family’s meals within the set limits.
Rationing made white sugar, butter, cheese and eggs very difficult to access. Home canning and the “victory garden” became a way of life. Ration stamps became a type of currency, and lost ration books were a crisis.
Decal from World War II
It was a period of severe scarcity and a thriving black market.
Innovative cooks adapted the War Cake from World War I to create a raisin cake, without eggs, or butter. The boiled raisins in the batter resulted in a moist a sweet cake, and was also called Boiled Raisin Cake.
Some War Cake recipes were even sold for 10 cents to benefit the Red Cross.
Margarine and lard became very popular during these times, as did the boxed Mac and Cheese by Kraft, since cheese itself was rationed.
The situation was much worse in Europe. Check out these newspaper clippings from England in the ’50s, including this one one How To Make Your Fats Go Further.
Our recipe is inspired by - but deviates significantly from - this recipe from Grandma’s Wartime Kitchen by Joanne Lamb Hayes.
We use a blend of dried fruits and nuts, halve the amount of sugar, and reduce the amount of cinnamon in the recipe. We’ve also eliminated the oil entirely, replacing it with unsweetened applesauce.
This is a yeast-free, vegan cake, and one of our favourites. This time, we soaked the dried fruits in rum for a month. The flavour was richer as a result. Even without pre-soaking, this recipe yields a rich, moist crumb.
Notes:
** We use 8 ounces each of dried fruits and chopped nuts (pecans and/or walnuts). This can be substituted with 16 ounces of dried fruits. In the dried fruit mix, we use 4 ounces of dark raisins, and 4 ounces of assorted dried fruit like cranberries, figs, dates and unsulphured apricots. Candied ginger is a great addition to this cake. 100% raisins is what the traditional recipe uses.
** The original recipe uses 2 cups of brown sugar. We usually use 1 cup of organic sugar plus 1 tablespoon of unsulphured molasses, or 1 cup maple syrup. Half sugar, half jaggery works too.
** This time, we used 1 cup of dark rum to soak the chopped dried fruit for a month. This is optional. If pre-soaking, drain the dried fruits and reserve the liquor. It can be simmered for a few minutes to burn off the alcohol, and drizzled over the hot cake. Or it can be reserved for the chef. 
** This cake can be given to children, since the alcohol burns off while cooking. It can also be made alcohol-free. Soak the dried fruit in orange juice for a different flavour.
** This recipe can be halved easily. Reduce the baking time to 35 minutes (Check at 30).
FRUIT and NUT “WAR” CAKE (Vegan)
Ingredients:
4 ounces dark raisins
4 ounces mixed dried fruit (see note above)
8 ounces lightly toasted and chopped nuts (we used pecans)
1 cup rum (optional) (see note above)
1 cup packed brown sugar or maple syrup (or more. see note above)
2 cups water
**or water plus orange juice
4 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce (or vegetable oil)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 tsp each ground cinnamon, cloves, ginger and nutmeg
3 cups unsifted wholewheat pastry flour or all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon Grand Marnier or Cognac (optional)
2 tsps orange zest (or lemon zest)
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 tsp lemon juice
oil to grease the pan
Powdered sugar to dust
1. If pre-soaking the dried fruits in the rum (see note above), drain and reserve the rum. Put the dried fruits in a pan with water. If they are pre-soaked, use 1 and 2/3rd cups water, if not, add 2 cups water.
2. Add sugar, applesauce/oil, salt, spices, orange zest and Grand Marnier (if using) and bring to a boil. Simmer for 5 minutes and turn off the heat.
3. Preheat the oven to 350 F with a rack in the middle. Grease a bundt pan or a loaf pan well.
4. Add lemon juice and vanilla extract to the dry fruit mixture. Let it cool to room temperature.
5. Fold in flour, baking soda and nuts.
6. Spoon into greased pan and bake until a tester inserted in the middle comes out clean. (35 minutes for a bundt pan. Depending on whether the dry fruits were soaked or not, and based on readers’ feedback, in a loaf pan, it can take anything between 45 minutes to an hour. Keep checking with a toothpick every 5 minutes after the 40 minute mark.)
7. Cool for a few minutes and invert over a wire rack.
8. Simmer the reserved rum for a few minutes to burn off the alcohol and drizzle over the cake.
9. Dust with powdered sugar for a festive look.
VERDICT: Moist, dense, delicious. We have made this cake atleast a dozen times, and it has never let us down.
Apricot, boiled-raisin-cake, Cranberry, Date, Fig, fruit-and-nut-cake, Pecan, Raisin, vegan recipes, vegetarian recipes, Walnut, War-Cake, Wheat, World-War-II
Though its a year later and it took me 16 pages of google search to find this recipe , it was sooooo worth it. I was looking for a vegan recipe that wasn’t loaded with added fat. Most vegan recipes used lots of Earth Balance or oil. Or it used all that nasty candied fruit and I wanted a recipe that used regular dried fruit. This recipe is exactly what I was looking for. Its moist and lightly spiced , full of fruit and nuts. This is the recipe that will become a yearly ( or more often ) tradition. Thank you for sharing the recipe!
Hi there!
I had my eye on this recipe for a long time, finally got time to try it. I have to say it came out wonderfully well! Thanks for such a good recipe, its a keeper!!!
[...] used Bee’s Fruit and Nut cake recipe, modified it slightly , making it vegetarian instead of vegan. I had my dry fruits( a mixture of [...]
Hi..have made this cake a few times..its been great..was thinking can I use date syrup, do you think?
[...] it was so late that I dint have time for experiments, trials and errors. So I went ahead and used Bee’s Vegan Fruit and nut cake recipe from jugalbandhi. I just changed it slightly by increasing the spices a little and making it [...]
I had bookmarked this for a longtime, Tried it out for christmas and it was great Thanks a lot
http://vicknes.com/blogwp/2009/12/25/fruit-n-nut-cake-alcohol-free-bask-in-the-festive-mood/
Heyyy I made this cake for Christmas this year….it was the best ever. Could not believe it was eggless, got praised like crazy by my friends. Don’t think I’ll wait till Christmas to make this again!!!