This is a Guest Post by the Super Amazing One Hundred Dollars a Month reader Mel {she’s the one who made A Freezer Meal Menu Plan for Four Month’s Worth of Meals, and then made a Big List of Freezer Meal Recipes and Freezer Meal Cooking Tips.}
Mel has also shared about her Mini Sewing Room Makeover, how she made all those AWESOME gift bags and shared her recipe for DIY Lemonade Concentrate} and her Super Simple Summer Tomato Pasta. She also told us about her Experience Joining a CSA and Eating More Vegetables. I think at this point, we pretty much all know we want Mel to be our neighbor. I know I do! Here is her latest post:
I know many people prefer to skip over the backstory about recipes and jump to the recipe itself, but trust me—you’re going to want to hear this. I first remember my mom making this recipe for a PTA meeting when I was in elementary school, and it was so popular that she had to type it up and distribute copies to all the other parents. She titled it Aunt Arianna’s Pumpkin Coffeecake, and she told me that my aunt had created the recipe.
We had a few recipes from this aunt, so this made sense to me at the time. Although I never remember my mom making this recipe after that first time, I started making it as a teenager for Christmas breakfast for our family, and we always credited Aunt Arianna with the recipe.
Fast forward to the present. I told Mavis that I would share this wonderful family recipe with you all. The post I had planned was full of warm fuzziness and family tradition—perfect for the holiday season. So, I started making this cake the other day as a birthday cake for my husband since he has a November birthday. But when I was lining up all the ingredients to take pictures for Mavis, a couple questions occurred to me:
- Aunt Arianna was quite wealthy. She had multiple housekeepers, and I cannot remember eating a single dish that she prepared herself. Why would she have created cake recipes to share?
- My mom likes to stretch the truth. I used to try to describe her as “colorful,” but I can basically figure out the truth only by taking the inverse of whatever she says, so here we are. Anyway, what are the odds she told the truth with this?
In a normal family, you would probably just call your relatives to iron this out, but that’s not really an option in my family. First of all, Aunt Arianna lives far away, and I haven’t seen her since I was maybe 12. I don’t have a way to contact her.
Second of all, I could call my mom, but see #2 above. So, I turned to the internet and just started scrolling through recipes on Pinterest. At first, I seemed to be in the clear. Most pumpkin coffeecakes were not layered and just had the pumpkin blended in. But after looking at a few more, I found recipe submission on a blog with the exact same recipe. Liar liar, cake pan on fire!
Now, it’s possible two different families developed very similar recipes. It’s possible two different families stole this recipe from the same third source. It’s possible the blogger I found somehow knows my Aunt Arianna and got the recipe from her or vice versa. Knowing my family, I’m pretty sure my mom stole it and lied about it, but I have no way of knowing who or where she stole it from (the first time I had this coffee cake was long before you could get recipes on internet blogs).
So, I have modified the ingredients and the instructions to make a similar but decidedly different recipe, but I apologize in advance if the original recipe truly is YOUR family recipe and MY family stole it from you. And while this story doesn’t have the warm family holiday vibe I was hoping for, it does still have the family-driving-you-crazy holiday vibe, so there’s that. Anyway, here’s the probably-originally-stolen-but-now-modified recipe:
Ingredients:
Sour Cream Cake Batter:
- ½ cup butter, softened
- ¾ cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 3 eggs
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 ¼ cups sour cream
Pumpkin Filling:
- 1 (15 oz) can of pumpkin (I usually use homemade pumpkin puree, but I’m out)
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- ¾ teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/8 teaspoon cloves
- 1/8 teaspoon ginger
Pecan Streusel:
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 1/3 cup cold butter
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/8 teaspoon cloves
- 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
- Pinch of salt
- 1 ½ cups coarsely chopped pecans
Directions:
Start recalling warm family memories. Do some internet sleuthing and have an existential crisis instead.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees and butter a 9×13 inch pan.
Cream butter in the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. With the mixer running, slowly pourin sugar and beat until fluffy and somewhat lightened in color. Add eggs and vanilla and beat well, scraping down the bowl as necessary. The mixture will look sort of curdled at this stage, but it will come together in the next step.
Combine flour, baking powder, and baking soda in a small bowl. Add flour mixture to butter mixture alternately with sour cream, scraping the mixer bowl after mixing in each addition.
Combine ingredients for pumpkin filling in a small mixing bowl and mix well.
In another small mixing bowl, make the streusel by first mixing the spices, flour, and salt into the brown sugar, then cutting in the cold butter with a pastry blender or fork, and finally stirring in the nuts.
Spoon ½ of the sour cream cake batter into a buttered 13x9x2-inch pan. Sprinkle with ½ of streusel.
Carefully spread all of the pumpkin filling over streusel. Since there are so many layers, it’s easier to distribute small spoonfuls of the filling and then spread them out evenly than it is to just dump the pumpkin on top and try to spread it. This makes a pretty thick layer of pumpkin, so you can use half or three quarters of the mixture if you want a thinner layer.
Top with remaining sour cream cake batter (again, the spoonful-then-spread approach may work better here) and then with the remaining streusel.
Bake at 325 degreed for 55-60 minutes. I like to rotate the pan halfway through to ensure even browning, and you can also use foil to control browning if needed.
Let cool in pan before cutting in squares.
What about you? Do you have any family recipes where the secret ingredient is lies? Do you have any real family recipes? Have your recipes changed or gotten lost over the years?
~Mel
Karen says
Wow, looks delicious, Mel! Thanks for sharing. Wish I had my mother’s fruit cake recipe which she soaked in rum…
Mel says
No problem! And yes, it’s a wonderful cake. We ended up liking my modified version better than the original.
I unfortunately can’t help with the fruitcake recipe, but I do love this story about searching for a family fruitcake recipe:
https://www.southernliving.com/christmas/cassandra-king-fruitcake
Arnold Metze says
I have a fruitcake recipe that I inherited from my mother, I’ve been making this recipe for 30 plus years, and I’ve never had any complaints. My mother used homemade dandelion wine. If you would like the recipe, I would have no problem, texting it to you.
Arnold Metze says
And she had a white fruit cake, recipe and one from one of the presidents. I cant take it with me, and I dont have a problem sharing it.
Juliette Cagnolatti says
I would also love to have this recipe and the one from one of the Presidents
Harold Lane says
My mother made a Jam Cake that was super dark and super moist that she would drizzle some rum over and let sit for a day or two. If she ever had a recipe written down, she didn’t need it when I started paying attention to her making it. I’ve not found any recipes that were even close…
Lynne says
Nothing “stolen” in my story, just garbled. My grandmother (who passed long before I was born) apparently made a great macaroni and cheese, but as so often is the case, she never wrote down what she did. Each of her three children believed that they made their mac and cheese just like their mother did, except that their three versions of the dish tasted nothing alike. The consensus among my cousins was that my mother’s version was the best, although none of us ever tasted the original. The way I look at it is, I always think of that grandmother when I make the dish, and smile at the story. That’s good enough for me.
Mel says
You’re so right–it’s all about carrying on the traditions and smiling instead of getting them exactly “right.”
Nora says
I have a small book of recipes from my grandmother – it was compiled by her sister especially for me after my grandmother had died. She found the notes in the attic as she still lived in the house where she and my grandmother grew up. She added some pages from herself and my great grandmother. All sets require a lot of substitutes (because of war times). But I am happy to have them inside the little book, even though I don’t make them as they are really strange bc of all the substitutions.
Deb K says
What a treasure!
Mel says
I agree! What a cool gift.
Johanna says
My mom made a “stolen sour cream coffee cake” recipe too, but in a very different context. We didn’t really eat sour cream outside of this recipe, and the recipe only called for a 1/2 cup or so. It drove Mom crazy to buy a whole container and only need a little bit.
So when we would go out to eat, especially at Mexican restaurants, she would ask for sour cream on the side, and then take it home so she could make coffee cake. I even vaguely remember her swiping some abandoned sour cream from another table because, “It was just going to get thrown away!”
Mel says
Oh that’s amazing! I love that!
Brianna says
A few of my Grandmother’s recipes were published in a First Ladies cookbook. I never knew her. Anyways, someone gave me an old well-used cookbook years ago as a wedding gift and they dog-earmarked all of her recipes. I’ve made them all and her pancakes are our favorite, although it took me awhile to figure out They were written as: 3 or 4 eggs and a 1:1 ratio of whipping cream:buttermilk and some other odd measures.
Mel says
That’s so neat! I think I have my grandmother’s cookbook (not one with her recipes but one she used) somewhere. I should take a look for it.
Jeanine says
I was given the “Joy of Cooking” recipe book as a young bride many years ago from my Grandmother. It was her cookbook and had many notes written by her inside. I use that cookbook quite often. After my Mom passed away, I got her Joy of Cooking cookbook and gave it to my daughter. I also found one at a garage sale, which I’m saving for my granddaughter, age 11, that loves to cook, when she gets a little older. I have so many recipes from that cookbook that are family favorites. All of the cookbooks are from the World War II days with the blue cover.
Mel says
What a great tradition! My mom had a copy of the Joy of Cooking, but I don’t remember what edition it was. I think it might have had a white cover.
Ramona says
My Dad made goulash. It really isn’t like the goulash recipes I see, more of maybe a chili. As far as I know it was his recipe, don’t know how it came about. He would be up at 4:00 a.m. starting to cook it. It would simmer all day in a large pot that I believe was an old pressure cooker, it didn’t have a lid. Everyone always asked him to make it and come for dinner. Many asked for the recipe but he never gave it out to but one person, me. I make the recipe every so often. For some reason my brother ended up with the goulash pot even tho I am the only one that makes it. I have since given the recipe to some of my family members.
Mel says
Recipes that simmer all day are always the best!
Christy says
Mel, I love your commentary on your ‘family’ recipe. Thanks for the smile. I know we have lots of recipes in our family that have been adapted and made our own.. all before you could look them up on the internet. Thanks so much for sharing. Can’t wait to try it out!
Mel says
No problem! I hope you like it!
Cindy Brick says
Mavis and Mel,
I have an amazing 100-year-plus sugar cookie recipe that produces soft sugar cookies that can be either frosted — or baked with the decorations pressed on. My grandma refused to share it with anyone except her family…maybe I’m a bad girl for doing it for her, but there you go.
I’d be happy to write a post for you about it — plus our cousins’ cookie decorating parties. (I have in the neighborhood of 60 first cousins, all opinionated.)
Let me know. Glad to do it on spec — if you can’t use it, I’ll put it on my own blog.
Cindy
Mel says
Sounds amazing! Maybe e-mail Mavis and ask if she’d like to post it?
Mavis Butterfield says
Yes, Cindy you can email me the recipe / pictures, I’m people would love it! You can send them to onehundred dollarsa month@gmail.com {spaces removed}
Juliette Cagnolatti says
Cindy,
I would love to have this recipeI love love old recipes and stories. I can tell my family your story and it can become a blended family story after thatyour family and become part of our families new tradition!
Vicki in La. says
Mel, Have you considered that maybe someone stole the recipe from your mom? You did say she had typed up copies… Wouldn’t that be a hoot!
Mel says
It’s possible! But I still don’t know where she could have gotten it originally. I’ve more or less ruled out her making it up or getting it from my aunt. It’s a mystery!
Becka says
We have a family soup recipe that my great grandmother overheard while eavesdropping on the party line. It’s called Mrs. Monday’s soup after the lady that was discussing the recipe on the phone.
Karen says
Oh, yes, I remember the party line: 2 shorts and a long ring, then you know the phone is for you!!
Boy, I’m old!
Yes, Mel, the dark fruit cake soaked in whisky or rum, yum, yum!
Mel says
Great story! I should work on my eavesdropping….
Janet Parks says
Mel, you tell a great story! My mother was, “colorful” as well!! Thanks for the laugh!!
Janet
PS, I’d love to be your neighbor!!
Mel says
I’d love to be your neighbor as well! And I’m glad I’m not the only one with a colorful mother. The tales that woman tells!
Sara says
I once asked my Italian grandmother for her lasagna recipe. She said “It’s just the one on the back of the box.” I was shocked. She seemed to have a long standing family recipe for everything but her lasagna recipe wasn’t. That’s the only Italian dish that I make with a recipe different from my grandma’s.
Mel says
Oh, I know that feeling but sort of in reverse. My grandmother was famous for her biscuits, but my aunt made the Pillsbury kind from the tube once, and after that my grandmother said she couldn’t imagine making biscuits again if she could buy the Pillsbury kind. Needless to say, I make my own biscuits.
Rosaleen says
With recipes and ideas posted online. Anything is possible. A few of my ideas have turned up on blogs and in camping cookbooks with other peoples’ names on them. I know by dates that I posted and because for one of them, I didn’t want my name or profile published and didn’t want someone to basically sell and make money on something that I had given away by posting already. My “recipe” was given a different name and published. Someone else has made money from my ideas. Oh, well! It can be a strange world.
Mel says
Yes, the internet makes it both easier and harder to trace the origins of things. I’m glad I thought to check before posting the original version of this recipe. And I think I like it better with the modifications, so it worked out!
Tiffany says
Your intro story was so hilarious, I literally laughed out loud a few times, that I’m going to have to make this! Thank you for the good laugh! Also, I am a firm believer in that recipes, especially good ones, are meant to be shared! I’m glad your mom was able to make this recipe taste great and that she shared it! Btw funniest part, “Start recalling warm family memories. Do some internet sleuthing and have an existential crisis instead.” LOL 🙂
Mel says
I agree about sharing recipes!
donna R says
Recipes are always best when they come with a story. That is the best cookbook I know. O, the stories they tell.
Mel says
Definitely! I liked the story that originally went with this recipe, but the new one is sort of amusing as well.
Tiffany Faw says
I have a couple funny stories.
Everyone in the family LOVED grandmama’s chicken and dumplings, but noone could ever quite duplicate it… We eventually realized she had told each of us a different “secret ingredient”!
Second story: In the late 70’s, after a church potluck, my mama asked a lady at church for a recipe. The lady was horrified, swearing it was an old family recipe, and could NOT share it. Mama went home, and later in the week found the exact recipe in her Southern Living magazine!
Mel says
Funny! My mom once rewrapped store-bought chocolates and gifted them. The recipients asked if they were difficult to make, and my mom said “No, but they are time-consuming.”
Chyrl says
I laughed out loud at that one! Your Mom sounds like a hoot!