Vintage ‘Cowboy Cake’ Recipe from a Mystery Cookbook

Welcome back to the Old Cookbook Show, friends! Today, we're diving into an unusual find from Wednesday’s cookbook unboxing—a rare community cookbook from the Soothsayer Flour Company featuring recipes from the 1930s! This one is a hidden gem, arriving in a Duo-Tang with vintage recipe cards. We’re making ‘Cowboy Cake’ today, a rich, spiced cake packed with brown sugar, buttermilk, and a buttery crumble topping that’s sure to bring nostalgia. Join us as we explore baking history, discuss vintage kitchen tips, and learn more about how classic cookbooks shaped American kitchens. If you have any insights on the elusive Soothsayer Flour Company or this unique recipe collection, share in the comments! Let’s get baking!

Cowboy Cake
Mrs. F.M. Fagan Bellwood, W.Ya.
2 1/2 cups sifted SOOTHSAYER FLOUR
2 cups brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cups shortening
1 1/4 cup sour milk
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon soda
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup chopped nut meats

Mix flour, sugar, salt and shortening together as you would for pie crust to form crumb, save out 1/2 cup of this crumb.
To the remainder add the baking powder, spices and soda, Mix thoroughly.
Add beaten eggs to sour milk. Mix with the rest of the ingredients.
Pour into oiled loaf cake pan.
Sprinkle top with the 1/2 cup of saved crumbs and the nut meats. Bake in a moderate oven (350º) for 45 nibutes.

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[tjs]

According to my mother, who grew up in Iowa, Willis Norton & Co flour was pretty much all that was sold up until after World War 2. The different names 'Soothsayer', "White Loaf" and one she can't remember the name of, but had the picture of a dutch windmill as the logo weren't per-say brands as the grades of flour. White Loaf was what we'd consider bread flour, Soothsayer was cake flour and the windmill was all purpose. We have what could be generously called the 'remains' of one of these binders that has both Soothsayer and White Loaf branded pages mixed together; but the graphic on the cover is completely worn away. From the handwriting on some of the pages, we're pretty sure it originally belonged to her Aunt Wessie (poor woman) who was a school teacher and the school's cook for over 50 years and that she used the cookbook at school since several of the recipes had been reworked for much larger quantities.

[RonOhio]

There is a little information about the company on Topeka and Kansas historical society pages. Willis Norton was also associated with Inter Ocean Mills, White Loaf Flour etc. A digital copy of the cookbook is also hosted on the Internet Archive page. Glen might be able to help them out, one of their pages is partially missing (the page beginning with Amber Pie), perhaps he has the same page. Fun topic to research.

[Yrthwrym]

I hope Glen writes a cookbook book at some point, he's compiled so much history on different kinds of cook books I would love to read more.

[tjeanvlogs]

I know this as campfire cake. You premix the dry ingredients at home. We used egg, yoghurt and water for the wet, and trail mix for the nut meats (the written recipe called for sour milk and nut meats). Whip it up in a cast iron dutch oven and bake in the coals. Eat half hot just before bed and the left overs (or make two) with coffee while making breakfast.
Only pull a mugs worth of dry mix for the crumb top, not half.
Can make griddle cakes out of the same mix.
This is a pac NW back country staple, that every old school mountaineer knew. You can sub in rehydrated applesauce and dried milk for the wet ingredients if actually backpacking.

[SethWistful]

German Kansan here - growing up, my grandma (from Salina) would always use a loaf pan (9 and 1/2 by 5) for a similar kind of coffee cake type recipe. Shed serve a slice on a tea saucer with butter with coffee after Sunday mass with coffee

[amme]

Mrs FM Fagan then became Mrs Lillian Grimmett Davis when Mr Fagan died. Lillian lived from 1910 till 2nd Dac 2000. She was succeeded by daughters Patrica and Alice and step children. She lived for 90 years.

[exit]

As has been noted a few times, "oh no you saved too much crumble topping."

Which is another reminder of something Glen tells us on the regular. IT WILL BE FINE.

[aprilfool]

The recipe calls for saving out 1/2 CUP of the crumble mixture NOT 1/2 of the crumble mixture for the topping. I imagine that is one reason why your cake was so moist. Thanks for sharing what looks like a nice and simple cake recipe!

[TheDriftwoodlover]

I knew immediately pecans would be involved, and I support that wholeheartedly. Love that nutmeg is part of the recipe, so will be making it. Thanks Glen, Mrs. Fagan and especially the viewer who sent it in!

[MassiveDynamic]

I agree Glen, you can never have too much crumble or too moist a cake.

[ninagordon]

This sounds so much like the Cowboy Coffee Cake in the Better Homes and Gardens New cookbook from 1976, just looked it up, almost identical except baked at 375 in two 8” round cake pans.

[silkelillig]

Hello, here in Germany we use loaf cake pans for marble cake for example. It is not straight like a pan for bread but the bottom side is slightly smaller, so that the side looks more like a trapozoid not a square. So you can either leave the cake bottom up or have more space for toppings to put on.

[marycast]

I knew this from the old Cowboy Coffee cake from Better Homes and Gardens. I took have the 1976 edition but it is in my mom’s 1952 edition too. Yum!

[PeteO-vy]

Thanks Glen! People watching will help fill in gaps.

[ruthadams]

I love your Old Cookbook Show.
I have been making a cake from a1941 cookbook that my aunt used to make. I did notice that there were no cake pan sizes. I cooked it in 2 cake pans just as my aunt did. It came out great but did have to keep an eye on it since it did cook faster than suggested

[Look_Over_There]

That cookbook looks like it has a recipe for summoning the undead on the page next to the recipe for coffee cake 😂

[Kinkajou]

I love how Julie pensively asked if there was Cowboy Candy in it. Honestly, that's probably not a bad idea Jules, especially if wanting to change things up, add maybe a tablespoon of the Cowboy candy liquid to the buttermilk mix and maybe a tablespoon or two of minced cowboy candy. Maybe mix in a little bit of home made bacon bits as well... Who said cake had to be all sweet.

[wiltchamberlain]

Julie saying what all of us were thinking as she wonders, “does this have cowboy candy in it?”
Glen going to turn this into a cowboy foods channel (and by that, I mean everything will either be called “Cowboy (Something)” and/or have cowboy candy (or a byproduct of) in it).

This reminds me of the cinnamon crumble coffee cake video that came out a couple months ago. I made that and it was delicious. I wonder how this one stacks up to it.

[lauraslittlelife]

This looks so tasty; I love this type of really simple cake with a crumble topping!

Some thoughts on the cake pan conundrum: Perhaps your first guess was correct and this cake really was originally meant to be baked in a loaf tin? Here’s my thinking: Here in Germany, it’s very common for plain cakes like this to be baked in loaf tins — we call them "Kastenformen" (literally "box tin" or "chest tin"). You mentioned that many of the recipes in this book are from the Midwest, and if I’m not mistaken, the Midwest was historically one of the regions with the largest German immigrant communities. So, I wonder if using a loaf pan could be a nod to that heritage and tradition?

[clairewright]

Love watching you cook from very old books, so very informative and I love reading the comments and the lovely people researching and adding their family history. Just adds more flavour.