Jerry's Birthday Cake

Claire Dineen Fitzsimmons via Betty Fitzsimmons Seymore

My mother – Claire Dineen Fitzsimmons – always made this cake for my brother Jerry’s birthday… July 4th!

  • 1 cup butter
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 2 squares Baker’s Chocolate, melted
  • 1 ½ cups buttermilk
  • 2 tsp. soda
  • 2 ½ cups flour
  • 1 tsp. vanilla

Cream butter and sugar, beat eggs in one at a time. Add melted chocolate. Put soda in buttermilk and add alternately with flour until well mixed. Add vanilla. Bake at 300 degrees for 35 minutes in 9″ round pans. Frost with chocolate icing or whipped cream.

by Tim Dineen

A New Spin on an Old Recipe

Victor got a recipe for an Apple Cake years ago.  It's really, really good.  Today, however, we were home - without apples - and Victor wanted to make a cake.  What we did have was a lot of dried fruit we had bought for our train trip home.

Apple Cake became Dried Fruit Cake.

Here's the original recipe and Victor's tweaks, after:

Apple Cake

  • 3 cups flour
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1 cup oil
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • 4 tsp sugar
  • 1/2 cup orange juice
  • 4 eggs
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 3 tsp baking powder
  • 5 large apples

Preheat oven to 350°.  Peel and cut apples into small chunks.  Add 4 tsp sugar and 2 tsp cinnamon and stir together.

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and set aside.

Beat together eggs, OJ & vanilla.  Add oil, mix in flour mixture.

In a well-greased tube pan, pour alternate layers of batter and apples.  Sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on top.

Bake at 350° for 1 1/2 hours or until cake tests done.

Cool before slicing.

Dried Fruit Cake

  • 3 cups flour
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1 cup oil
  • 1/2 cup orange juice
  • 4 eggs
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 3 tsp baking powder
  • 2 cups chopped dried fruit (an assortment of pears, pineapple, apricots, dates, cherries, and peaches)

Preheat oven to 350°.  Peel and cut apples into small chunks.  Add 4 tsp sugar and 2 tsp cinnamon and stir together.

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and set aside.

Beat together eggs, OJ & vanilla.  Add oil, mix in flour mixture.  Dust fruit with flour and stir into batter.

Pour batter into a well-greased tube pan.  Top with pecans and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.

Bake at 350° for 1 1/2 hours or until cake tests done.

Cool before slicing.

It smells divine!

As soon as we finish our soup.....

by Tim Dineen

Pumpkin Cake

It just dawned on me that I came up with this recipe six years ago!  Jon and Ken were transferring to Wilmington to open a new store there and I made this as their going away cake - because Jon really liked the pumpkin butter.

It's still really good all these years later.  While I made a sheet cake back then, I usually make it in a tube pan - we have a great square tube pan that makes a perfect cake every time - or as a layer cake.

This time around I frosted it with just cream cheese whipped with a bit of pumpkin butter.  Yum.

Pumpkin Cake:

  • 2 1/4 cups cake flour
  • 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 2 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
  • 3/4 cup Pumpkin Butter
  • 1/3 cup vanilla yogurt
  • 1/3 cup honey
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 1 1/4 cups sugar
  • 3 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350F. Line half-sheet pan or 2 9" pans with parchment paper. Butter and flour. Sift  flour and next 5 ingredients into medium bowl. Whisk pumpkin, yogurt, honey and vanilla in small bowl to blend. Using mixer, beat butter in large bowl until fluffy. Gradually beat in sugar. Beat in eggs 1 at a time. Mix dry ingredients into butter mixture alternately with pumpkin mixture.

Spread batter evenly in prepared pan(s). Bake about 30 minutes or up to 45 minutes if using tube pan. Cool in pan on rack.

Yum.

by Tim Dineen