A friend called from Chicago over the weekend. He’d been traveling and needed to restock his kitchen from his long time away.
“I’d seen the pictures,” he said. “But I wasn’t prepared for the reality. No paper products of any kind. No cleaning supplies. No canned goods. No frozen foods. No bread. No pasta, rice or beans. Virtually no meat or dairy. Limited fresh produce. I couldn’t believe it.”
I haven’t been to the grocery stores in weeks, preferring to self-isolate as much as possible, and have had my groceries delivered – which I recognize is a luxury that many people can’t afford.
Even with delivery, I’ve been unable to obtain many pantry staples. A recent order that totaled $150 cost a mere $40 by the time it was delivered: Most of the items on my list were out of stock, even allowing for substitutions.
But the shocking stories of stores nearly emptied of all food resonate with me. We aren’t familiar with the total lack of availability of food in this country.
We were, once. My mother’s stories of wartime rationing and my grandmother’s stories of trying to sustain a household during the Great Depression keep rattling around in my head. Clever cooks are adaptable, but for 21st-century cooks, some mental rearranging may be needed.
We’ve grown used to shopping for the ingredients for our favorite dishes, sometimes for just one or two meals at a time. Now, instead, we need to inventory what’s on hand and figure out how that can be used to make a meal. We may need to shift into shopping once a week, if that. That can be a challenge if you’re used to making your mind up about dinner in mid-afternoon, then cooking solely by the recipe before you.
So let’s work together to shift into a more adaptable mindset. Like my mother and grandmother before me, I know I can work with these challenges to still care for myself and others. I’m betting you can, too.
Today I’m offering you a simple, satisfying cake – good for snacks as well as dessert – because hard times require some semblance of normalcy, and I’ll take mine where I can get it.
The cake is based on M.F.K. Fisher’s War Cake, published in the depths of World War II, when eggs, milk and butter were rationed. It uses none of those. It presumes that you have some kind of dried fruit on hand, but if you don’t have any, you can omit it with little effect. If you have nuts on hand, you may add up to a cup of chopped nuts when you stir the batter together. Every time you make this cake, its flavor will vary slightly. But it will always satisfy and always please you and those you’re feeding.
The idea of using bacon grease in a cake may seem repugnant. I can tell you from first-hand experience, however, that the warm spices in this cake will mask it entirely, so if that’s what you have on hand, by all means use it.
I’ve recast this recipe slightly to follow more contemporary recipe style and added my annotations for options. Note that gluten-free flours will not work in this cake, because its structure relies on the flour’s gluten. Equally, artificial sweeteners will not work in this cake because the sugar also plays a structural role.
These are scary times, when events are changing rapidly. Give yourself a little rest from all the bad news with a mid-afternoon cup of tea, a slice of this cake, and some creative activity — knitting, needlework, woodworking, whatever you know how to do.
Use that time to write a physical letter to someone far away.
Call a neighbor or friend to make sure they’re well.
Your mind needs a respite, too, as well as your body. Self-care is as important as caring for others in stressful times.
Stay well and stay inside if you can. War Cake
Adapted from “How to Cook a Wolf” by MFK Fisher
Makes 1 loaf, about 12 servings
This humble spice cake makes great use of what you have on hand, and doesn’t use perishables such as eggs and milk, which you may want to reserve for other uses. It is flavorful and moist and keeps well for up to a week.
Ingredients
2 cups flour (white or whole wheat; gluten-free flours will not work in this cake)
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
½ cup fat (Options: stick margarine, lard, shortening, coconut oil, bacon grease)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon other spices (Options: ginger, clove, nutmeg, mace, cardamom; total should come to 1 teaspoon)
1 cup raisins or other dried fruits (Options: craisins, dried blueberries, figs, dates, prunes, pineapple, mango, cherries, or no fruit at all)
1 cup sweetener (Options: brown or white sugar, agave syrup, molasses, ½ cup honey; artificial sweeteners will not work in this cake)
1 cup water (¾ cup if using honey)
Preparation
Prepare a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan by greasing well. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (325 degrees if using honey).
Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl and whisk to combine. Set aside.
Put fat, cinnamon, other spices, chopped fruit, sugar and water into a large saucepan on medium-high heat. Bring to a boil. Cook five minutes. Cool thoroughly to room temperature.
Add the dry ingredients and mix well. Bake 45 minutes or until a pick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes, then turn out loaf to cool completely before slicing. Dust with powdered sugar or a simple powdered sugar glaze if desired before serving.
