(Helen) Jean's Coffee Cake With Mandarin Sauce

We will probably never know who Jean is as it was from a piece out of the newspaper, but Helen must have really liked this coffee cake as it was in her cook book in an easily accessible place. I have a similar recipe, and one can find very similar recipes in most cook books simply called "Sour Cream Coffee Cake". The recipes may vary some in amounts of ingredients, but basically they are all the same, all delicious, and all worth making often! My family loves a variation of this recipe which I've been baking for many years.

(Helen) Jean's Coffee Cake With Mandarin Sauce

1/2 cup butter*
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups sifted flour
1 tsp. baking osda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 pint sour cream*
2 tsp. vanilla
1/3 cup sugar
1 Tbls. cinnamon
1/2 cup toasted walnuts

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs; beat well. Sift flour, baking powder, soda, and salt. Add to creamed mixture alternately with sour cream, beating well. Add vanilla. in separate bowl, add 1/3 cup sugar, cinnamon, and nuts. Pour half of batter in pan*; sprinkle half of topping mixture over batter, add batter, then topping. Bake at 350 degrees 35-40 minutes, or till tests done. When cool, remove sides of pan. Serve Mandarin Sauce over slices of cake.
*Make sure the butter is room temperature.
*Half pint is 8 ounces
*Make sure your pans are well-greased even though it is not designated on the recipe.

Helen's Mandarin Sauce

3-4 Tbls. sugar
1/8 tsp. salt
2 Tbls. cornstarch
2 1/2 cups orange juice
1/4 tsp. almond extract
1 Tbls. butter
2 cans (11 oz. each) Mandarin Oranges, drained

Combine sugar, salt, and cornstarch in pan. stir in orange juice and mix till smooth. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly till thickened and smooth. add extract and butter; blend well. Let cool 10 minutes; fold in oranges. Serve over slices of coffee cake.
*I think this is a recipe of Helen's as it is not marked whcih means it was not from the same paper as the recipe above.

Helen's General Foods Butterscotch Pecan Cake

This recipe is from General Foods, 1938, and was in an ad that Helen had cut out of a magazine and paper-clipped  in her cook book. There was a picture of the cake in color, and I found a copy of this ad on the web in an old Life magazine dated September 19, 1938. I cannot get it to post properly so if you search the recipe, minus Helen's name, the link will come up and you can see what it looks like. I wrote the recipe down verbatim as it was in the ad I found that Helen had saved.

Helen's General Foods Butterscotch Pecan Cake

2 cups sifted Swan's Down cake flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 cup butter
1 1/4 cups brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
3 squares unsweetened Baker's chocolate, melted
1 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla

Sift flour, measure, and add soda and sift three times. cream butter thoroughly; add sugar gradually and cream together till light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition; then add melted chocolate. Add flour, alterantely with milk, a small amount at a time, beating well till smooth. Add vanilla. Bake in two greased 9" round cake pans or three greased 8" pans in moderate oven* 25-30 minutes. Cool. SpreadButterscotch Fudge Frosting between layers and on tops and sides. Double recipe for three 10" layers. *350 degrees is a moderate oven

Butterscotch Fudge Frosting

2 cups light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup butter
1 1/4 cups sugar
3/4 cup top milk*
1/2 cup water

Add 2 cups firmly packed brown sugar to 1/2 cup butter and cok over low flame, stirring constantly, until mixture darkens slightly (5-6 minutes). Remove from fire and add 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar, 3/4 cup top milk*, and 1/2 cup water. Return to fire and cook to 232 degrees, without stirring, or until small amount of mixture forms a very soft ball in cold water. Remove from fire. Cool to lukewarm (110 degrees), then beat until of right consistency to spread. If necessary, place over hot water to keep soft while spreading. Makes enough frosting to vover tops and sides of two 9" layers. Double for three 10" layers.
If desired, add 1/2 cup chopped pecans to part of the frosting and use as filling. Spread remaining frosting on tops and sides of cake and decorate top with pecan halves.
*Top milk is milk that rises to the top with the cream with fresh milk. You may want to use half and half in this recipe for a richer cake unless you are lucky enough to have your own fresh milk supply.