One Egg Cake

4 tablespoons shortening
1 cup sugar
1 egg
3/4 cup sweet milk*
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
(may use 1/2 teaspoon baking soda and 3/4 cup sour milk**)

*milk and ** buttermilk

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9 inch round or square baking pan. Cream shortening and sugar; add egg and beat well. Sift flour and baking powder. Add dry ingredients and milk alternately to shortening/sugar/egg mixture; mix until creamy and well blended. Add vanilla, mix well. Bake 55 to 60 minutes, or until well browned and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Dust with powdered sugar, or frost with your favorite frosting.

The story behind the recipe.

I grew up at with a stay-at-home mother who cooked three times a day, and I was usually under foot, watching everything she did.  She let me stir things and add ingredients from time to time.  When I was about five years old, I decided that I wanted to bake a cake all on my own.  I didn't want to ask permission, the answer might be no.  The opportunity presented itself one day when my mother was working outdoors.  I sneaked into the kitchen and got out a small, round pan and greased it.  Next, I made a batter using sugar, flour, an egg, milk, and vanilla.  I don't recall if any shortening or baking powder was involved.  I turned on the oven and placed the cake inside.  Several minutes later, my mother came back inside; and, feeling guilty, I confessed what I had done.  She looked in the oven, and the cake was brown enough.  She took it out of the oven, waited for it to cool a bit, and we ate it.  It wasn't perfect, but it was surprisingly decent, all things considered.  I wasn't in too much trouble; my mother was pretty impressed that the cake wasn't completely awful.  There was a talk about asking permission when I wanted to cook and warnings about the dangers that could befall a little girl cooking all by herself.  Many kitchen adventures followed; my mother allowed me the freedom to learn from her and to experiment on my own.  I will always be grateful to have grown up in a family that enjoyed good food.

The cake I made in my first kitchen adventure was similar to the One Egg Cake that my mother made pretty often.  The recipe came from her mother, who sold butter and eggs as a source of farm income; making a cake with only one egg freed up more eggs to sell.  It has a somewhat coarse texture and will not win the cake class at the bake show, but it is a glimpse into the past.  The original recipe has no mixing instructions - none of my family recipes for baked goods include instructions.  Anyone should know how to make cakes and cookies, right?  The instructions I added are standard cake mixing procedure.