Daily Calendar Recipes History Specialty Foods admin 5 years agoNovember 27, 2021

March 19th, 1912 Scotch Cakes made with Duff’s Molasses

Avondale Pennsylvania 1912

March 19th 1912

Scotch Cakes

1 pt. Duffs molasses (small can)

1 lb. gran. Sugar

1 lb. flour

6 oz. butter

½ tsp. baking soda

25cents grated coconut

Bring molasses to boil, add soda then take from stove and pour over sugar and butter which has been creamed, add coconut and flour. Chill and drop by spoonsful on a buttered and floured baking sheet, use only flour afterwards. Be sure to use butter to grease with. Let stand before removing from pan, use spatula.

Cake Mix: Redefining Baking in America

Info on cake mixes in US, Duffs molasses created them!

P. Duff and Sons created the first cake mix in the early 1930’s when he needed to do sommething with an excess of dehydrated molasses powder. He created a gingerbread cake mix using the same techniques as the Pearl Milling company in their advertising of the “Aunt Jemimia’s” pancake mix, that just adds water. Cake mix in a can!

By 1933 there were many different flavors of mix and he received a patent for them. The flavor was not quite right and it was found that housewives adding fresh eggs to the mix instead of the powdered eggs included in the origional mix made the flavor much better and people prefered them. In 1935 he received a second patent for the improved cake mix.

After World War II, cake mix brand names numbered over 200, including the ones we still know today such as Pillbury and Swans-Down.

By the 1950’s pre-packaged icing was created to add to the convenience of cake mixes, making the homemaker’s life easier, and thus selling more mixes.