Upside Down Cake

Recipe No. 62 from the U.S. Army’s WWII cookbook — Cakes and Cookies. Quantities are exactly as printed, for 100 servings; a scaled-down 8-serving version is in the notes.

Ingredients

• Shortening — 1 pound (½ No. 56 dipper)
• Sugar, granulated — 2¾ pounds (1⅜ No. 56 dippers)
• Eggs — 9 eggs (½ No. 56 dipper)
• Flour, sifted — 3½ pounds (3½ No. 56 dippers)
• Baking powder — 2½ ounces (6⅔ mess kit spoons)
• Salt — ¼ ounce (½ mess kit spoon)
• Milk, evaporated — 2 — 14½-ounce cans
• Water — 1¾ pints (⅞ No. 56 dipper)
• Vanilla — ¼ ounce (½ mess kit spoon)
• Butter — 1 pound (½ No. 56 dipper)

Sugar, granulated — 1½ pounds (¾ No. 56 dipper)

• Fruit, crushed, sliced or halved, drained — 1½ quarts (1½ No. 56 dippers)
• Fruit juice or sirup — 1 pint (½ No. 56 dipper)

Directions

Key ingredients

Baking Soda & Baking Powder · Evaporated Milk

1. Stir shortening until soft and smooth.
2. Add sugar gradually; mix thoroughly.
3. Add unbeaten eggs, a few at a time, beating after each addition until well mixed; continue beating until light and fluffy. Beat thoroughly at this stage to insure a light tender cake.
4. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together twice.
5. Mix milk and water; add vanilla.
6. Add dry ingredients and milk alternately to egg and sugar mixture, first adding about ⅓ dry ingredients, then ½ milk, then another ⅓ dry ingredients and remaining milk and dry ingredients.
7. Mix thoroughly but avoid overmixing.
8. Stir butter until soft and smooth; and sugar gradually and mix well.
9. Spread butter and sugar mixture generously in shallow pans.
10. Cover with fruit and sirup or juice making ½ inch layer.
11. Pour layer of cake batter ½ inch thick over fruit. Bake in moderate oven (350° F.) 30 to 40 minutes or until done.
12. Cool slightly; loosen from sides of pans and turn out upside down on trays.

Notes

SCALED TO 8 SERVINGS (the original is ÷12.5): Shortening — 1¼ oz Sugar, granulated — 3½ oz Eggs — ¾ eggs Flour, sifted — 4½ oz Baking powder — about 1¼ tsp Salt — a pinch Milk, evaporated — ½ can (14½ oz) Water — 4½ tbsp Vanilla — a pinch Butter — 1¼ oz Sugar, granulated — 2 oz Fruit, crushed, sliced or halved, drained — 7⅔ tbsp Fruit juice or sirup — 2½ tbsp

Bake upside down cake in pans which are at least 2 inches deep.

— TM 10-412, Army Recipes (War Department, 15 August 1944), recipe No. 62, Cakes and Cookies. Army measures: 1 No. 56 dipper = 1 qt; 1 No. 55 dipper = 1¾ qt; 1 mess kit cup = 1½ pints.