Gypsy Round Layer Cake
Gypsy Round Layer Cake
by Octavia Fleck
"Watching my mother grow older has made me aware of the importance of passing on family traditions. This recipe, a part of all our family celebrations, is from my grandmother Ann."
Recipe
Cake:
- 3/4 cup solid vegetable shortening
- 1 and 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 3 eggs, beaten
- 2 cups cake flour
- 1/2 teaspoon each: baking powder, baking soda and salt
- 3/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon lemon extract
- 1/2 cup chopped nuts
Mocha icing:
- 6 tablespoons butter, softened
- 1 egg yolk
- 3 cups confectioners' sugar
- 1 and 1/2 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 and 1/2 tablespoons hot coffee
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 8-inch round cake pans. Cream shortening with granulated sugar and beat until fluffy. Blend in eggs. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon and cocoa. Add to creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk. Stir in extracts and nuts. Pour into prepared pans, and bake for 30 minutes or until the center is set. Set aside to cool. To prepare icing, cream together butter, egg yolk, confectioners' sugar, cocoa, cinnamon and coffee until smooth and fluffy. Add another tablespoon of coffee or more sugar if needed to improve the texture. Frost top of each layer of cake when cooled, and then assemble. Store in refrigerator.
Tips From Our Test Kitchen: Double the icing recipe if you want to frost the sides as well as the top and middle of the cake.
first appeared: 4/30/2006
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12/20/07 8:12 PM
This recipe has a tradition in my family also and it has been my birthday cake of choice for years. Our story is that my Grandmother Rindt copied the recipe from where it had been offered in a contest to name it. The recipe has to be more than 60 years old. We never knew what name was selected as the contest winner so we've always called it the
Quote:
Nameless Cake
.
Our recipe calls for 2 cups of all-purpose flour instead of 1 3/4 cup of cake flour and we've always placed sliced bananas between the layers. All the other measurements and ingredients are the same as those of the
Quote:
Gypsy Round Cake
that you printed.
11/9/08 12:19 AM
My grandmother first made this cake on August 8, 1938. Her family loved it so much that she finally made a rule that you couldn't have one on your birthday until you turned 16. She died at age 98, and I have been making them now for 40 years. My 20 year old daughter made me one for my birthday last year, so the tradition lives on. Note our spelling of the cake's name
2/25/09 6:35 PM
My dad who was born in 1929 has this cake for his birthday for as long as he can remember. His mom made it for years, then my mom made it for many years and now I am making it for him. Next week we will celebrate his 80th birthday and we will make it for him again. The only difference is that our recipe calls for Black Walnuts which are getting harder to find.
2/25/09 11:21 PM
I am glad my family tradition does not include bananas, since I really don't like them.
And we have always used English walnuts, which taste just fine
Peggy
2/25/09 11:41 PM
I'm sure that each type of walnut lends it's own unique flavor to the cake and we each enjoy the taste we're used to. Some people in my family don't care for bananas either but I really like them in this cake. It would be really neat to hear from somebody who knew the history of the contest my Grandmother said this cake was an entry for. It would be even better if that someone was one whose Grandmother, perhaps, was the contestant who named the cake.
I'm curious too about drkicks' spelling of the cake's name because, although she mentions to note it, it doesn't appear in her comment.
2/26/09 10:57 AM
I am sorry = I didn't realize the subject didn't appear as I wrote it. In our family, it was the gypsy roundelayer cake. I always heard it was the Pillsbury bakeoff, but couldn't check it out because their on-line recipes don't go back to 1938. I did make one last September to celebrate the 70th anniversary of gypsy roundelayer in our family (a month late, but we all got together Sept 2 to celebrate Dad's 82nd)
Peggy
10/13/09 4:39 PM
My grandma made this cake for everyone's birthday and we've continued the tradition in our family to this day. (In fact, a good friend just requested this recipe for her wedding cake.) My understanding from my grandmother is that the recipe was part of a contest and was printed on a flour package as "Nameless Cake". You were supposed to make the cake and submit a name. Years later the recipe appeared in the first Betty Crocker cookbook as Araby Spice Cake. I've seen slight variations in searching both "Nameless Cake" and "Araby Spice Cake" on the web, but the basic recipe remains the same (most differences are the use of all purpose flour vs. cake flour and the amount of lemon flavoring used).
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