Grandmother Cake

My niece Mahdieh joon, her husband Reza joon, and my niece Sahar joon are visiting for the Christmas holiday.

Mahdieh joon made a delicious sponge cake that she calls grandmother cake because her grandmother, Mother joon used to make it. She says that her mother Fali joon and her aunt Esmat joon make the cake also. They all think of Mother joon when making it.

This is an attempt to save the recipe and the story of who began the tradition in the family, as far as we know. Who knows, it may have been passed down from Mother joon’s grandmother to her! 

This is the recipe:

2 cups sifted flour 

1 tsp baking powder

I pinch of salt

1 pinch of grnd cardamon

1 pinch of ground saffron

1 cup of sugar

7 eggs, separated

2/3 cup oil

Mix dry ingredients except for sugar.

Beat egg yolks for 5 mins.

Preheat oven to 300.

Mix sugar into beaten egg yolks.

Add 2/3 cup water, milk, or orange juice and mix well for at least five minutes. You may need to adjust sugar if you use sweetened orange juice.

 

               

Add the dry ingredients and mix. 

 

Beat egg whites until loose peaks form.

Fold into the batter.

 

Pour batter into greased 9X13 inch baking dish. 

Check cake for 40 minutes and adjust time as needed. 

When cake is done, turn off oven and leave cake in oven as it cools down. 

Remove after oven cools. Best if served the day it is baked. 

So this Christmas holiday, we were fortunate to have family with us. We were fortunate to spend time in spirit with family across the globe when we learned of how Fali and Esmat still make the same cake that Mahdieh made for us. We were even able to remember family from the past when we remember how Mother joon used to make the cake. And I was even thinking about family of the future. Perhaps, years from now, my granddaughter Jooniebug will show her own grandchild how to make this cake and tell her how her great-great-great grandmother in Iran used to make this very same cake.