Tasty Molasses Cake Recipe from the Kitchen House

A few weeks ago I read The Kitchen House: A Novel by Kathleen Grissom.  The novel is set on a large plantation decades before the Civil War in Virginia.  It has a unique view following Lavinia, a young Irish orphan girl as she moves from the kitchen house to the big house.  Amazon describes it as a "heartbreaking and ultimately hopeful story of class, race, dignity, deep-buried secrets, and familial bonds."

This book was difficult to put down and when I finally finished I wasn't ready for it to end so I went on to read the author interview and then study group questions in the back of the book.  In the author interview this Molasses Cake recipe was introduced.  The recipe (created by the author) was a modern adaption of a cake that would have been made in the pre Civil War time.  The minute I saw it I had to have it.  So....that very afternoon I baked this cake!  

My kids were confused as to why it looked like chocolate but tasted quite different, ha!  I am a huge fan of molasses cookies but still found this cake to be a bit lacking on its own.  I whipped up a quick and easy cream cheese frosting to make it even better (just cream cheese and cane sugar blended).

It was quite tasty, especially alongside a cup of Trader Joe's Pumpkin Spice coffee.  Ahhhhh, bring on fall already!! (Still in the 90's -100's here in Phoenix this week, boo!)  So get the Kitchen House on your kindle and whip up some cake.  Let me know what you think!

Tasty Molasses Cake

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1 cup molasses
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
2 dashes ground cloves
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease an 8 inch square baking pan.  In a large bowl cream the butter and sugar.  Beat in the egg.  In a separate bowl combine the milk and the molasses.  In another bowl combine the flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves and salt.  Add each of these alternately to the butter mixture, beating well between additions.  Bake for approximately 45 min or until a toothpick comes out clean.