Kitchen Poetry

Graham Cake from Mrs. Owens cookbook - 1884

I was exploring the 1884 Mrs. Owens cookbook while contemporizing an Augusta cake recipe and ran across one for Graham Cake written as a poem. I have seen other recipes written as poems while doing my research and gave it a whirl. As you would expect, the cake tastes like graham crackers. You will notice the recipe calls for teacup measures, the solution to that little dilemma is within an earlier article.  Here's the poem.

Any reader of this book would like a graham cake,
I give you here a recipe which I quite often make.
First take one cup of sugar white, and butter one half cup,
Together mix, then add an egg, and lightly beat it up.
Then take one cup of pure sweet milk, and well dissolve therein
A teaspoon full of soda so its trace cannot be seen.
Then scatter in a little salt, and flavor it with spice,
A little nutmeg, if you please, or lemon peel is nice.
And then of flour you may put in three even teacups full,
And when you’ve stirred it well around, then quickly pour the whole.
Into your buttered pan, my dear, which ready stands the while,
Then, if you give it a good bake, ‘twill be so nice you’ll smile.