I’d recently began looking through an old cookbook that I found when I was cleaning out my grandmother’s house. It is the Antrim Bicentennial Cookbook made by Antrim community members in 1977 to commemorate our town. It has been really interesting to see these family recipes, many of them from people I know. My grandmother had a recipe in this book (which was a total surprise to find!), as well as our former neighbor Ellie. While most of these recipes are a little dated (a LOT of lard, Hawaiian/pineapple themed sweets and whatever Oleo is…and also jello everything, Yuck!), there are SO many good family recipes in here that I couldn’t resist trying! I’ve updated the few that I’ve made so far and this Marmalade Cake has been the favorite so far.
This recipe is based on the recipe by Miriam Roberts. I personally don’t know her, but perhaps my relatives or someone else reading the blog will (If so, please don’t hesitate to comment! I’d love to hear more!).
This cake recipe combines the awesome cake part of a coffee cake and a gooey orange glaze. I’m really digging citrus right now, maybe because it’s the only fruit in season, but also because it is so darn good. I’ve never had more grapefruit/oranges/clementines in my life!
I’ve really enjoyed repurposing some of these older recipes that I’ve found in the Bicentennial Cookbook and I’m thinking of creating a series where I update them, bring them into modern times. But we’ll see. I have a lot on my plate (no pun intended haha) and revamping these takes a lot longer than I’ve anticipated! But who knows, maybe it’s the beginnings of a new tab on the site or a book!

Marmalade Cake
Ingredients
- 2/3 Cup Sugar
- 1/4 Cup Shortening
- 1 Egg
- 1/2 Cup Milk
- 1 1/2 Flour
- 2 Tsp Baking Powder
- 1/2 Tsp Salt
- 1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
- 2 Tbsp Softened Butter
- 1/2 Cup Flour
- 2 Tbsp Cream
- 1/2 Cup Marmalade
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375.
- Mix together sugar, shortening and egg with a blender. Stir in Milk and set aside. In a separate bowl, combine flower, baking powder and salt. Slowly add the dry mixture to the wet and stir until just combined.
- Pour batter into a 9" greased pan and spread evenly. Set aside.
- In a small mixing bowl. combine brown sugar, butter, flour, cream and marmalade. If mixture is too wet, feel free to use more flour. Butter should be blended with other ingredients until pea sized.
- Spread marmalade mixture over the dough (it will sink into it as it cooks)
- Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a knife comes out clean. Let cool, the enjoy!
Sounds like a great twist for a coffee cake!