Most of my cooking skills came to me from Aunt Emma. This woman lived in the mountains of Frederick, Maryland and was the sister of my foster father John Fitez. For the life of me I can't remember Aunt Emma's married name but life on her farm was a hard one. I was there to visit with the understanding I would work. Summer months were full of duties in the cow barn, kitchen garden and of course making meals for the workers of the farm. Each of the workers had been there for years and everyone was treated the same and ate all meals in the old kitchen. As a small girl of 8 and from the city, I didn't like it there nor did I totally understand until years later.

     Later in life I finally got the picture of what this woman was teaching me and it wasn't just cooking. It was on this farm that I learned all of the skills of survival especially in the household and how to run one.  There were a few times a week that breakfast included a coffee cake. She would start her bacon or sausage on the old wood stove and then bring out the three mixing bowls. At first, I was to watch and see how this was done as I sat atop a large wooden step ladder about 3 foot tall. I fit! :)

     She would say, " Now cookie, you get the big tankard out and put two gills of four in the first crock (bowl).  A gill was a measurment that was a crockery mug and equals about 2 cups and while I was busy trying to make a mess she would wash all of the fruit that was going into this coffee cake. Sometimes it was strawberries or peaches or apples etc. It depended on what was in season and ripe.  She'd chop all of it up into cubes about a half of an inch and then sprinkled 2 Tablespoons of sugar over it and then set it aside.

     It was also my job to coat the 9x9 square pan with Lard! Yes Lard, yuck and then flour it so the cake didn't stick. I could never understand why she worried about it sticking when she put the cake on the table and everyone dug it out!

     Here is the way it goes.  Coffee Cake

     About a cup of fresh or frozen fruit, any kind.

1/2 cup of sugar

2 cups of flour

2 teaspoons of baking POWDER

1.2 teasp salt

1/3 cup of cold butter  Butter is best, it's workable with the fingers, but oil is fine too.

1 egg, lightly beaten

2/3 cup milk

     She used lemon peel but I choose to use almond extract. Lemon peel is about 1 teaspoon finely grated. order in which to do this is:

First: Rinse fruit in cold water, drain and chop up. Sprinkle tablespoons of the sugar measured out and lightly toss, set aside. Right after that prepare the cooking pan with butter and flour so it won't stick.

Second:In a medium bowl, mix remaining sugar, the flour, baking powder and salt. Use your CLEAN fingers, smash in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Make a deep hole in the center of it.

Third: In a small bowl, combine egg, milk and extract or lemon peel ( Your flavoring) and stir up. Pour it all in the flour mix at once and stir it up with a fork. It's going to be thick and lumpy, but that's ok. You want it that way.

Forth: Next sorta fold in and gently push around the fruit mixture. Stir just enough to make it mix. It will be thick and lumpy. Spoon it into the prepared pan. Push it around so it goes to the edges. Use the juice too.

Fifth: The topping is next: In the 3rd bowl, mix 1/4 cup flour, 2 Tablespoons brown sugar and 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon. With your fingers smash in 2 Tablespoons of cold butter. Keep moving it around and smashing until you get a crumble. This part can only be done nicely with your hands so get into it until you get the consistancy you want for the topping.

Sixth: Sprinkle it over the cake but leave a few gaps here and there so the cake can bake up through it.

     It goes in a 400 degree pre-heated oven for about25 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out clean when shoved into the center. Here on the mountain it took 30 minutes because of the altitude. HINT HERE!  This is a HOT oven so use a metal pan to bake and not a glass one that might explode. It is a rule of thumb to drop the temp of the oven 25 degrees when using glass but, if you do that with this coffee cake it won't come out right.

     The way Aunt Emma cooked this cake was on a wood cook stove that had an oven but how she calculated the temperature is beyond me. She just knew but I tried it on a wood stove here. I put the cake on a trivit and then in a Cast Aluminum turkey pot with a lid. Then a trivit about 1/2 inch off the wood stove top and set the turkey pot on it. The fire has to be hot so make sure it is and watch the cake. Check on it every 10 min or so. It will actuall brown the top too but at first looks like it isn't cooking, just keep poking the tooth pick in the center for a test. You just never know when the elec will go out or you run out of gas for your stove. :) Now that.... is pioneer cooking! :)