Last month our Writers Guild had a party with a "American History" theme. We brought various traditional dishes to carry out the theme. Angela Erlich owns a 1939 Watkins Cookbook, a collector item! She took a chocolate cake recipe from it for the party. It was rich and delicious, quite a hit, especially when folks heard the ingredients of the cake.

Mashed Potato Cake

(Original Watkins Cookbook recipe)


1/2 cup butter
2 cups sugar
4 eggs, separated
1/2 cup Watkins cocoa
1/2 teaspoon Watkins cinnamon
1 teaspoon Watkins vanilla
1/8 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup milk
2 cups sifted flour
3 teaspoons Watkins baking powder
1 cup hot mashed potatoes
1 cup broken nut meats
 
1. Cream butter, beat in sugar.
2. Add beaten egg yolks, Watkins vanilla, mashed potatoes, Watkins cocoa.
3. Add sifted dry ingredients alternately with milk, then add nuts.
4. Fold in stiffly beaten egg whites.
Bake in a buttered flat cake pan about 50 minutes in a 350 degree F. oven.
Use Watkins fudge frosting.


Angela's Modifications: 
   
You probably would also like to know the slight differences between what I did and the recipe. I used margarine instead of butter. I couldn't find regular cocoa when I was at the store, so I used 25% reduced sugar Nesquik chocolate powder instead. Because it already had some sugar in it, I reduced the sugar amount in the recipe by one cup. For the broken nut meats: I used walnuts, slivered almonds, and broken cashews. 

Also, I used the Jell-O Fudge Sugar Free Instant Pudding mixed with 2 cups of milk and a package of Dream Whip (for the icing).