• Spanish Bar Cake from a Mix- A trip down A &P memory lane

Name: • Spanish Bar Cake from a Mix- A trip down A &P memory lane
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 40 min
Cuisine: Spanish, European, Mediterranean
Ingredients: • 1 box Duncan Hines Spice Cake Mix-; • 1 cup water; • ½ C. Raisins; • 3 large eggs; • 1/3 C. Vegetable Oil; • 1/4 C. Dark Molasses; • 1 Tbsp. Ginger paste; • 2 tsp. Dark Cocoa Powder; Optional: add 1/4 C. Chopped Pecans or Walnuts to batter, when adding raisins.; Optional: Use A Vanilla Cream OR Cream Cheese Icing recipe of choice, to frost only the top of the loaf.

17 steps

Prep:15minCook:25min

For any of us who grew up in the 50s to early 70s, no memory of A & P Grocery Stores is complete, without remembering their famous Spanish Bar Cake. After finding a few recipes, I decided to try to start with a mix. I also felt all of the pictures were lighter than I remembered. I also remember a gingery taste. Therefore, I added dark molasses and ginger paste to the mixture. Try it and see how close you think I got to the original.

Updated at: Thu, 17 Aug 2023 08:49:22 GMT

Nutrition balance score

Unbalanced

Glycemic Index

Moderate

Glycemic Load

High

Nutrition per serving

Calories259.4 kcal (13%)

Total Fat9.7 g (14%)

Carbs40.5 g (16%)

Sugars21.3 g (24%)

Protein2.9 g (6%)

Sodium309.4 mg (15%)

Fiber2.2 g (8%)

% Daily Values based on a 2,000 calorie diet

Ingredients

12 servings

1 boxSpice Cake Mix

1 cupwater

0.5 CRaisins

3eggs

large

0.33 CVegetable Oil

0.25 CDark Molasses

1 TbspGinger paste

2 tspDark Cocoa Powder

0.25 CPecans

Chopped, or Walnuts, to batter, when adding raisins

Vanilla Cream

OR Cream Cheese Icing recipe of choice, to frost only the top of the loaf

Instructions

Step 1

1. Preheat oven to 350° F.

Step 2

2. Place raisins in cup of water and microwave for 2 mins., stir, then microwave another 2 minutes.

Step 3

3. Grease and flour a 9x13” loaf pan

Step 4

4. Put cake mix into mixer, and crack and add 3 eggs. Best on slow until blended.

Step 5

5. Add molasses, cocoa powder, and ginger paste to mixture. Blend.

Step 6

6. Pour water from raisins into a measuring cup . Add vegetable oil to water, and blend in mixer, slowly (it will splatter otherwise. )

Step 7

7. Fold the plumped raisins into the batter, by hand, until scattered throughout.

Step 8

8. Pour batter into the prepared loaf pan.

Step 9

9. Put in oven.

Step 10

10. At 25 minutes, check the loaf with cake tester(skewer, piece of dry spaghetti works great!)

Step 11

11. Make certain it comes out done Mine usually feels a like jiggly and you can see that the center is not done. Continue to bake until done. My oven baked it perfectly at 30 minutes. The consistency should be somewhat like a banana bread.

Step 12

12. Cool in pan, on a rack.

Step 13

13. When cool, you may release the cake from the pan.

Step 14

Icing:

Step 15

Traditionally, the old A& P used to put a thick vanilla cream frosting on the top of the bar cake. Instead, used a can of Cream Cheese Prepared Frosting, because I find the traditional frosting to be too sweet.

Step 16

Optional; use ¼ C. chopped walnuts or pecans, and add to the batter.

Step 17

IMPORTANT- Don’t over bake . The molasses will have a “treacle” taste because the molasses will begin to caramelize.