Westward Expansion Era Chocolate Potato Spice Cake

I had to re-name this cake for the sake of Google search hits. There's a blogger, maybe you know her, who has a rather popular chocolate cake recipe. Her name is like that Cather book, "O________s" Now, I would feel awful if people looking for her cake came here and found this one, so to avoid confusion, I took the "P" word out and went for Westward Expansion. OK? Get it?

Not that this cake isn't worth finding, because it is just swell. I had to improvise a filling and frosting as the recipe did not offer either, but I think what came together was rather nice. I still can't decorate a cake for shit, but icing a cake in the back of a Conestoga wagon is harder than it looks, and the boning in my corset is making me irritable. I have my doubts about the authenticity of this recipe based on some of the ingredients (and cost) but it was still fun to make.


For The Cake:

3/4 cup butter
2 cups sugar
4 eggs, separated
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons buttermilk
1 cup cold mashed potatoes
1 teaspoon vanilla


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour 2 8 inch pans (the recipe called for square, but I own round).

Cream the butter and sugar until light. Beat in the eggs one at a time beating well after each addition. Sift together the dry ingredients. Mix the potatoes into the buttermilk. Add the vanilla to the buttermilk. Add the flour and milk alternating begining and ending with the dry ingredients. Do not over-beat.

Beat the egg whites until stiff but not dry. Fold into batter. Pour into prepared pans and bake 45 minutes or until cakes test done. Cool 10 minutes in pan, then on racks.

For the filling:

1 1/2 cups raisins
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup sugar

Mix well over medium heat and cook until mixture thickens. Cool completely before using.

The frosting is just a cooked white frosting with a generous flavouring of vanilla.