Jan's Favorite Recipes

Use two nine inch cake pans. Line cake pans with rounds of waxed paper cut to fit bottoms. You need not grease them. Measure out nut-meats and raisins and set aside. Have butter or margarine out of refrigerator 15 to 30 minutes to soften a bit for best blending. In bowl of electric mixer combine butter or margarine, sugar, egg yolks and vanilla. (put whites in another bowl and set aside.) Start oven preheating. Start mixer on low speed, then increase speed and beat until mixture is very light and creamy, five minutes or more. Meanwhile, sift flour once; measure and sift with soda, salt and spices. Add jam to creamed ingredients beating enough to blend it in smoothly. Add sifted dry ingredients alternately with buttermilk, beating at slow speed and just enough to mix smooth after each addition. Add food coloring. Wash beaters in hot soapsuds; rinse thoroughly so no traces of grease remain to prevent egg whites from beating up. Add cream of tartar to egg whites and beat at high speed until they will hold stiff peaks but are not dry. Remove beaters and, with a spoon, gently fold meringue into cake mixture, then add raisins and nuts and with only a few folding motions distribute them through the batter. Divide batter between the two cake pans. Bake at 375° for about 35 minutes, or until cake begins to break from sides of pan and cake tester stuck in center of a layer comes out clean. Cool in pans on cake racks 10 minutes (set your time for this so you don't forget), then turn out on cake racks. Peel waxed paper liner from EACH the minute you turn it out of the pan, if you wait it will stick. Cool layer completely then frost.