Amish Cowboy Cake

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I'm left scratching my head at why this recipe is called "cowboy cake."  The recipe comes to me from an Old Order Mennonite settlement in Missouri and is apparently very popular there.  But the Mennonite woman who gave it to me never did explain how it got its name.  

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• 🎂 Amish Cowboy Cake Ingredients
• 📋 Instructions
• 🎂 More Amish Cake Recipes
• 🖨️ Full Recipe

If you flip through any Amish cookbook you will see all sorts of interesting recipe names.  And, often, their origin is lost to history.

This recipe is called “cowboy cake “but I’m not sure why. It does come to us from Missouri. It’s very popular there. But the woman who gave it to me wasn’t sure how it got its name.

I will say, however, that there has been a long-running fascination among the Amish with cowboys, the open range, the great plains, and rodeos.

There have been a number of Amish men over the years who have headed west to try their hand at cattle ranching. In fact, the Amish communities that have taken root in Montana are often because of some of those more adventuresome wayward Amish men who wanted to try their hand out west. So, perhaps this recipe is just a holdover from those days.

Some Amish teenage boys and young men actually work as ranch hands in the Saint Ignatius, Montana Amish community. Man, I will never forget driving with my wife along a rural road in Montana and just seeing this thundering herd of Holsteins coming towards us, they took up the entire road, there was nowhere for us to go, so I just put the car in park and the cows swarmed around the car and they disappeared as fast as they could. But they really shook the car as they went by.

So, let's get back to this recipe.  We made this cake and it is so delicious, simple, and the texture is just perfect.

Very basic ingredients: brown sugar, flour, buttermilk, and a few other ingredients are the foundation of this recipe.

The brown sugar makes a superb texture with the flour and buttermilk. You make this in a square or a round pan, lightly greased. Don't overbake. Delicious with a glass of milk or cup of coffee.

🎂 Amish Cowboy Cake Ingredients

• 2 cups brown sugar
• 2 cups unsifted flour
• 1 /2 shortening
• 1 cup sour milk or buttermilk
• 1 /2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teapsoon soda
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 egg

📋 Instructions

1. Mix first three ingredients to crumb consistency.
2. Take out 3 /4 cup crumbs and then add rest of ingredients.  
3. When mixed well, pour into greased pan and sprinkle with ¾ remaining crumbs.
4.  Bake in moderate oven until done.

🎂 More Amish Cake Recipes

Pineapple Cake

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Whole Wheat Chocolate Cake With Delicious Frosting

🖨️ Full Recipe