Clara Baker's Spice Cake with Apple Cranberry Preserves
A Midwest German heritage recipe decoded: when great-grandma's ingredient list becomes Thanksgiving's new favorite dessert
A spice cake without instructions, apple preserves from the root cellar, and the warm trinity of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves – Clara Baker’s handwritten recipe card holds everything you need for an unforgettable Thanksgiving dessert.
This week’s recipe perfectly captures the partnership between my great-grandparents: Jesse’s garden abundance meeting Clara’s preserving wisdom. Found in her recipe box with only ingredients listed, this spice cake assumes the kind of kitchen knowledge we’ve lost – when every farm wife knew that equal parts cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves meant a proper Midwest German spice cake, and that a cup of preserves wasn’t just flavoring but the secret to keeping a cake moist through a long church social.
The missing instructions tell their own story. This was Clara’s workhorse cake – flexible enough for her standard 9x13 pan for everyday, dressed up in layers for company. That full cup of preserves? Sometimes swirled through the batter, sometimes spread between layers, depending on who was coming to dinner.
Sour cream appears here, a 1930s innovation for moisture that Clara adopted, showing how heritage recipes evolved with the times. She would have made her apple preserves just as I did – using windfall apples and the last cranberries shipped from Wisconsin before winter, brightened with lemon zest. The combination of tart Granny Smiths, sweet Pink Ladies, and those pops of cranberry astringency creates layers of flavor that play beautifully against the warm spices.
Clara probably dusted hers with powdered sugar, but I added cream cheese frosting. This product was actually available in her era (Philadelphia began selling in the early 1900s), though it was likely too precious for everyday farm use. Its tang echoes her sour cream, and in a layer cake, those preserved fruits shine through like jewels between the layers. In a 9x13 pan, the frosting crowns the top, making it special enough for company.
Paired with German Riesling – especially the late-harvest styles that mirror the preservation theme – this becomes a Thanksgiving dessert that bridges generations. Both the wine and the cake capture a harvest moment and make it last through winter, very much in Clara’s spirit of making everything count.
Clara Baker’s Spice Cake
My Great-Grandma Clara’s Midwest German spice cake includes a trinity of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves, creating a warm, moist crumb, enriched with tangy sour cream and fruit preserves. Each bite balances sweet and tart, especially when topped with spiced cream cheese frosting.
Serves: 12-16 | Prep: 20 minutes | Bake: 30 minutes
Equipment
Sifter
Stand mixer or hand mixer
Measuring cups & spoons
Whisk
9x13 pan or two 8-inch round pans
Offset spatula
Dry Ingredients
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp each: cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves
Wet Ingredients
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract (my addition)
3 tbsp sour cream
1 cup preserves or jam
Preparation
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease your pan(s)
Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and spices
Cream butter for 2 minutes, add brown sugar and beat 5-8 minutes until light and fluffy, scraping bowl every 2-3 minutes
In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, vanilla, sour cream, and preserves
Alternate adding dry and wet ingredients to the butter mixture, beginning and ending with dry (dry-wet-dry-wet-dry), mixing on low just until incorporated after each addition
Pour into prepared pan(s), level with offset spatula
Bake 30 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean
Cool completely before frosting or dusting with powdered sugar
Notes & Modern Adaptations
Added vanilla extract for depth
Used modern mixing method: creaming butter and sugar thoroughly, alternating wet and dry ingredients
Any preserves work - the fruit flavor is subtle, primarily adding moisture
For layer cake: spread preserves between layers for more pronounced fruit flavor and double the frosting recipe
Unfrosted, this keeps beautifully for 3-4 days, actually improving with time
Apple Cranberry Preserves
Finding preserves in Clara’s spice cake caught me by surprise - fruit hadn’t appeared in her other heritage recipes. When local stores yielded no apple or pear preserves, I took it as a sign to make my own. The sweet-tart balance of Pink Ladies with cranberries creates a perfect foil for the spice cake, especially when you’re not drawn to overly sweet desserts.
Makes 2 cups | Prep: 10 minutes | Cook: 25-30 minutes
Equipment
Chef’s knife & cutting board
Food processor (optional but helpful)
Microplane for zesting
Heavy-bottomed pot
Wooden spoon
Glass jar with lid
Ingredients
5 Pink Lady apples
1 Granny Smith apple
1/2 cup cranberries
3/4 cup sugar
1/8 cup water (plus more as needed)
1 tbsp lemon zest
1 cinnamon stick
Preparation
Peel, core, and chop apples (food processor makes quick work of this)
Add apples, cranberries, sugar, water, lemon zest, and cinnamon stick to the pot
Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer
Cook 25-30 minutes until apples are translucent and cranberries have burst
Pour into a jar; rest the lid on top without tightening until cooled
Notes & Tips
Adjust sweet-tart balance to taste: more Granny Smiths for tartness, Red Delicious for sweetness (but always balance with cranberries or citrus)
Refrigerate up to 4 weeks
Bring to room temperature before using in the cake
Spiced Cream Cheese Frosting
My cream cheese frosting, elevated with cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves, lifts these heritage flavors to celebration status. While Clara likely dusted her 9x13 pan cake with powdered sugar, this frosting transforms her everyday cake into a layer cake worthy of Sunday dinner.
Makes 2 cups | Time: 10 minutes
Equipment
Stand mixer or hand mixer
Measuring cups & spoons
Offset spatula for frosting
Ingredients
1/4 cup butter, room temperature
8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
1 tsp each: cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves
Preparation
Mix cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves together; set aside
Beat butter until creamy, about 2 minutes
Add cream cheese; beat until smooth and fluffy, 2-3 minutes
Add 1/2 cup of powdered sugar at a time, mixing slowly at first. Beat until completely smooth with no grittiness
Fold in vanilla, salt, and spice mixture
Notes & Tips
For a simpler version, omit spices and let the tangy cream cheese shine
Double for 3-layer cakes or larger sheets
Refrigerate up to 1 week; bring to room temperature before spreading
Adapted from Sally’s Baking Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting. While reviews of the brown butter version sound amazing, I chose an even simpler route - but feel free to try browning the butter for extra depth
Germany is the homeland of Riesling, making this a traditionally perfect match for Clara’s spice cake. German Rieslings span from dry to intensely sweet, with the finest dessert wines made from botrytized grapes that deliver honeyed concentration while maintaining refreshing acidity.
The sweetness levels rise with ripeness:
Spätlese (”late harvest”): Riper grapes with more body and alcohol - check labels as these can be dry or sweet
Auslese (”select harvest”): Individually selected extra-ripe bunches, richer and more concentrated, sometimes touched by noble rot
Beerenauslese (BA) and Trockenbeerenauslese (TBA): The pinnacle of German winemaking. Noble rot (Botrytis cinerea) shrivels the grapes, concentrating sugars and flavors into honeyed, low-alcohol wines with notes of dried stone fruit, candied peel, and flowers. Not made every year, ranking among the world’s finest wines.
Noble rot sounds terrible, but creates magic - this beneficial fungus dehydrates grapes on the vine, concentrating everything while adding its own complex honeyed character.
Whether through noble rot, late harvesting, or freezing on the vine (Eiswein), these wines share Clara’s philosophy: preserving nature’s sweetness through patience and tradition.
Recommended bottles:
Approachable: Any German Spätlese or Auslese Riesling marked “lieblich” (sweet) or under 9% alcohol
Special occasion: Beerenauslese (BA) or Trockenbeerenauslese (TBA) (transcendent, worth it for celebrations)
North American alternative: Canadian or Michigan Icewine - frozen grapes create a similar concentration and sweetness
When my mom tastes this and says, “This tastes just like Mom’s,” I can’t help but smile. Getting it right without directions feels like an honor, but I also hear something else in her words: my grandmother got it right, too, maybe with directions, maybe not. Clara couldn’t always be right there teaching her, having her own life and family to tend to.
This is how women have always nourished each other - intuition passing from one generation to another without words, through the memory in our hands, the feel of the dough, the scent that tells us it’s done. We feed more than bodies; we nourish souls, preserve memories, and connect across time through the simple act of making cake.
Guten Appetit (Bon appétit) Eat up!
Thank you for helping preserve these food stories. If this recipe stirred a memory, I’d love to hear it in the comments.
This spice cake is such a reminder of my childhood and the many wonderful deserts my grandmothers and my mom made for us when we were growing up
As I age I realize how very lucky I was to have had a family who were talented in cooking and baking and think s made my brothers and sisters very lucky to have had these hero’s who gave us memories and wonderful food
Thank you Jenn for bringing it back
What a perfect pairing! I used to work at a California winery that made a late harvest Riesling (no longer, unfortunately) that was so nice with desserts!