War Cake Re-Revisited

It was with great surprise that I read the Food section today and saw the recipe for War Cake (Home Cook, Aug. 6). I found it almost identical to a recipe in my files for “mother’s war cake,� which came from my grandmother. My mother always made it as an ersatz or economy fruitcake during my childhood in the 1920s in Maine. It was a very versatile recipe; any fruit juice or coffee, tag ends of jam or jelly for part of the sugar, found its way into the batter--never seeming to change the results.

I have made it numerous times when I had a yen for fruitcake with few luxury ingredients at hand.

Thanks for the memories!

--MARY R. MURRAY, Irvine