Earlier last year during one of the trips I took to Maryland, I looked through a desk that belonged to my grandmother that is now in my parents house. I remember seeing this particular desk at my grandmothers apartment when I would visit her. Tucked into the desk, I found a recipe book and some other loose sheets of paper with recipes written on them. When I saw the word, "cinnamon" in the title of this recipe, I knew I had to make it! The original recipe had raisins, which no one here in my house would eat, so I omitted them. I also accidentally put an extra teaspoon of cinnamon in the muffin batter, which I didn't discover until after I baked them, oops. I decided to keep that extra teaspoon in the recipe, because you can never have enough cinnamon, right?!?!?!?! I thought this recipe came from my great-grandfather, because he was a baker, but when I flipped the piece of paper over, there was part of a letter written on October 11, 1943, that starts out, "My Dearest Catherine." I'm pretty sure the letter was written by my great-uncle to his wife when he was on the USS Charger in World War II. Pretty cool, huh? I love when a recipe has a bit of "history" to it. It's interesting it was called a "cake" because in the original directions, it says to use, "crinkle" cups, which I figured were cupcake or muffin liners. I decided that this "cake" actually tasted more like a muffin :)
1/4 cup shortening
1 cup white sugar
1 large egg
2 cups white flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup milk
Topping:
2 tablespoons white sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Put paper liners into a 12-cup muffin tin. Set side. In large bowl, put the shortening, sugar and egg. Cream together until smooth by hand with a large spoon or with an electric mixer. Add the flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon and milk. Mix well and distribute batter evenly into the 12 muffin liners. In a small bowl, put the white sugar and cinnamon. Stir well with a small spoon and then sprinkle the white sugar and cinnamon mixture evenly on top of the muffins. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of a muffin comes out clean. Remove from oven and transfer muffins to a baking rack to cool. Store covered for up to three days at room temperature.
