Mother Marsh’s Hickory Nut Cake

Grease well and flour a large bundt cake pan or grease 2 large loaf
pans (10x5x3″) and line with waxed paper or waxed parchment paper.
Preheat oven to 300 F.

Cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy. Beat in the eggs,
one at a time, and continue beating until well blended.

Sift the flour with baking powder, nutmeg and cinnamon. (Reserve a
small amount of the flour mixture to toss with nuts and fruits before
adding them to the batter.) Add the flour mixture and milk
alternately to the creamed mixture, in about 3 additions. Then
gently stir in the floured fruits and nuts.

Scrape batter into prepared pans. Bake at 300 F. for 3 1/2 hours for
the bundt pan, 2 to 2 1/2 hours in loaf pans. Insert a cake tester
in the center to test.

Cool on rack. Wrap in a cheesecloth that has been soaked in bourbon,
if wanted. Store, wrapped in foil, in refrigerator.

Kluger writes: “One very special Christmas cake recipe is for the
hickory nut cake that Margaret Mitchell, author of _Gone with the
Wind_, and her husband, John Robert Marsh, who was born and reared in
Maysville, Ky., received every Christmas from his mother.

“‘Mother Marsh’s Hickory Nut Cake’ recipe was given to me by my friend
Marianne Walker of Henderson, Ky., who is the author of _Margaret
Mitchell and John Marsh, The Love Story Behind ‘Gone with the Wind’_,
published…by Peachtree Publishers. The recipe is not published in
the book – a fascinating account of the couple’s private life and the
story behind the famous Pulitzer Prize-winning novel – but letters
that mention the cake are quoted.

“Marianne was given the recipe by Mary Marsh Davis, niece of John
Marsh, who was reared by her grandmother (Mother Marsh). Marianne
says she would not have been able to write her biography of Mitchell
and Marsh without Mary Marsh Davis – and we would certainly not have
this family recipe and ‘inside story’ of their Christmas cake, if not
for her generosity.”

“Here is what Marianne wrote to me when she enclosed the recipe: ‘Mary
(Marsh Davis) tells me that everyone in the family looked forward
every Christmas to receiving one of these cakes. Margaret
(Mitchell), called Peggy, wrote many letters to Mother Marsh over a
two-decade period and was always very appreciative of Mother Marsh’s
cooking, especially her famous nut cake.’

“In her book, Marianne wrote this: ‘For John and Peggy’s Christmas
presents in 1936, Mrs. Marsh had made and embroidered each a pair of
beautiful, soft, white cotton pajamas, and she made a smock for
Peggy. As she had done every year since John had left home, she sent
one of her hickory nut cakes. In thanking her, Peggy wrote that since
she had gained weight on her vacation, the smock was especially
appreciated:

‘The smock is so comfortable and pretty and the deep pockets are
wonderful as adjuncts to my filing case. I can shove ‘letters to be
answered immediately’ in one pocket and ‘letters to be answered when
humanly possible’ in another…John always freezes onto the cake and
keeps it in his bureau beneath his pajamas and doles me out crumbs at
night when we are in bed discussing the events of the day.’

“Marianne shared another story, not printed in the book, which was
told to her by Mary Marsh Davis. ‘One year, for some reason or
another, Mother Marsh did not bake the cakes; her brother Bob did. He
had always helped or observed his sister’s making the cakes because
he shelled the hickory nuts for it. Everyone raved on and on about
Uncle Bob’s cake…how wonderful it was; but no one could figure out
what made it just a little different – a little tastier in some odd
way, (though they dared not say that aloud lest it get back to Mother
Marsh). Finally he confessed that he had wrapped each cake in a
cheesecloth soaked with good Kentucky bourbon – something that Mother
Marsh would have never done.”

“So here is the recipe. I hope you know where you can pick up some
hickory nuts out in the country. There is a heavy crop of hickory
nuts in our area of southwest Indiana…

“Sometimes you can find them at farm markets, and I have occasionally
found hickory nut kernels there, all shelled-out. They are
expensive, but a flavor worth paying for. But if you can’t find
hickory nuts anywhere, pecans would be the best substitute.”