Spanish Bar Cake. A real old fashioned treat! A supermarket favourite from years ago, this simple raisin spice cake is easy to make, moist and utterly delicious.
Spanish Bar Cake
A few weeks ago, I got a request from a reader for a recipe for Spanish Bar Cake. I had never heard of it before.
She explained that it was a cake made by a supermarket bakery that she loved many years ago. I set off to do a little research on this cake,
Spanish Bar Cake starts with boiled raisins
Spanish Bar Cake was a very simple bar shaped raisin spice cake with an unfussy vanilla frosting. Being a fan of old time recipes, I certainly became quite interested in finding a recipe.
Turns out this cake was made by Jane Parker Bakery and sold through the A&P supermarket chain in the US & Canada. The reader who sent me the request grew up in Ottawa.
I have since heard that it was available in Toronto when a friend was growing up there 20 or so years ago.
Spanish Bar Cake made with everyday ingredients
There were a few recipes I found on a few websites but none of them definitively said they were the original recipe.
I finally came across an old entry in an online food forum which claimed to have been gotten from Jane Parker Bakery.
The final folding of the Spanish Bar Cake batter.
The recipe was written for two 9×13 pans. Those two layers would have been frosted and stacked, then cut down the middle to produce 2 bar cakes.
What the Spanish inference relates to is completely lost on me, except if that’s where the raisins came from.
Spanish Bar Cake old newspaper ad from 1960!
Spanish Bar Cake, the result.
I cannot say with any certainty that this was the original recipe. The reader who tried it called it a “very good raisin spice cake” but not quite the flavour she remembered.
Spanish Bar Cake just out of the oven
Memory is a funny thing though. We sometimes like to imagine things better than they actually were.
Then again, with such a widespread production of this cake, there may have been subtle differences in the recipe used regionally.
She noted that a tablespoon of cocoa, which some recipes add, would make it the darker colour she remembered. She also said the flavour was not so intense as she remembered.
The intenseness of flavour in this recipe would really have to come from the spices. My suggestion would be to add 1 tablespoon of cocoa to the dry ingredients and to up the amount of spices by half, if you want a more deeply flavoured cake.
So, for my taste, and Spouse’s, who loves spice cake, this was a really delicious, easy to make cake.
We brought it to a friends house for dinner and it got rave reviews. Next time I will try it with the adjustments I mentioned, but I would be more than content to enjoy it again, just as we made it.
Spanish Bar Cake
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Spanish Bar Cake
Spanish Bar Cake. A real old fashioned treat! A supermarket favourite from years ago, this simple raisin spice cake is easy to make, moist and utterly delicious.
Ingredients
- 2 cups water
- 1 cups raisins
- 1/2 cup vegetable shortening, or butter
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 large egg, beaten
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans, (optional)
For the Frosting
- 2 1/4 cups icing sugar
- 1/4 cup butter, at room temperature
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla
- 1 to 2 tablespoons milk, more if needed
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease a 9x13 baking pan and line it with parchment paper.
- Add the water and raisins to a saucepan. Bring to a gentle boil and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Add the shortening to the boiled mixture. Allow the mixture to cool to room temperature.
- Sift together the sugar, soda, flour, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and salt.
- Add the sifted ingredients to the cooled raisin mixture, along with the beaten egg and the nuts, if you are adding them.
- Fold gently until the flour is just incorporated into the batter. Do not over mix.
- Pour the batter evenly into the prepared pan and Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.
- Cool completely and ice with frosting if you like
To prepare the frosting
- Beat together the icing sugar, butter, vanilla and a tablespoon of milk until smooth.
- If necessary, add more milk until the frosting is a good spreadable consistency.
- Cut the cake in half, frost the first layer then top with the second layer and frost again. To get the characteristic lines on top, run the back of a fork over the top frosting in straight lines.
- This recipe also makes about a dozen cupcakes if you prefer.
Notes
The nutritional information provided is automatically calculated by third party software and is meant as a guideline only. Exact accuracy is not guaranteed. For recipes where all ingredients may not be used entirely, such as those with coatings on meats, or with sauces or dressings for example, calorie & nutritional values per serving will likely be somewhat lower than indicated.
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Nutrition Information
Yield
12Serving Size
1 slice (1/12 of the cake)Amount Per Serving Calories 346 Saturated Fat 2g Cholesterol 13mg Sodium 201mg Carbohydrates 64g Fiber 1g Sugar 38g Protein 2g
Oh, how well I remember this cake, yum yum!!! Here in Gainesville, FL we had A&P and what a treat to get one of these cakes, mother-in-law usually had one tucked back in reserve. Very fond memories of these. Have not made so can not rate but sounds right on the money! Will be trying soon
My Father worked for the A&P company for 50 years. He used to being home the Spanish bars and I loved them. The workers could take home the missbakes as they called them. I can’t wait until after the holidays to try this. It was a much darker co!or than the picture shows.
My Dad also worked at the A & P and we got these all of the time ..so good. I must try this recipe should bring back some great childhood memories.
Hi Barry,The recipe I remember as a child was almost like a moist sticky gingerbread with raisins and the colour was almost black.I am going to try your recipe and up the spices as you recommended.Will let you know how it turned out.Thanks.
Hi Barry,
Great recipe! As recommended, I upped the spices by making them rounded half teaspoons of each instead of level teaspoons. I did not add cocoa. Was it good? Well, it was sampled by the hubby and myself late last night after baking. And now it’s been eaten as breakfast and for lunch today! Nothing else, just cake.He! He! So, I would say that’s a MAJOR success!! Just like I remember it from the A & P when we lived in Toronto and then in Ottawa. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and thank you so much for all your great recipes!
I was wondering if this could be baked as one 13×9 cake. Would there be too much batter for one pan? Thank you!
I think you are misreading this recipe. It is meant for one 9×13 pan.
You’re right! I read it again! I thought it was in two pans, like a layer cake. Ok!
It’s one 13×9, cut in half, layered on itself. Thank you for clarifying that. It’s to be one of my Christmas desserts.
What a thrill to see this recipe. I grew up in the Niagara region of Southern Ontario and this was always a favorite of mine. In fact, my brother and I were reminiscing about it recently. I’ll have to make this and surprise him with it for xmas. BTW, I’m sure I saw something labelled as ‘Spanish Bar Cake’ at Sobey’s last week. I’ll have to do a comparison taste test.
Really? At Sobey’s?! I live in London Ontario so will check out my local Sobey’s for this cake! Thanks for ;posting that tip!
Hello again Barry,Made the cake this morning ,upped the spices ,added the cocoa,omitted the walnuts-another of your fantastic recipes to add to my files! I can see why you put the teapot in the photo.Goes wonderfully well with a good mug of tea.I think it will only taste better with age if lasts a few days.Merry Christmas and please keep your wonderful recipes coming in 2019
I lived on Windsor Ontario for part of elementary school, parents bought this for a treat— that was first half of the fifties. I am not fond of spice cake now, but Inwould enjoy this still. I remember the raisins and the icing. Do you suppose there might have been a bit of orange zest in it?
A nice addition I’d say.
Thank you for posting this! This was and still is a favourite of my dad’s and I. I have looked in every grocery and bakery and haven’t seen it in years. Wl make it for us for sure this weekend!
I also remember this cake but haven’t seen it around for awhile.
It was so good
I have been looking for the recipe now for a few years and will definitely try it
I remember it being a medium color and not dark at all
I look at your recipes all the time that is my hobby I collect recipes
Keep georgina them coming
Georgie
Thank you for this recipe…my husband loved this cake. I have a recipe that is close but not quite there. Will be trying this one.
Add to the cooled raisin mixture long with the beaten egg and nuts, if you are adding them.
I do not understand : add cooled. Raisin mixture LONG.?
Please explain.
The instruction has been updated.
Growing up in Pennsylvania, we had this every Sunday morning for breakfast I am sooo glad to see this! TYVM Barry!
Hi Barry, My Canadian worked at an A&P bakery during the early 90s and he says Spanish spice cake involved taking all the bakery mistakes/imperfection from throughout the bakery, adding spiced batter and baking. Maybe the difference that people are remembering in the flavor is because of thid frugal trick. This was a great way for A&P to not have any waste in their bakeries. It must have been a very strong, spicy and loose batter that they used to Incorporate so many different baked goods and still get a consistent product.
My father LOVED this cake! I think it was his favourite store bought cake! I always enjoyed it as well! Thank you for doing all of the research and leg-work to bring it to us!
Hi Barry, I used to love this cake. Bought one about every two weeks until no more A &P store. I’ve tried making it and added more of each spice along with ginger and molasses. It is really close to original.
Prepared this cake just as written. It was delicious. I do not feel the spices should be upped at all because one would lose the delicate flavour of the raisins and walnuts in among the warm spices. Great spices for Holiday times. If anything, one could add some brandy, whiskey or bourbon to replace some of the water in the raisin mixture to add a bite to the warm holiday spices. A perfect cake nonetheless.
Delicious. I made this cake yesterday. It brought back memories, that is for sure. I think it’s better that the original A & P Spanish Bar Cake, which tended to be a little too rich and sweet. Although I remember fighting over who would have the last piece and lick the paper packaging:) This is still somewhat light, and quite easy to make. I left out the walnuts, and by mistake left out the egg. Still delicious! The parchment paper is genius. Next time I may take another reader’s suggestion for the orange zest, but really, it’s perfect already. Thanks for creating this recipe.
the bakery my mom worked in used to make the Spanish Bar Cakes. She said that when plain cakes were trimmed before decorating, the bakery would take the cake trimmings from the white, yellow, and chocolate cake and mix them together well, then add them mixture to the Spanish Bar Cake batter to make them dense and to add flavor. The recipe was also heavy with cinnamon in the batter
We had this EVERY Friday night whilst growing up in Toronto. I was much darker than your recipe and it definitely did not have nuts, although you have listed as optional. Then again adding nuts would not make it authentic. I have an excellent recipe for it but do not believe it would be polite to post a link on your site.
I have come to learn that there were definite regional differences in this recipe. Others have said there definitely were nuts in the version thy bought.
Does this cake really only use 2 cups of flour?
It is a relatively small cake. Yes.
Hi Barry,I made your cake today .it is totally scrumptious .Love it thank you do mch for a wonderful receipe .
Will be making this very soon. Do you have a recipe for the old time Boston Brown bread? Would love to make one.
Thank you.
Afraid not but coincidentally, my daughter brought that up a couple of days ago.
I used to have this recipe from a bakery that made Spanish Bar cakes. Wish I hadn’t lost it. One thing I do remember is that the bakery would trim their other cakes to make them flat for decorating. The bakery would take these white, yellow, and chocolate cake trimmings and mash them up into a heavy paste, then add it to the Spanish Bar cake batter, to make it heavy and moist. Might be worth an experiment or two.
From what I’ve heard, the recipe varied from place to place. Likely because of things like this practice, which I have heard of before.
Hi Barry, just wanted to tell you again how much my family enjoys this cake. I made two this week, one for home and one for my son to share with his co-workers for his birthdsy. Everyone at his work place loved it and many said it tasted like mom’s, Grandmas spice cake( I think most are too young to have been around when A&P was here in Michigan. I also took slices to my co workers, where the recipe was quickly requested!
Many thanks for this now family favorite!
We were recently talking about this sweet little cake and oh what memories!!! I almost cried when I saw this post. Thank you so much. I look forward to making this cake. 🙂
My mother was from Texas and she made a cake very similar to this, we just called Boiled Cake. We loved it growing up, very moist. Great with a glass of milk, which we got from the cow direct. Full bodied raw mild.
In New England w had a Spanish bar cake, but it was made by Nissan (sp?) bakery. Unfortunately, the bakery was sold and the new owners decided to only make the bread and not the baked desserts. It was dark (maybe from molasses?) and didn’t have frosting in the middle. Your recipe looks very close and I’ll give it a try. Thanks so much for finding it.
I am going to make this! Hadn’t thought about these little cakes in years. It was always a treat to have one brought home. I grew up in southwestern Ontario. Don’t recall it being so dark either as some people noted. No nuts in it either. (Or hubby would not eat it and he loved this cake) . I also think that if the bakery baked it in a 9×13 pan, they cut them in three. They weren’t the size of a 9×13 pan cut in half. I guess we will get a bonus with your recipe and more cake! I hadn’t even noticed they weren’t in the stores anymore!
is that a quarter cup or a quarter lb of butter?
1/4 cup. Updated now. Thanks for the catch.
If you love spice cake as much as I do this is THE go-to cake for you. I tried uploading my photo but for some reason it will not go through. I made it exactly as written and it is perfection! Only change that I made was in the icing. I had some orange cream cheese icing left from another cake I made and thought that it would compliment this cake. I also love the way it makes a kitchen smell like heaven when you bake something like this.
Just popped it out of its pan. It is still warm, but couldn’t resist a piece. Delicious! I upped the spices and added a spoon of dark cocoa powder and it is a nice rich color. I won’t bother with the icing as I Liked the plain version.
Hi Barry – so great to see the attention and memories given to the Spanish Bar Cake. Referring to 1 of you commentors – Yes the Spanish bar cake was made with all the broken cookies and cakes that were gleaned from the production runs. I know because I worked In the test kitchen of a large national bakery that was a competitor of A & P in Toronto in the 60s. We worked on recipes until we had a near copy.I have also found similar recipes – one from my Aunt “Boiled Raisin Cake” made with lard and a Newfoundland favourite called Tidewater Annie’s Fruit Cake. When I was a kid my Dad used to bring home an original from A & P. I can hardly wait to try your recipe.
Actually there was no standard recipe across the US and Canada. There are many regional variations it seems.
I make this cake and it’s just like I remembered when I was little. The frosting is made with cream cheese and confection sugar. I remember my dad buy from A&P and when we couldn’t get it there anymore, we got it from the Spanish store. It is an awesome cake!
I remember my mom getting it from A&P, loved it…Do you think maybe Molasses was in it instead of cocoa, just wondering about that..I’ll be making it though very soon..Thanks for sharing recipe!!
Thank you!!!!!!! I have been searching for countless years trying to find the elusive Spanish Bar cake in every supermarket I enter. Made this today and honestly it tastes exactly the same as I remember it! Served it to my various family members who have also been looking for this as well and they couldn’t believe how close to the A&P version this was! Thank you for bringing back one of my favourite childhood memories! This is definitely going to be a staple!!!
So great to hear Steph. A lot of folks have fallen in love with this recipe. ENJOY!
Such a great recipe
I’m in my 70s and grew up in northern NY, close to Canada. This was a weekly treat for us. We did have an A&P in our town, but then I married & lived in CT, and was still able to buy this cake & there were no A &Ps. 🤷🏻♀️ It was a favorite of my son’s & mine so I have searched for it forever! I just made pumpkin bread & thought of it again, so decided to search for a recipe. THANK YOU for this! I will give it a try. I do think my pumpkin bread actually has a lot of the same flavor, color & moistness. I will give your recipe a try, & will also try adding a ton of raisins to my pumpkin bread recipe to compare. Again, thank you!!
Thank you for such an interesting read! I have been looking for a Spanish Bar recipe to enter into the local county fair scheduled in a couple of weeks. The category is ‘Grandma Favorites’. Hmmm, now I think about it, technically this was my Grandma’s favorite from the store, not necessarily from her baking. But my Mom often baked Spanish Bars during the ‘70’s and ‘80’s from scratch. So I think it is ok! As mentioned by some, I have noticed subtle recipe differences based on region. I love your recipe because you can easily adjust to make it your own if needed- not in my case!. It is perfect! I’m so excited to try your recipe!
Hope it turned out well.
The recipe for Spanish Bar Cake that I got from my Mom in Southwestern Ontario in the mid-nineties uses crushed pineapple and is topped with a cream cheese icing. It made a 10×13 inch cake. It’s a much simpler recipe than this one and is moist and delicious. The last time I made this cake was in Ottawa aroung 1997. Still have the recipe. Maybe I’ll break it out again.
Thanks for sharing.
I have heard from many people across North America and I can tell you that there was no standard recipe in the A&P stores. It seems there were regional and individual store variations by the dozens.
The cake was delicious! THANK YOU!! A real trip down memory lane, going to A&P to pick up a Jane Parker blueberry pie and a spanish bar cake when I was a kid.