Spanish Bar Cake. A real old fashioned market bakery fave!   Rock Recipes (2024)

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 real old fashioned market bakery fave! Rock Recipes (1)

Spanish Bar Cake

Originally published December 2018.

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. A real old fashioned market bakery fave! Rock Recipes (2)

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. A real old fashioned market bakery fave! Rock Recipes (3)

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 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. A real old fashioned market bakery fave! Rock Recipes (5)

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. A real old fashioned market bakery fave! Rock Recipes (6)

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.

Spanish Bar Cake. A real old fashioned market bakery fave! Rock Recipes (7)

Sultana Raisins are great in this recipe but you can use any kind you like.

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.

Looking for more holiday baking inspiration?

If you love old fashioned cake recipes you may want to check out this collection with some everyday recipes like Cherry Pound Cake too.Favourite Newfoundland Christmas Cakes here.

Like this Spanish Bar Cake recipe?

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Spanish Bar Cake

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Spanish Bar Cake. A real old fashioned market bakery fave! Rock Recipes (11)

Yield: 12 or more servings

Spanish Bar Cake

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 35 minutes

Additional Time: 2 hours

Total Time: 2 hours 55 minutes

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

  1. Heat the oven to 325 degrees.Grease a 9x13 baking pan and line it with parchment paper.
  2. Add the water and raisins to a saucepan.Bring to a gentle boil and simmer for 10 minutes.
  3. Add the shortening to the boiled mixture. Allow the mixture to cool to room temperature.
  4. Sift together the sugar, soda, flour, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and salt.
  5. Add the sifted ingredients to the cooled raisin mixture, along with the beaten egg and the nuts, if you are adding them.
  6. Fold gently until the flour is just incorporated into the batter. Do not over mix.
  7. 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.
  8. Cool completely and ice with frosting if you like

To prepare the frosting

  1. Beat together the icing sugar, butter, vanilla and a tablespoon of milk until smooth.
  2. If necessary, add more milk until the frosting is a good spreadable consistency.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.

Recommended Products

Rock Recipes a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Our product recommendations are almost exclusively for those we currently use or have used in the past.

Nutrition Information

Yield

12

Serving Size

1 slice (1/12 of the cake)

Amount Per ServingCalories 346Saturated Fat 2gCholesterol 13mgSodium 201mgCarbohydrates 64gFiber 1gSugar 38gProtein 2g

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Spanish Bar Cake. A real old fashioned market bakery fave!   Rock Recipes (2024)

FAQs

What are Spanish cakes made of? ›

Things You'll Need for Spanish Milk Cake

For this Spanish milk cake recipe you will need eggs, flour, sugar, heavy cream, condensed and evaporated milk, and vanilla essence (or extract). It is easier to make with a hand or stand mixer, but if you have strong arms then you can do it by hand.

Does Metro have Spanish bar cake? ›

$18.99 ea. Product added to cart.

What is the most eaten dessert in Spain? ›

Flan. Arguably the most popular classic Spanish dessert, flan is also one of the most versatile. Indeed, there are numerous variations of the rich, gelatinous dessert which incorporate eggs, cheese, coconut, and vanilla.

What is the signature dessert of Spain? ›

Flan. Spanish flan is a caramel pudding made from a simple mixture of milk, sugar and eggs. You'll see it served in almost every bar and restaurant in Madrid and beyond, making it the king of all desserts from Spain.

What does the bean mean in the Spanish cake? ›

The “Roscón de Reyes” is also well known for the small trinket which is hidden inside. Many years ago, bakers would hide a small dried kidney bean inside; the lucky person who found the bean would have the honour of paying for the whole cake! Nowadays, it's rare to find Roscones with beans inside.

What cake is eaten in Spain at Christmas? ›

Roscon de Reyes: What you should know about Spain's traditional Christmas cake. YOU won't find mince pies or heavy fruit cake in Spain at Christmas, instead the ubiquitous seasonal cake is a Roscon de Reyes, a deliciously festive brioche ring that celebrates the arrival of the Three Magi or Three Kings on Epiphany.

What do Spanish people call cake? ›

Bizcocho (Spanish pronunciation: [biθˈkotʃo] or [bisˈkotʃo]) is the name given in the Spanish-speaking world to a wide range of pastries, cakes or cookies. The exact product to which the word bizcocho is applied varies widely depending on the region and country.

What is a Spanish wedding cake? ›

Most traditional Spanish wedding cakes don't take the traditional tiered English wedding cake; instead they are more like a flan tart cake one that is usually filled with fruits, nuts and sometimes even custard…yummy!

What is a Spanish bakery called? ›

Latin American Spanish: panadería.

Which shape is the special cake in Spain? ›

Roscón refers to the ring shaped brioche-like cake, and Reyes refers to the Three Kings or Three Wise Men. It is traditionally eaten the night before or morning of Reyes or King's Day (6th January).

Why is my tres leches cake soggy? ›

How do I prevent my tres leches from getting soggy? It's best to let the cake cool for at least 30 minutes before pouring the milks on top. This allows the structure of the cake to cool (so you don't destroy the delicate structure while it's still warm, turning it to mush).

What is a substitute for condensed milk in tres leches? ›

Condensed Milk Substitutes

If you don't have sweetened condensed milk, you can make your own using evaporated milk and sugar, or you can bring 3/4 cup of white sugar, 1/2 cup of water, and 1 1/8 cups of dry powdered milk to a boil and cook, stirring frequently, until thickened, about 20 minutes.

Why is tres leches cake so good? ›

Living up to its name, the Tres Leches Cake contains three different forms of milk.”Tres” means three, and “leches” means milk, so namely whole milk, condensed milk and evaporated milk. These are absorbed by the dough, which results in a moist and milky cake that is simply irresistible.

What is a traditional Spanish wedding cake? ›

Most traditional Spanish wedding cakes don't take the traditional tiered English wedding cake; instead they are more like a flan tart cake one that is usually filled with fruits, nuts and sometimes even custard…yummy!

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