My house is slowly being taken over by my collection of cookbooks.  There are parts of the house that are not open to the public because of it.  And in one of those piles of community cookbooks, I dug out this little piece of Southern ephemera: Some Favorite Southern Recipes of the Duchess of Windsor.  It’s been awhile since I looked through it, but I immediately sat down to peruse it again.  Published in 1942 (with proceeds going to British war relief), it is much like any Southern community cookbook – no really innovative or unique recipes.  Just good down home favorites like fried chicken and spoon bread.

Wallis Warfield (later Simpson, later still Duchess of Windsor) was born in Maryland and took her Southern upbringing very seriously.  She was a housewife before she moved into the realms of London society and during her childhood, her mother ran a boardinghouse.  So to be fair, I bet she really did know how to cook, and maybe got nostalgic for it surrounded by servants and a husband who was a famously picky eater.

At any rate, I settled on Wallis’ recipe for Feather Molasses Cake.  I’ve streamlined it a bit for modern cooks and kitchens, and used sorghum, my favorite Southern sweetener.  This is wonderful warm with thick spread of butter for breakfast, but I can easily see the Duchess enjoying this with a good English afternoon tea.

Wallis’s Southern Sorghum Bread

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 ½ teaspoons baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/3 cup butter, softened

½ cup sugar

2 eggs

½ cup sorghum

1 cup (1 8- ounce container) sour cream

Preheat the oven to 350°.  Grease a large loaf tin.

Combine the flour, baking soda, salt and ginger in a small bowl.  Beat the butter in an electric mixer until creamy, then slowly add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Beat in the sorghum.  Add the flour mixture alternately with the sour cream in three additions, scraping down the sides of the bowl and ending with sour cream.  When the batter is smooth and combined, scrape it into the prepared loaf pan.

Bake for 35 – 45 minutes until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean.  Cool in the pan, then turn out on a wire rack to finish cooling.

Makes one loaf