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Recipe Tin Project: Swedish Nut Cake

A simple, retro one-bowl cake that couldn’t be more delicious.

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This may be a vintage recipe but this cake is a classic through and through. And that’s the great thing about The Recipe Tin Project – sometimes you come across a recipe that you otherwise never would have known about but can’t imagine ever doing without again. This Swedish Nut Cake is moist, thanks to a full can of crushed pineapple, but it has some nice crunch too. It also has cream cheese frosting, and I don’t know about you, but I think that makes every cake better.

This recipe card came out of an old recipe tin that I’ve been cooking my way through. I call it the Recipe Tin Project. It’s chock full of old recipe cards, most of which seem to be from the ’60s and ’70s. I love food history, and the idea is to breathe new life into these recipes from the past and maybe learn a technique or two from them along the way. The recipes come from different people with different handwriting and some have sweet illustrations while others are on plain (often smudged and stained) index cards.

This card comes with a vibrant little picture of a pot, an artichoke, and some mushrooms, and the handwriting is in blue ink that’s still bright. There are a few smudges and stains but the card is still easy to read and the ingredients and instructions are thorough and laid out in a logical way. (That’s not always the case with these old cards.)

There are also some notes about how you can incorporate Butter Buds and fat-free cream cheese into the recipe, which definitely harkens back to a very different food era. I ignored them. I used real butter and regular cream cheese because if you’re going to make a cake, go ahead and have the real thing.

It’s a very simple-to-make 9×13 cake that you don’t even need a mixer for. It’s flavorful and anything but dry and while I don’t generally think of Sweden when I think of pineapple, all that really matters is that it’s delicious. It is. And it’s a vintage recipe with serious staying power.

Yield(s): Serves 12

10m prep time

30m cook time

4.4
Rated 4.4 out of 5
Rated by 50 reviewers

Allergens: Nuts, Milk, Eggs, Gluten

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you're making mealtime meaningful.
100% of the Share to Care sponsor fees fund meals for families in need. Learn More
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For the cake:
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 cups granulated sugar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 2/3 cup nuts, chopped
  • 1 (20 oz) can crushed pineapple, with juice
For the frosting:
  • 8 oz cream cheese
  • 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter
  • 2 cups powdered sugar
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
For topping:
  • 2/3 cup nuts, chopped
Preparation
  1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
  2. Mix cake batter ingredients together by hand and pour into a 9x13-inch baking dish.
  3. Bake 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
  4. While cake cools, beat together the butter and cream cheese for the frosting. Add powdered sugar and beat until smooth.
  5. Spread frosting over cooled cake and top with chopped nuts. Serve, and enjoy!

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