Groaning Cake

Before I gave in to the pull of birth work, I was a baker. Not a professional one, mind you, just a home baker… a really good one. I almost went to culinary school to become a pastry chef but then I answered the call of a dear friend who was wanting emotional and physical support at her labor and I was completely hooked after that. My baking skills have fallen away because I no longer have the time to mix flour, butter, sugar, and salt together, but I still love reading cookbooks and books where cooking (any form of homemaking or domestic arts, really) is a focus.

This past spring, I read a book called The Birth House, by Ami McKay. It is the story of a young girl who grows into the role of a midwife in her rural community, having been trained by the local and deeply soulful granny midwife, Miss Babineau (Miss B) who was aching to pass her midwifery skills onto the next generation before she died. The young girl, Dora, moves away from her family and into the midwife’s home to learn all that Miss B has to teach her about catching babies and it is here where she begins to fall in love with midwifery. One of the deep lessons she learns from Miss B is to make sure a woman in labor is being kept busy to allow movement and gravity to bring baby lower and lower into the pelvis for an efficient birth. Keeping busy also helped to distract the laboring mama from overthinking and worrying about her labor, so weeding the garden, cleaning her home, sewing and mending, any type of handwork kept her body, mind, and heart preoccupied, allowing labor to take its natural course. Another way to accomplish distraction was to bake a Groaning Cake, a traditional cake meant to be prepared by the pregnant woman beginning in early labor with the understanding that working to combine the cake’s ingredients, along with the aroma of the cake while it bakes, would ease the discomfort of the contractions and shorten her labor.

I enjoyed the book, I loved this idea of keeping busy for as long as possible during labor, and I loved the idea of making something delicious to eat after baby has arrived.

Without further ado, the Groaning Cake recipe. Enjoy!

2 ½ Cups Flour
3 eggs
2 tsp. Baking powder
½ Cup oil
1 tsp. Baking soda
½ Cup orange juice
2 tsp. Cinnamon
¼ Cup molasses
½ tsp. Ground cloves
1 1/3 Cups sugar
1 ½ cups apple (grated, no skin)
1 tsp. Almond extract

Sift dry ingredients together. Add apple. Beat eggs. Add oil, orange juice, molasses and sugar. Add to dry ingredients. Mix well. Add almond extract. Bake at 350 F. for 35-40 minutes. Makes two 9 X 5 loaves or about 18 muffins.

Optional additions: raisins, dates, dried fruits, nuts, chocolate chips