"Sausage Cake" by Representative Herbert Bateman
Sometimes (oftentimes) I choose a recipe to recreate purely based on the name. Some tempting ones I haven’t tried include: El Perfecto Steak and Jumbles. Some I have picked purely based on the name include Chicken Princess and Hot Tuna Delahanty. This dish is one of those beautifully-monikered delights that I couldn’t pass up: Representative Herbert Bateman’s Sausage Cake.
Chef Herbert Bateman
Republican Representative from Virginia
As always, I followed the recipe word for word from the man with the most 50s-sounding name of all time, no alterations:
INGREDIENTS
1 tbsp baking soda
1 lb sausage
4 cups brown sugar
1 lb raisins (or dates)
1 pint boiling water
4.5 cups of flour
1 tbsp ground cloves
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 cup walnuts
INSTRUCTIONS
1) Dissolve soda in a little cold water.
2) Break up sausage in mixing bowl. Add sugar and raisins (or dates).
You can use so many different types of sausages! While I was tempted to try Sweet Italian sausages, I figured they were not true to the spirit of the recipe. I found some regular pork-based breakfast sausages instead. Breaking them up with a spoon didn’t work; I had to go heavy and use the stand mixer to beat the meat.
3) Pour boiling water over all mixture.
This is when the aroma of raw pig meat and hot raisins will fill your home!
4) Stir in soda water.
5) Sift other ingredients together. Add to contents in bowl.
6) Stir in nuts. Bake in tube pan at 300 degrees for 1.5 hours or until done.
A tube pan is just another name for an Angel Food cake pan or the like. I was shocked at the volume of this cake, it filled up 3/4 of the massive, deep tube pan. After exactly 1.5 hours, I pulled the cake out. The top looked done, the interior felt a little wet, but….what was I looking for exactly? The recipe said 1.5 hours “or until done” and I went with 1.5 hours — safer that way.
Voila! If you want to actually watch me attempt to eat it, go to the CwC Instagram or TikTok. So…it caved in. I guess it either wasn’t done (though it tasted done?) or it collapsed under the weight of its own genius. Either way, it’s not the most attractive dish, but the scent sure makes up for that! Strongly smelling of old wine and English breakfast, the cake is dense, sticky, and crusted on the bottom (formerly the top). Its brown sugar crust is the best part about it, and reminds me of delicious zucchini bread my mom made when I was young. I’ll have to remember this ratio for future dishes — equal parts flour + brown sugar, then whatever. Of note: this entire recipe contains 832 grams of sugar, or 69 grams of sugar per serving, the equivalent of 7 doughnuts per slice.
Verdict:
One part of this sausage cake is walnuts, brown sugar and golden crust — delicious! The other part is what 85% of the cake is by volume: sticky pork pudding with explosively engorged raisins. Absolutely not.
