Aunt Millie's Tinker Cake!

This cake is my Aunt Millie's signature dessert recipe.  Aunt Millie is  my mother's sister and she is the oldest in a family of 11 children.

 Out of all six of the sisters in my mother's family, Aunt Millie will tell you cooking is not her most favorite thing to do.  She is a good cook and she does cook, but she would much rather do other things.   She is a expert seamstress, she loves to garden and grows some of the most beautiful flowers, and she is a wonderful quilter.  I could not tell you how many fabulous quilts she has made in her lifetime.  

This Tinker Cake is a cake she has probably been making for at least 40 years.  If someone dies, the family gets this cake. If you have a baby when you come home you will get this cake!  If there is a family dinner or reunion this cake will be one of the things Aunt Millie will bring.  If you have a birthday and nobody to bake you a birthday cake, Aunt Millie will bake you a Tinker Cake to brighten your day. 

It is a delicious chocolate cake with just a hint of cinnamon in it.   There are three smells that I will always associate with Aunt Millie...White Shoulders perfume, Dove bath soap, and Tinker Cake!  I keep Dove soap in my bathrooms to this day, because I always loved the way it made Aunt Millie's bathroom smell and it reminds me of her.  Here is what you'll need for the Tinker Cake, don't let the many ingredients scare you off, it's not hard to make at all:

Buttermilk, all purpose flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking soda, butter cocoa, vanilla, salt, confectioners sugar, water, milk, eggs, oil,  chopped walnuts.

First, sift the dry ingredients together...flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cinnamon...and mix together.

In a saucepan combine butter, water, oil, and cocoa and bring to a boil. 

Pour over the dry ingredients in the mixing bowl.

Beat eggs slightly, add buttermilk and vanilla.  Mix together and add to the other ingredients in the mixing bowl.  Mix until all of it is incorporated, but don't over mix.  Just use a whisk for this. 

Pour the cake batter in a 9"x13" baking pan that has been liberally sprayed with nonstick cooking spray.  Place in a preheated 350 degree oven for 30 to 35 minutes.  If you use a glass dish as I did, decrease the oven temperature to 325 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes.

During the last 5 minutes of the cake baking, start the icing so that the cake can be iced while it's warm.  Melt the butter in a pan, add the milk and cocoa and bring to a boil. After it boils turn the heat down so it doesn't burn. Stir in the vanilla and the confectioner's sugar until it is smooth. 

Add the chopped nuts and mix until incorporated.

Immediately pour the warm icing on the warm cake and you have "Aunt Millie's Tinker Cake"!

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

2 cups sugar
1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon
1 cup water
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup oil
4 tbsp. cocoa
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tsp. vanilla

Tinker Cake Icing

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)

4 tbsp. cocoa
6 tbsp. milk
1 box powdered sugar (4 cups)

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup walnuts, chopped