For the cake, cream butter and sugar for 5-6 minutes. Add the jam, spices, 1/2 cup ground raisins buttermilk and soda. Add in the flour. With spatula, fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.

Grease 3-8-9" cake pans with shortening. Then take wax paper and cut circles to go into the bottom of each pan (put wax paper under pans and use scissors to outline pan, cut) and then, grease the wax paper with more shortening and then put in about 1-2 tablespoons of flour into each pan and shake around to totally cover the bottom of the pans. Divide the batter between the three pans. Bake in 350° oven for 35-40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Frosting/Filling:

Mix all the ingredients except the cream in a double boiler and cook until thick, about 15 minutes. Thin with the cream if necessary. Let this cool awhile before filling and frosting cake. (Second time I made this I just did in a heavy Dutch oven and it worked fine and was a lot easier to stir than in the double boiler.)

When ready to put together put the cake on what you are going to serve it on or a piece of cardboard covered with aluminum foil. Put the first layer down and put a little filling on it and continue until you have all three layers put together. Frost top and sides of cake. Wrap in several layers of plastic wrap and either put in a dark room for a week or so or you can freeze it until the holidays.

Hope you enjoy one of our family recipes.