MAMA JOE'S CINNAMON CAKE

I miss my Mama Joe every day of my life. I miss that house where the smell of something good was always around, be a cut flower, or something simmering on the back of the the old wood stove.
This was one of her favorite cakes to make. When it was baking in the oven, the intoxicating smell of cinnamon permeated every nook and cranny in that old house. To this day the smells of cinnamon and vanilla can still take me back there.

2 cups plain flour
1 tsp. soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup shortening
1 1/4 cups light brown sugar-firmly packed
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk

Sift the flour, measure and resift 3 times with soda, salt and cinnamon. Combine butter and shortening and cream thoroughly. Gradually blend in the sugar, then add eggs and beat vigorously until mixture is light and fluffy. Add flour mixture and buttermilk alternately in 3 or 4 portions, beginning and ending with flour, beating well after each addition.Turn batter into two 8-inch layer cake tins which have been lined with waxed-paper. Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes or until springy when pressed with fingertips. Cool in pan 5 minutes. Turn out on wire rack. Sprinkle with powdered sugar, if desired, place a dollie on top to make a pretty pattern.

" The turnpike road to people's hearts, I find, lies through their mouths, or I mistake mankind."-anon