Ma was my Grandma Needham. My dad’s mom. I was named after her. Not completely since here full name was Sarah Gertrude Nixon Needham. Most people called her Sadie.
Sadie originated as a nursery form of the name Sarah. Sarah is a Hebrew name borne in the Book of Genesis as Abraham’s wife and Isaac’s mother.
In Hebrew, the name Sarah indicates a woman of high rank. The name was taken up by the French in the Middle Ages,
By the 17th century,Sarah was one of the most popular names in England. It’s not clear when the pet form Sadie originated, but it likely occurred in England by the 18th century and eventually became an independent name in its own right.(1) Info from: O’ baby names.
This has nothing to do with making the cake but by now you know I like to throw a little bit of history of something in my blogs.
Here is the recipe. It is from my mother’s binder of recipes. She would like any good cook make notes in the margins as she made changes. In addition she would give credit to the person she got the recipe from.
After the recipe are my notes on what I did along with some pictures.
Unlike the Irish Soda Bread recipe I had never made this one before. The apple sauce is the No Sugar Added Crock Pot Apple Sauce I made from a previous blog.
I also decided that instead of making a cake I would make muffins.
For the most part I followed the recipe. I did not use currants. (The difference is that raisins are sweet and grow on vines, true black and red currants are quite tart and grow on bushes). Also substituted light brown sugar for regular sugar. I did add nuts.
Make sure if you add nuts to a recipe and are sharing them at work that you mention the nuts. Nut allergy can be life threatening.
Cooking time for the muffins between 10 – 14 min. All ovens are different. I cooked mine for 14 min. I thought they were a little over baked. However the consensus of my test group (people at work who are in the food industry) was that they were very good.
You will see a basic powdered sugar glaze on the top of them. I have a sweet tooth so I added the glaze. Some of my test group suggested I should add more.
