Black Walnut Cake

2 cups brown sugar, firmly packed
2 1/2 cups flour
2/3 cup Crisco shortening
1 cup black walnuts
1 egg
1 cup milk
1 tsp. soda

Mix sugar, flour, shortening, and walnuts well.  Reserve 1 cup for topping.  Add remaining ingredients and mix well.  Pour into prepared 9 x 13 cake pan and cover with topping.  Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

This recipe is from Bertie, a friend of Sonny and Linda Gager's, whom I met when she lived on a boat in the Bahamas.  Bertie's grandmother told her it was a favorite of  guests at a Baltimore hotel in the 1800s.  My mother loved black walnuts, which reminded her of her childhood in Iowa.  She liked to add them to pound cake.  I remember her father, my Grandpa Martin, cracking black walnuts with a hammer for me to eat.  They are very hard and have an unforgettable flavor.