Procedure

The September 1981 University Computing Center Newsletter at the University of Southern California included this recipe for “Famous Rum Cake,” written in Assembler by a systems programmer for the IBM 360:

RUMCAKE CSECT
* THIS INTRODUCES SOME NEW MNEMONICS
*               MX             MIX
*               MXL            MIX UNTIL LIGHT
*               BSOP           BEAT UNTIL SOFT PEAKS
*               BSTP           BEAT UNTIL STIFF PEAKS
*               BKE            BAKE (SECOND OPERAND IS NUMBER OF MINUTES)
PREHEAT         BALR    12,0   350 DEGREES
                USING   *,12
BOWL1           L               3,FLOUR
                A               3,BAKPOW
                A               3,SALT
                A               3,BSODA
BOWL2           L               4,BUTTER
                MXL             4
                A               4,SUGAR1
                MX              4
                A               4,ORIND
                AR              4,3
                A               4,MIXTURE
                MX              4
                A               4,EXTRACTS
BOWL3           L               5,WHITES
                BSOP            5
                A               5,SUGAR2
                BSTP            5
                AR              5,4
                S               5,PANS
                BKE             PANS,=M'25'
                SVC             3
*
* TYPES OF CONSTANTS ARE ALSO INTRODUCED:
*               T               TEASPOON
                B               TABLESPOON
                C               CUP
*
* NON-INTEGER LENGTHS ARE ALSO INTRODUCED
*
FLOUR           DS              CL2
BAKPOW          DS              TL2             BAKING POWDER
SALT            DS              TL.25
BSODA           DS              TL.25           BAKING SODA
BUTTER          DS              CL.5            NOT MARGARINE
SUGAR1          DS              CL.75           GRANULATED
EGGS            DS              OF
WHITES          DS              HL2
YOLKS           DS              HL2
ORIND           DS              TL1             GRATED ORANGE RIND
MIXTURE         DS              0CL.5
RUM             DS              BL3
OJ              DS              CL.5            ORANGE JUICE
EXTRACTS        DS              0T
ALMOND          DS              TL.25
VANILLA         DS              TL.25
SUGAR2          DS              CL.25
WALNUTS         DS              CL.5
PANS            DC              2C'9INCH'       GREASED AND LINED
                END             RUMCAKE COOL FOR TEN MINUTES, THEN ENJOY

The programmer who sent me this offered a translation:

Here are some definitions I found in an IBM Assembler book, which may help: L = load, A = add, DS = define storage, S = store, SVC = supervisor call (SVC 3 probably means “execute”), AR = add register (AR 5,4 means “add the contents of register 4 to those of register 5 and store the result in register 5”).

Notice that the program never refers to the egg yolks and the walnuts! I fed the egg yolks to my cat, and chopped the walnuts and threw them in at the end.

Rum Cake

2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup butter, not margarine
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs, separated
1 teaspoon grated orange rind
3 tablespoons rum
1/2 cup orange juice
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 9-inch cake pans, and line with waxed paper. Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda. In another mixing bowl, cream the butter until light, add the 3/4 cup of sugar and mix well. Add the orange rind to the creamed mixture. Stir the orange juice and rum together, and add to the creamed mixture alternately with the dry ingredients. Add the almond and vanilla extracts and the walnuts. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks. Add the 1/4 cup of sugar and beat until stiff peaks are formed. Fold the egg whites into the batter, pour into pans and bake for 25 minutes. Cool 10 minutes, then remove from the pans.

Notes: I used the peel from 1 whole orange, and juiced it to get the 1/2 cup of juice. There was no frosting recipe, so I made a half-recipe of this Cream Cheese Icing: cream together 8 ounces of softened cream cheese and 1/2 cup (1 cube) of softened butter of margarine. Sift a 16-ounce box of powdered sugar and add to the creamed mixture. Beat until light. Stir in 1 teaspoon of vanilla. Makes enough icing for a 3-layer cake. (This cake needed only 4 ounces cream cheese, 1/4 cup butter, 8 ounces of sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla.)

(Thanks, Dorothy.)

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