I found my grandmother's cook book yesterday. This recipe was written inside the back page.
Mama Atwood made this light brown cake with a boiled white sugar frosting on special occasions.
Everybody in the Atwood family raved about it. I don't think she ever wrote this recipe the same way twice. She was such an experienced cook, she never put assembly instructions down.
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 cups flour sifted
2 teaspoons baking powder
3 eggs
Frosting
2 tablespoons chocolate or cocoa
2 tablespoons hot water (melt over double boiler)
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup milk
butter the size of a walnut
boil about six minutes. Needs to come to soft ball stage.
This always was garnished an sometimes filled with pecan halves. They were usually arranged on the top of the cake.
There is a page on the web about a hundred-pound cake made for the 1939 World's Fair here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/shookphotos/4251872771/ It seems to be a fruitcake made in California by the baker's association.
That is the only reference to a cake named World's Fair Cake that I could find online.
