jeansoyke bread

growing up, everyone i knew was catholic. we went to a catholic school. we lived in a catholic neighborhood. all of our family was catholic. i seriously thought everyone was catholic (which is funny because i'm not catholic now, i'm mormon. and living in utah i'm certain my kids think everyone is mormon.).

except jeansoyke. she was presbyterian and had big red doors on her church. (why do i remember that?)
her real name was jean soyke, with a space between the two words like normal people. but we always said it one word. after awhile we wrote her name in one word.
jeansoyke was martha stewart before martha was born. she collected antiques; she had the perfectly clean and decorated home. made HOMEMADE chocolates (this was in the 1970s and i thought the only way to make chocolates was to beg your mom for some at the acme!). she had a buckeye tree in the front yard and my brothers and i LOVED collecting buckeyes in the fall. she always wrote thank you notes and gave the most thoughtful gifts.
she had this bread that i loved. i know she made other foods, but her bread was my favorite. it is a sweet bread (even more reason to love it) and while the big people had it with coffee or tea, the kids could have it with hot chocolate.
please fell free to make this bread, but if someone asks what the name of this cinnamon bread is, you must say that it is jeansoyke bread.

i will hold you to it!

(ps...this is the only photo i have of jeansoyke. surprising because she was a big part of our lives growing up. she is holding my littlest brother, aaron, on his baptism day. she was his godmother even though she wasn't catholic. not sure how that works.)

jeansoyke’s cinnamon loaf

2 cups of sugar

1 cup of oil

mix really well

4 eggs, 1 at a time, mixing the whole time

alternate mixing

3 cups flour and 1 tablespoon baking power

1 cup of milk

into 2 sprayed bread pans put a ½ inch of the batter into the pan.

sprinkle a mixture of cinnamon sugar on top then another ½ inch of batter

do both pans at the same time so that they are equal in size

cook at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes

cool in bread pans