Today is the second recipe out of the Ohio State Grange Cook Book, Eleventh Edition, 1949.
It’s the yellow cake to go with the chocolate frosting. It’s not a lemon cake, it’s yellow. The flavor is actually vanilla and almond, and very subtle. It’s very nearly a blank canvas to support the frosting, so mild I can’t imagine any frosting that it would clash with.
If you’re a cake fan who usually scrapes off the frosting, you probably want something with more flavor. If you just need cake to justify eating the frosting, this is the one for you.
Ingredients
1½ cups sugar
½ cup butter
2¼ cups cake flour
1 cup milk
¼ teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ teaspoon almond extract
3 eggs
Directions
Let the butter warm up to room temperature. Or do like we did and nuke it until it’s just starting to melt. Cream it together with the sugar — This is the “Creaming Method“. Follow that link to see Jenni‘s explanation of all the details.
Sift in the flour and baking powder and add the salt.
Mix in the milk.
Add the vanilla and almond and mix.
Add the eggs one at a time, beating thoroughly after each one. And yes, it matters. You won’t get the same texture if you just add all three and mix. (Did you follow that link to the Creaming Method earlier? Why not? Go read it, especially the part at the bottom about the eggs. I’ll wait … )
Pour the batter into two greased and floured 9-inch round pans.
Bake at 350° for 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean but wet. If it comes out dry, you’ve overshot.
Remove from pans, allow to cool, and assemble with frosting.
Like I said when I showed the chocolate frosting, this went on almost like a ganache. Wipe the edge of the plate before the frosting sets so it looks nice when you set it out.
And that’s it.
Want more like this? For more recipes like this, that you can hold right in your hands, and write on, take notes, tear pages out if you want (Gosh, you're tough on books, aren't you?) you might be interested in How To Cook Like Your Grandmother, 2nd edition, Illustrated. Or to learn your way around the kitchen, check out Starting From Scratch: The Owner's Manual for Your Kitchen.
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8 Comments
Would adding more vanilla and almond extract be ok? Might bump up the flavour. I’m one who loves both the cake and the frosting.
Teaching kids today how to make cake – using your recipe. Posted a plug-in for your site and a copy of your recipe on my blog this morning. Thanks for posting. I LOVE YOUR SITE!!!
Kris Mazy - http://www.ScrapWarrior.com/blog
lovely recipe….
(Sarcastic tone) Oh thanks, Drew. Now I’ll be craving cake all day, until I can get the time to bake one….
But, really, thanks a lot for the info on “creaming”. I didn’t realize exactly what that was – I always thought it was just the process of throwing butter and sugar together, then throwing all the eggs together.
Thanks for the info!
Ali, I would up the vanilla before the almond.
Kris, come back and tell me how the kids did. Even better, send me a picture if you can.
Charlene, thank Jenni. She’s the one who told me about it.
Almond extract is POTENT!! My advice…use sparingly.
It will enhance in very small doses… and it will destroy if overdone!
I cannot stress this enough…
Good looking cake, but just a little tip: this is actually NOT the creaming method and several things you are doing can compromise the texture of the cake. When you are using the creaming method, you should add room temperature eggs to the (also room temperature) butter/sugar mixture-no flour yet! This will create a proper emulsion and ensure an even, fluffy, moist cake that won’t require overmixing. In addition, you should add the flavorings with the eggs-not sure of the science behind this one, but cakes made this way truly have a stronger, better flavor. Flour and liquid should always be added last, alternatively, starting and ending with the flour. The second the flour is mixed, stop mixing! By continuing to mix in stuff after the flour is combined, you’re producing gluten, leading to a tougher, dryer cake.
I recognize that a vintage recipe may not employ all of the food science we know today. However, either way, this is not a true creaming method and should not be promoted as such.
Jenny’s site that I linked to for the creaming method had it right. Somehow I got the order wrong when I made it. I don’t know how I never noticed that.