Category: Old Cake Recipes

Sally Lunns

From 1917:
3 ½ cupfuls flour
½ cupful cornstarch
1 teaspoonful soda
2 teaspoonfuls cream of tartar
2 tablespoonfuls corn syrup
2 eggs
2 cupfuls milk
3 tablespoonfuls butter melted
Mix and sift the flour, cornstarch, soda and cream of tartar twice. Beat the eggs until light and add to the milk. Then quickly beat this into the dry ingredients. Add the corn syrup and melted butter; beat thoroughly. Turn… Continue reading

A Basic Cake and Its Variations

By NELLE HOOPER.
There are two classes of cakes, those made with butter and those without. I have a standard recipe for butter cake, and a great variety of effects can be secured by slight variations of this basic theme. To insure uniform success it is desirable to use an oven thermometer, so there will be no guesswork.
Thin cakes, or those baked in small tins, require a quicker oven… Continue reading

Cinnamon Fried Cakes

Separate the yolk and white of an egg and beat each separately. Place a quarter of a cupful of rich milk in a bowl and add the egg yolk, a quarter of a teaspoonful each of salt and ground cinnamon, one tablespoonful of sugar, two tablespoonfuls of melted shortening and three-quarters of a cupful of flour sifted with one and a quarter teaspoonfuls of baking powder. Beat well, add the… Continue reading

Marshmallow Cake

Make the batter after any good white cake recipe, and bake in layers. For the filling, boil one cup of sugar and four tablespoonfuls of water until it “ropes,” then add a half pound of marshmallows torn into bits, and stir until they dissolve. Whip the whites of three eggs until very stiff; add three tablespoonfuls of sugar and stir into the syrup, beating hard all the time. Spread between… Continue reading

Cocoa Angel Food

Beat the whites of five eggs until very foamy, add one-fourth teaspoonful cream of tartar and beat until dry. Then gradually add one cupful of sifted sugar which has been mixed with one-fourth cupful of cocoa. Add vanilla, one-half cupful of flour and one-half tablespoonful of cornstarch, which has been sifted many times. Bake in a tube pan one-half hour… Continue reading

Cocoa Layer Cake

Cream one-half cupful of butter or oleo until smooth and beat in one cupful of sugar. Add the yolks of three eggs well beaten and one teaspoonful of vanilla. Sift together one and one-half cupfuls of flour, six tablespoonfuls of cocoa, two teaspoonfuls of baking powder and a pinch of salt. Add two-thirds of a cupful of milk and the sifted ingredients alternately, beating very thoroughly. Fold in the stiffly… Continue reading

Another Chocolate Cake

Melt two squares of chocolate, add three tablespoonfuls of butter, one cupful of powdered sugar and one-half cupful of milk. Stir and cook until it begins to thicken. Add the yolks of two eggs, well beaten, in one-half cupful of milk. Continue beating until it is almost jellylike. Set aside to cool. When almost cold add one teaspoonful of baking soda dissolved in a little water. Stir in one and… Continue reading

A Real Devil’s Food Cake

Cream one-half cupfuls of butter with two cupfuls of sugar. Add the well beaten yolks of four eggs and one-half cupful of grated chocolate, melted. Mix in alternately one cupful of milk and two and one-third cupfuls of flour, sifted with four teaspoonfuls of baking powder and one-half teaspoonful each of cinnamon and salt. Add the stiffly beaten whites of the eggs and one teaspoonful of vanilla. Bake in loaf… Continue reading

Yellow Honey Cake

½ cup sugar
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
2 yolks
¼ teaspoon cloves
2/3 cups honey
1½ cups flour
Sift together flour and spices. Mix sugar and yolks, add honey and then the flour gradually. Roll out thin, moisten surface with egg white and mark into small squares. Bake in moderate oven.… Continue reading

Honey Sponge Cake

½ cup sugar
½ cup honey
4 eggs
1 cup sifted flour
Mix sugar and honey and boil till syrup spins a thread when dropped from spoon. Pour syrup over yolks of eggs which have been beaten until light. Beat this mixture until cold; add flour, cut and fold beaten whites into mixtures. Bake 40 or 50 minutes in a pan lined with buttered paper in slow oven… Continue reading

Afternoon Tea Cakes

From 1922:

½ lb. butter, ½ lb. sugar, 2 eggs, ¼ lb. wheaten flour, ½ lb. arrowroot (St. Vincent’s is the best). Beat butter and sugar to a cream, add eggs well beaten, then the flour, arrowroot, and baking powder sifted together. Bake in a quick oven for 10 to 12 minutes. Sultanas, cinnamon, caraway seeds, or lemon peel can be added for variety. Use patty… Continue reading

Hardbake

A very famous Italian cake is the Pan Forte di Siena, mentioned by William Dean Howells in his book “Tuscan Cities.” The popular name for it is “hardbake.” Every baker guards his own recipe very jealously, but here is a recipe that is used by a Sienese lady:
Boil a half pound of strained honey and add to it a cupful of blanched and shredded almonds and filberts… Continue reading

Twelve Months Cake

From 1922:

Two lb. flour, 1 lb. best butter, 1 ½ lb. sugar, one dozen new-laid eggs, one packet of mixed spice, two teaspoonfuls of cream of tartar, three quarters of a teaspoonful of bicarbonate of soda, one teaspoonful of salt, two small tablespoonfuls of treacle, ½ lb. of almonds, blanched and cut, 2 lb. sultanas, 1 lb. currants, ½ lb. candled peel. Cream the butter… Continue reading

Sponge Cake

From 1922:

This is the most inexpensive recipe I have, 5, 6, and even 7 eggs being used in sponge cake. This recipe contains 3, and, in addition, 4 tablespoonfuls each flour and sugar, and a wee pinch of bi-carbonate of coda. Boat the eggs and sugar to a cream, beating for quite 15 minutes; then add flour and soda and mix all as quickly as… Continue reading

Seed Cake

1 lb. flour, 6 ounces butter, 3 well beaten eggs, ½ lb. sugar, 1 teaspoonful of baking powder, 1 ounce caraway seeds. Beat butter and sugar to a cream; add the eggs and sugar. Mix the baking powder with the flour, and stir in the seeds; then add these to the butter and egg mixture. Beat well for five minutes, and bake in a moderate oven in a… Continue reading

Holiday Cake

Allow one cup raisins to simmer gently for an hour or more or until perfectly tender, then drain until free from water. Bake a two layer cake, ice the lower layer with chocolate frosting, then cover it with cooked raisins. Next ice the bottom of the second cake and place it upon the raisin covered first one. Finish by icing the top and sides of all the cake… Continue reading

MAIZENA CAKE

Beat together ¾ lb. butter and ¾ lb. sugar, and the whites of eight eggs, stiffly whipped, and ½ lb. flour, and ½ lb. maizena, sifted together. Fold the flour and maizena in lightly. When thoroughly mixed, pour into a cake tin which has been greased and floured, and bake in a moderate oven for three-quarters of au hour… Continue reading

DARK CAKE

Two eggs, half a cupful of butter, three cupfuls of flour, one small cupful of milk, two teaspoonfuls of baking powder, one cupful of light brown sugar, half a cupful of golden syrup, one and a half cupfuls of sultanas, a little shredded candied peel. Beat together the sugar, butter, and golden syrup, add the eggs and beat well; then add one cupful of flour with the baking powder sifted… Continue reading

Mocha Cake

From 1911:

Four eggs, one cup of sugar, one cup of flour, one tablespoon of water, one teaspoon of baking powder, one teaspoon of mocha. Beat eggs separately; add whites after the flour.

Filling: 15 cents worth of cream beaten with one tablespoon of mocha… Continue reading

Victoria Sandwich

4 eggs; 1 teacupful of sugar, 1 teacupful of self-raising flour. Separate the yolks from the whites of the eggs. Beat the yolks of the eggs and sugar together until thick and creamy. Whip the whites of eggs to a stiff froth, and add them by degrees to the yolks. Beat the mixture steadily for a quarter of an hour after the whites are added. Sift the flour, adding just… Continue reading