Old Fashioned Butter Cake

How to start this post?  YUMMMM...we loved this cake...we couldn't stay away from it...we ate it for dessert and then we ate it for breakfast...  This beautiful cake recipe is a 100 year old treasure and a keeper!  Reeni of Cinnamon Girl discovered this recipe in an old McCall's cookbook published in 1910, and she too fell in love with this fluffy, moist, easy-to-prepare cake and was good enough to share it with the rest of us so that we could enjoy it as well.  Thank you, Reeni!  If you are not familiar with Reeni's blog, please take a few minutes to go and visit her.  Her food is fabulous, and her photography makes you want more!

At first I was skeptical that a cake recipe made with all-purpose flour could be be both fluffy and moist; in the past, I've only achieved that kind of result when using cake flour.  Also, I pretty consistently only have King Arthur Flour in the pantry, which tends to make a denser (but still delicious!) cake.  Imagine my surprise when my first bite revealed a cake that surpassed all expectations.  I don't know if it's the one tablespoon of baking powder or the four minutes total of beating, but whatever, the secret, this recipe works!
This will be a recipe that I will turn to again and again.

Old Fashioned Butter Cake
(from Reeni's Cinnamon Girl blog) 

2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1  1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

Preheat oven to 350*F.  Grease and flour two 8 inch x 2 inch baking pans and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.

Add butter, milk, and vanilla.  With a hand mixer, beat for  2 minutes, occasionally scraping down the sides of the bowl. 

Add eggs and beat for 2 minutes more.

Pour batter into prepared pans, dividing equally between the pans.  Bake 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  Remove from oven.

Cool in the pans for 10 minutes and then turn cakes out onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

Frost with your favorite frosting.  I used my favorite chocolate frosting, the one on the back of the Hersey's cocoa can. 

"Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Frosting

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter or margarine
2/3 cup Hershey's cocoa
3 cups powdered sugar (confectioners' sugar)
1/3 cup milk  (plus an additional few drops to make a nice consistency)
1 teaspoon vanilla

Melt butter.  Stir in cocoa.  Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating on medium speed to spreading consistency.  Add more milk if needed.  Stir in vanilla.  About 2 cups frosting