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

Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate "Chocolate Cake & 7-Minute Frosting

My Ole Sweetie-Pi just turned 61, and when asked what kind of cake he wanted, he requested the same cake that his mother made and the one that he's wanted through the years, chocolate cake with 7-minute frosting.

I have several favorite chocolate cake recipes that I turn to again and again; one of them is the back of the can recipe on the Hershey's Cocoa can, "Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate. Cake. This cake is moist, dark, chocolately, and truly deserves its name.

Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake

2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup Hershey's Cocoa
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup boiling water

Heat oven to 350F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.

Combine dry ingredients in large bowl.

Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla. Beat on medium speed 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin).

Divide equally between two pans.

Bake 30-35 minutes or until wooden toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes. Remove from pan to racks. Cool completely. Frost. (Because this cake is so moist, be careful when handling it, it likes to stick to the cooling racks.)

This cake is a good keeper; even after three days, it will still as moist as it was on the first day.


Seven minute frosting is not my personal favorite to eat or to prepare. It's sweet, sticky, (like marshmallow fluff) and can be a little cantankerous to get it to the point where you can use it. (The first time Ole Sweetie-Pi asked me for this frosting, I panicked because I had heard how difficult it could be.) Take your time, follow the directions, have your ingredients, bowls, pot, hot water and beater ready; be prepared to stand over it while it's being beaten, (depending on weather, it may take longer than 7 minutes, today it took 15 minutes because it was cold and rainy outside!) and it should work.

Once it's on the cake, it's positively beautiful. It's glossy, fluffy, understated splendor. With just a flick of my offset spatula, I can make little pulls and peaks in the frosting that make me look as if I know how to decorate a cake (which I most assuredly do not!). This is probably the prettiest cake that I make.

Seven-Minute Frosting

2 egg whites
1 1/2 cups sugar
pinch of salt
1/3 cup water
2 teaspoons light corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine all ingredients except vanilla in the top of a double boiler. Beat one minute or until thoroughly mixed. Then place this over boiling water (making sure the bottom of the pan does not touch the boiling water) and beat constantly at high speed of an electric mixer for seven minutes (frosting will stand in stiff peaks--you may need to beat it longer to reach this point).
Occasionally stir the frosting from the bottom and sides of the pan to ensure that the frosting is well combined.

Remove the pan from the boiling water and pour at once into a large bowl. Add the vanilla and beat one minute, until thick enough to spread.

You should have enough to generously cover tops and sides of two 8- or 9-inch layers, sides and tops, or a 10-inch tube cake.

This frosting is best enjoyed the day it is made. It starts to droop and crystallize on the second day.

I do not have a double boiler. I use a Pyrex bow with a rim of that sits nicely outside the rim of one of my pots. I do need oven mitts to remove the bowl, but that's a small inconvenience for the cost of a single-use pot, considering I have limited storage space.

Next year when Ole Sweetie-Pi is 62, we'll be having "Perfectly Chocolate" chocolate cake and 7-minute frosting. It's a delicious tradition.