1-2-3-4 Cake

- Total Time
- 1 hour
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 4eggs, separated
- 1cup milk
- 3cups cake flour (sift and then measure)
- 4teaspoons baking powder
- ½teaspoon salt
- 1cup (2 sticks) unsweetened butter, softened
- 2cups sugar
- 1teaspoon vanilla
Preparation
- Step 1
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter two 9-inch baking pans and line the bottom of each with parchment paper. Butter the paper and dust the pans with flour, tapping out the excess.
- Step 2
Stir baking powder and salt into cake flour.
- Step 3
In another bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the four egg yolks one at a time. Add the vanilla to the mixture.
- Step 4
Add the flour mixture and milk alternately, starting and ending with one third of the flour. Stir just until the flour is incorporated.
- Step 5
In another bowl, whisk egg whites to soft peaks. Stir one third of the egg whites into the batter, then gently fold in the rest. Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 30 to 40 minutes.
- Step 6
Hint: Whisk the egg whites first in the mixer and put the stiff egg whites on a plate. Then beat the sugar and butter in the same bowl.
Private Notes
Comments
I would have taken a photo. But it was gone before I had a chance. I have an original recipe passed down. Very easy. Beat 1 cup of butter or margarine, 2 cups sugar, blend well. Add 4 eggs. One at a time until mixed well. Add 2 tbsp. Vanilla and beat until fluffy. Add 3 cups flour ( i used Gold Medal self raising) and a pinch of salt.Add a 1 scant c.milk. mix until smooth.sprinkle pecans broken up on top. Bake in a greased pan for 55 min. At 325 cool on a rack. Enjoy. 81/2 by 21/2
Check the ingredient list and you see 1,2,3,4. Great old time cake which I have made many times and got the recipe from "The Joy of Cooking" more than 50 yrs ago.
Came out too sweet the first time. Second attempt, I used 1 cup sugar and 3.5 cups flour. Didn’t bother separating eggs. Came out perfectly. I suppose it isn’t 1-2-3-4, but it tastes better to me.
Add 1 tbsp lemon zest and 2 tsp juice
What on earth is “unsweetened” butter?
This was the first cake I made from scratch and on my own. I was about 12 years old at the time. As I remember, it had a very smooth, pound-cake-like texture. And like the photo shows, we served it sans icing and with fresh blackberries we'd picked at my Aunt's farm. Auld Lang Syne.
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