Cakes made from scratch: Two foolproof recipes
They are the hidden treasures of our past, tucked among the yellowed pages of a grandmother’s long-forgotten cookbook collection: recipes for cakes made from scratch. To many, making a cake without the aid of a boxed mix or a call to the bakery is a foreign concept.
There was a time when baking a cake from scratch was as expected a weekly chore as doing the laundry.
Flour was sifted and butter and eggs measured with care to create a fitting ending to Sunday dinner, an elegant presentation for a club meeting, or a treat served up at the kitchen table with glasses of cold milk.
But the introduction of cake mixes following World War II changed the way Americans baked.
In “The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink,” author Stephen Schmidt writes, “Cake is not really all that difficult, but decades of reliance on store-bought cakes and cake mixes have rendered American home bakers, particularly younger ones, helpless before even the simplest recipe.”
While mixes focus on the basics — chocolate, yellow, white — baking from scratch provides a wide variety of flavors and textures, and produces cakes that also serve up a slice of history.
The Orange Chiffon Cake, for example, was invented in the 1920s by Harry Baker, a California insurance salesman turned Hollywood caterer, who later sold his recipe to General Mills, according to the Oxford Companion.
Baker’s secret was using cooking oil, rather than butter, to create a lighter-textured cake. His recipe was one of the first widely accepted oil-method cakes.
General Mills included the recipe on packages of Gold Medal flour, and by 1948, Betty Crocker — the fictitious baking persona for General Mills — hailed the Orange Chiffon Cake as “the cake discovery of the century,” according to “The Good Home Cookbook,” which includes the recipe.
Many scratch cake recipes came from companies trying to promote one of their ingredients. Oatmeal cakes became popular in the 1960s, when Quaker Oats came out with its quick-cooking version.
When the ingredients are on hand, a scratch cake is little more work than adding eggs, oil and water to a cake mix.
One thing to remember: When baking, you have to be very careful. Just measure very carefully and follow the instructions on the recipe as it says.
Orange Chiffon Cake
7 large eggs, separated
2 1/4 cups sifted cake flour
1 1/2 cups superfine white sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup oil
3/4 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons finely grated orange zest
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
Separate the eggs and place the whites in one bowl and 6 egg yolks in another, discarding the last egg yolk. Cover both with plastic wrap and bring them to room temperature, about 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
Stir the flour, 1 1/4 cups superfine sugar, baking powder and salt into a large bowl.
Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and add the egg yolks, oil, orange juice, orange zest and vanilla extract. Beat for 1 minute with an electric mixer at medium speed until smooth. Set aside.
Put the egg whites in a separate medium bowl and beat until foamy with clean beaters. Add the cream of tartar and continue to beat until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in the remainingvcup superfine sugar, beating until stiff peaks form.
Gently fold the egg white mixture into the batter until just blended. Pour into an ungreased, 10-inch tube pan.
Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean and the top of the cake springs back when lightly pressed.
Thread the pan, right side up, onto the neck of a bottle and cool completely before removing the cake from the pan, 1z to 2 hours.
To remove the cake from the pan, run a thin-bladed knife around the inside of the tube pan and center core. Invert onto a greased wire rack, cool and serve.
Makes 10 to 12 servings.
Oatmeal Cake
For the cake:
2 cups boiling water
1 1/2 cups quick oatmeal
1 1/2 sticks butter or margarine
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 1/4 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt For the topping:
1/2 stick butter or margarine, melted
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup shredded coconut
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl, place oatmeal and butter or margarine with boiling water. Stir to combine. Let sit for 20 minutes.
With an electric mixer, beat eggs. Add in white sugar and brown sugar and beat with eggs until combined. Mix together flour, salt, soda and cinnamon. Add flour mixture to egg mixture a little at a time and mix until incorporated.
Add oatmeal mixture to batter and mix until well combined.
Pour cake batter into a 9-by-13-inch metal cake pan that has been greased or sprayed with nonstick cooking spray.
Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes or until cake is done.
While cake is baking, prepare topping. In a saucepan over low heat, mix all topping ingredients and cook, stirring constantly, until sugar has melted.
While cake is still hot, cover with warm topping.
Place cake in broiler for 1 to 2 minutes to toast topping. Remove from broiler. Cool cake completely before serving.
Makes 1 cake. Note: You must bake this in a metal pan; most glass cake pans are not safe for the broiler.
