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Boston Favorite Cake
2/3 cup butter 1 cup milk 2 cups sugar 3 1/2 cups flour 4 eggs 1/2 teaspoon salt 5 teaspoons baking powder Cream the butter, add sugar gradually, eggs beaten until light, then milk and flour mixed and sifted with baking powder. This recipe makes two loaves, or one-half the mixture may be baked in individual tins.
This is the standard American butter cake of the period, close cousin to the 1-2-3-4 cake, and it behaves well if you treat the leavening and the oven with a little care.
- Baking powderFive teaspoons to 3 1/2 cups flour is on the generous side by current standards, and early tartrate and phosphate powders varied in strength and lost it on the shelf. With modern double-acting powder, 3 1/2 to 4 teaspoons may give a better crumb and avoid the metallic aftertaste and coarse texture that over-leavening can produce.
- The saltThe method line never mentions the half teaspoon of salt. Sift it with the flour and baking powder.
- OvenNo temperature is given. A moderate oven, around 350F, suits it. Two loaf pans take roughly 40 to 50 minutes; individual tins 20 to 25.
- Creaming is the hingeThere is no chemical shortcut here beyond the baking powder, so the rise depends on air beaten into the butter and sugar and into the eggs. Cream until visibly pale and fluffy, beat the eggs until thick and light, and fold rather than stir once the flour goes in.
- Alternating wet and dry"Then milk and flour" reads as one step, but the batter will curdle and toughen if you dump both in. Add the flour mixture and milk in three or four alternating additions, beginning and ending with flour.
- PansTwo loaf pans of about 8 1/2 by 4 1/2 inches, buttered and floured, or lined with parchment. The batter is stiff enough to need spreading level with a spatula. The full batch would fill roughly two dozen standard muffin cups, though the recipe suggests baking only half the mixture that way.
- ButterThe 2/3 cup is a little over 10 tablespoons, or about 5 1/4 ounces. Use unsalted and have it at cool room temperature, soft enough to take an impression but not greasy.
- Yield and keepingTwo loaves, each serving eight to ten. The high sugar and butter keep it moist for two or three days wrapped at room temperature; it also slices well for a plain iced layer or a strawberry shortcake base.