Serves: 8
Prep time: two hours
Ingredients
- 1 cup softened butter
- 2 cups sugar
- 3 cups cake flour
- 4 eggs, separated
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 and ¼ cups milk
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 3 teaspoons of baking powder
Directions
- Mix sugar and butter until creamy. Add beaten egg yolks.
- Sift flour, salt and baking powder. Add to sugar and butter mixture a little at a time, and pour milk into mixture gradually as well. Add vanilla last.
- Beat egg whites until stiff and fold thoroughly into cake batter by hand.
- Pour into two greased nine-inch cake pans.
- Bake at 365 degrees for 35 minutes (The temperature is not a typo. That’s what my mom’s recipe says, and who am I to quibble?)
In the photo I used a springform pan, to see how it would come out. That was a mistake because it took much longer to bake and the top was uneven. It didn’t affect the flavor, and the frosting hides cake flaws very easily, but the original two-layer method is the way to go.
Meringue Icing
From the Betty Crocker Cookbook
Ingredients
- Covers 2 nine-inch cake layers
- ½ cup sugar
- ¼ cup light corn syrup
- 2 Tablespoons water
- 2 egg whites
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Directions
- Optional: 1 and ½ cups of coconut, to be sprinkled on cake after it has been frosted.
- Combine sugar, corn syrup, and water in saucepan. Heat to rolling boil until small amount of the mixture dropped into a cup of ice cold water forms a ball. As mixture boils, beat egg whites until stiff.
- Pour hot syrup in a thin stream into the egg whites, beating constantly at medium speed. Beat on high speed until stiff peaks form, and add vanilla just before finishing.
- Spread on cake as soon as icing is finished. This is a lush icing that doesn’t need careful application; pile it on, give it a few loose strokes, and it will be perfect. Add coconut if desired.
