1-2-3-4 Cake

npsmama

Just came across this and thought I would share:

1 cup butter, at room temperature
2 cups sugar
3 cups sifted self-raising flour
4 eggs
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Prepare 3 (9-inch :eek:) cake pans. Using an electric mixer, cream butter until fluffy. Add sugar and continue to cream well for 6 to 8 minutes. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour and milk alternately. Add vanilla and beat until just mixed.
Pour into pans.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. Cool in pans 5 to 10 minutes before turning out on a rack.

Seems to make a massive cake so I might halve the recipe.
Also wondered about using buttermilk instead of milk as I think it really helps with the texture of the cake.

bellaquidsin

This reminds me of a cake my mum invented when times were hard, economical as it only has one egg. She called it a 4-3-2-1 cake.

4oz SR Flour
3oz caster sugar
2oz soft margarine
1 egg
1 level teasp. baking powder
1 tablesp. milk.

Mix all ingredients together until light and fluffy and bake:-

I have done it in:-

a deepish 6" tin to split and add a filling
an 8" tin and just iced or butter cream iced the top
fairy cakes (makes 12)

Just adjust times and temperatures accordingly.

The fairy cakes are fab made in the Remoska

Bella.

thriftlady_2

Ha! I've just been reading about 1-2-3-4 cake in The Art Of Simple Food by Alice Waters. I shall be trying it for my birthday next week;)

1 cup of butter is 8oz btw -I find it easy to measure dry ingredients in cups but butter is easier by weight. My copy of the book is a UK edition so all the cup measurements are gone and replaced with metric. The Americans seem to think we are all totally metric here -not me I'm an imperial girl.

Here are the metricated quantities

225g butter (8oz)
400g sugar (14oz)
350g flour (12.5oz)
225ml milk (8 fl oz)