1 2 3 4 Cake Recipe | Old-Fashioned Yellow Cake

The Best Birthday Cake Recipe

As I said in the introduction, a 1234 cake is my idea of the best kind of birthday cake.

Moist and flavorful, the cake rises high, resulting in two tall layers (or four, if you torte them) that have a lot of “presence.”

Since the cake has 4 eggs in it, it is fairly rich and a beautiful buttery yellow color.

Compared to a modern “standard” yellow cake, it’s also sweeter and contains a bit more flour.

The extra flour makes it pretty “sturdy,” but not in a bad way.

It’s the kind of cake you could easily carve or sculpt if you needed/wanted to.

1-2-3-4 Cake Formula

A 1 2 3 4 cake is an old-fashioned yellow cake recipe.

Versions of this cake have been around for decades.

This is an old, old recipe. The amounts of the four main ingredients are easy to remember, making this an excellent cake formula to keep in your head in case you find yourself in Dire Need of Cake with  nary a cookbook or Hinternets to be found. Here’s all you have to remember:

• 1 cup of butter (2 sticks/8 oz)
• 2 cups of sugar (14 oz)
• 3 cups of cake flour or all-purpose flour (13-14 oz)
• 4 eggs (about 7 oz)

You’ll also need

• 1 level teaspoon of fine salt (or a slightly rounded teaspoon of kosher salt)
• 1 Tablespoon baking powder (3 teaspoons, 1 teaspoon per cup of flour)
• 1 cup of milk
• enough vanilla or other extract/s to make it taste delicious, probably 2-3 teaspoons of vanilla

Another thing about the batter for this cake: it tastes exactly the way cake batter ice cream wishes it tasted but doesn’t.

If you are a Fan of Batter, make sure you use really fresh eggs, because you will want more than just a Wee Taste.

If you’d like to make a 1234 cake as pictured, pair it with my caramel frosting recipe. So old-fashioned and a really tasty combination!

How to Make This Old-Fashioned Yellow Cake

In this section, I’ll go over the ingredients you will need, offer substitutions where applicable, and walk you through the mixing method.

Ingredients and Substitutions

• butter: Adds richness, tenderness, assists in browning, and carries flavor. I use unsalted. If you have salted, go ahead and use that. You will probably be able to cut down the additional salt by half. You may also use a plant-based butter
• sugar: Adds sweetness, tenderness, helps to retain moisture, and assists with browning. Regular granulated sugar is called for. You may also use the cup for cup granulated sweetener of your choice such as Lakanto Monkfruit or Swerve.
• salt: Enhances the flavor, especially of the butter and egg. Use fine salt or kosher. If using kosher salt, you will want to use a slightly rounded teaspoon instead of a level teaspoon.
• vanilla: Rounds out the flavor and adds some woody and floral notes. Use the vanilla you have. No need to go out and buy the primo kind
• eggs: Provides structure, moisture, some additional fat and emulsifiers, and promotes browning. I use large eggs. For a no-egg version, you can use an egg replacer such as JUST Eggs or your favorite egg substitute. (That link shares 4 different substitutes you can try)
• flour: Adds bulk and structure, holds onto some moisture as well. You can use all-purpose or cake flour. If you use cake flour, the cake will be a bit more tender and may not rise quite as high, so it comes down to personal preference
• baking powder: chemical leavener. I use Rumford brand.
• milk: Lightens the cake, keeping the batter from being too dense. You may use whole milk or 2% or any plant-based milk you prefer.

Tips on Making a 1234 Cake

This recipe makes a Rather Lot of batter.

The original recipe, slightly adapted from Carole Walter’s Great Cakes cookbook calls for this to be baked in a 10″ tube pan.

If you’re going to bake layers, you’ll have enough batter to make 2 8″ or 9″ x 2″ layers.

Make sure you’re baking in pans with 2″ sides. Those 1 1/2″ jobbies from the grocery store won’t hold it. And if you have any question about whether all the batter will fit into your pans, err on the side of caution and bake a couple of cupcakes, too.

Fill your pans only half full. Trust me. If you do forget and fill them too full, there is help for you. This is the advice I gave folks on facebook yesterday. Behold, it stands the test of time. Because it is still true today.

1234 Cake Variations

There are many ways to switch up your 1 2 3 4 cake recipe. Here are just a few I can think of off the top of my head. I am sure you will think of others.

• Buttermilk cake: substitute 1 cup of buttermilk for the whole milk. Add 1/4 teaspoon baking soda to your dry ingredients.
• Lemon cake: Add zest of 2 lemons to the butter/sugar mixture, substitute 1/2-1 teaspoon of lemon extract for the vanilla.
• Spice cake: Add 2-3 teaspoons of your favorite sweet spice mix (apple pie spice, pumpkin pie spice) or a mixture of spices (cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, etc) to the dry ingredients. Consider using buttermilk in place of whole milk (see the buttermilk cake variation)
• Chocolate cake: substitute 1/2-3/4 cup sifted cocoa powder for an equal amount of flour, use 1/2 brown sugar and 1/2 white sugar, and use coffee as the liquid. Add 1/4 teaspoon baking soda to the dry ingredients.

Looking for more old fashioned cake recipes? Give my Butterscotch Cake a try. You won’t be sorry!

A Note on Measurements

The majority of my recipes are written by weight rather than volume, although by its nature, a 1234 cake is designed to be made by volume.

Still, I implore you to buy a scale, both for accuracy and consistency. This is the scale I use, love, and highly recommend:

Enjoy the cake, friends!

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a lovely day.