1234 Cake Recipe
The Birthday cake childhood dreams are made of, if childhood dreams of birthday cakes include the best yellow cake in the world. 1234 cake should be your go-to old-fashioned yellow cake recipe.
Servings 12 servings
Calories 426kcal
Ingredients
For the Cake
- 1 cup butter (2 sticks/8oz)
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 Tablespoon best quality vanilla
- 2 cups granulated sugar (14oz)
- 3 cups sifted cake flour (13oz)
- 4 large eggs , lightly beaten
- 1 Tablespoon baking powder
- 1 cup milk (I used whole milk)
Instructions
For the Cake
- For the best and most stable emulsion, make sure all your ingredients are at cool room temperature.
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
- Spray 2 9"x2" cake pans with pan spray.
- Line the bottoms with parchment circles and set aside.
- Whisk together the flour and baking powder. Set aside.
- In a bowl, whisk the eggs together until uniform. Set aside.
- Cream the butter until smooth.
- Add the salt, vanilla, and sugar and continue to cream until very light and fluffy. Scrape the bowl and beater as necessary.
- With the mixer running, slowly drizzle the eggs in, a bit at a time, until completely incorporated. This should take about 5-6 minutes. Scrape the bowl as necessary.
- Add the dry ingredients alternately with the milk: 3 additions for the dry and 2 for the milk, beginning and ending with dry.Do this on low speed and don't take longer than a minute for the whole process. Scrape the bowl as necessary. You may have to finish mixing by folding with a spatula, but that's okay. Better that than over-mixing your batter.
- Scrape into the prepared pans. Do not fill them more than half full. If you have extra batter, make a few cupcakes.
- Bake the pans in the center of the oven until they are well risen, firm to the touch and and a lovely golden brown. A tester inserted into the center of the cake should come out clean. Depending on your oven and pan size, this could take anywhere from 35-45 minutes or longer, so keep an eye on them.
- When done, remove from the oven and let sit on racks for 10-15 minutes.
- Turn out on racks, wrap tightly in plastic wrap and either let come to room temperature or put them in the refrigerator or freezer for more rapid cooling.
- Once cooled, serve plain with some whipped cream or ice cream, or fill and frost as desired.
Video
Notes
Since this cake is more pound cake-ish, the outer crust can be a bit crisp if you let it cool at room temperature without wrapping it in plastic wrap. Use a serrated knife to slice off the crisp bit on the top. This will also let you level the cake if it has domed slightly in the oven.
NOTE that the calculated calories are for cake plus frosting.
THE CREAMING METHOD
Please watch the video in the recipe card to see the creaming method in action, especially the modified way I make it, beating the eggs before slowly adding them into the batter.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 9″x2″ 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. As long as you are using fresh baking powder, this cake rises really nicely, and you don't want your cake to end up rising up and spilling over. Storing: Store the frosted cake at room temperature for up to 5 days. For longer storage, freeze individual slices and allow them to stand at room temperature for about an hour before serving.NOTE that the calculated calories are for cake plus frosting.
Nutrition
Serving: 1g | Calories: 426kcal | Carbohydrates: 62g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 18g | Saturated Fat: 11g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 6g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 104mg | Sodium: 454mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 35g