Cookbook:1-2-3-4 Cake

1-2-3-4 Cake
Category	Cake recipes
Servings	8–10
Time	Prep: 20 minutes Baking: 60 minutes
Difficulty

Cookbook | Recipes | Ingredients | Equipment | Techniques | Cookbook Disambiguation Pages | Recipes | United States | Cake

This is a traditional American recipe for a 1-2-3-4 cake, a simple form of yellow cake. The name comes from the volumetric ratio of butter to sugar, flour, and eggs.

Ingredients

• 1 cup (240 g / 8.5 oz) butter
• 1 cup (240 ml / 8.1 oz) milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups (450 g / 16 oz) white granulated sugar
• 3 cups (400 g / 14 oz) all-purpose flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 3 pinches of salt
• 4 eggs

Procedure (brief)

1. Preheat oven to 175 °C (350 °F)
2. Cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy.
3. Beat in the vanilla and eggs, one at a time, ensuring the batter is well mixed after each egg.
4. Gradually sift in the dry ingredients, alternating with small additions of the milk.
5. Transfer to a greased and floured baking pan.
6. Bake at 175 °C (350 °F), until a skewer inserted shows no moist crumbs.

Procedure (detailed)

Preparation

You will need these things:

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  The ingredients. (Salt not shown here)
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  Cooking implements: beaters, large bowl, cup measurement and large cake tin. Scales optional.
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  An oven, of course!

Method

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  1. Preheat your oven.
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  2. Cream the butter and sugar together.
• 
  3. Crack the eggs in, and beat them in too
• 
  After beating in the eggs, it looks like this
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  4. Now get your flour and milk
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  5. Mix a little bit of flour in it.
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  6. Then a little bit of milk.
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  Repeat 5 and 6 until done. By now the mixture will be very smooth.
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  7. Pour the mixture into a greased and floured cake tin, then pop it in the oven
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  8. Checking if the cake is "done": put a sharp knife or skewer into the centre of the cake
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  If the knife is dirty - the mixture is still wet - put it back in! (This was after about 15 minutes, it takes a lot longer)
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  Finally, it's done! Notice how brown the top is, due to the high sugar content