Baking a perfect butter cake from scratch, using all-purpose flour and no baking powder (no kidding)

We had a birthday in late November. I can't believe this, but I have a child who is now 28 years old. It just doesn't seem possible that he could be this old. Anyways, we had an on-the-day celebration, and we also had a bigger, Saturday night celebration. If a birthday falls on a weekday, I bake a batch of cupcakes for the on-the-day celebration. And then on the weekend, when we all have more time, we have the birthday cake.

This is my all-time favorite, scratch yellow cake recipe, from my mother. I bake this cake for almost every birthday cake I make. Why? It calls for all-purpose flour, instead of cake flour. It never falls. It bakes a nice, slightly-domed top crust (no need to trim to set layers on top of each other). And it doesn't call for baking powder. You can use any solid shortening, but I think butter just tastes lightyears better. The layers can be baked days ahead, wrapped in plastic wrap and frozen. Then thaw on the counter for a couple of hours, and frost.

As my son's birthday falls right as I'm turning my energy towards Thanksgiving, I bake the cake layers in early November, wrap, freeze, then pull out the day before his celebration, to frost. The cake almost seems to improve with the freezing of the layers. I can easily slice the 2 layers in half, horizontally, using a serrated knife, for making a four-layer cake.

By the way, it may seem like a lot of extra work involved in buttering/flouring/lining a cake pan. this is how my mother always prepared the cake pans, and they never, ever stuck to the pan. So I continue to follow her instructions on this.

Here's the recipe for the butter cake.

Supplies:

two 8 X 1  1/2-inch cake pans. I use aluminum cake pans, like my mothers. I found mine at a garage sale, years ago. You can bake in larger cake pans, but the layers will be thinner, and the baking time should be shortened by a couple of minutes.
waxed paper and scissors
cake cooling rack (big enough for both layers)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter (or any solid shortening)
1  1/2 cups granulated white sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vinegar ***
scant 1 cup milk ***
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Butter and flour 2 layer cake pans. To flour a pan, put 1 tablespoon of flour into the bottom of the buttered pan. Shake from side to side, and tilt the pan, all around, to flour the sides of pan. Do this over the container of flour, tapping the last bit of flour back into the flour canister.

Cut circles of waxed paper to fit in the bottom of each pan. To cut waxed paper, set the pan on a sheet of waxed paper, and use the point of a pair of scissors to "trace" the bottom of the pan's shape. Cut on that tracing. Place waxed paper circles in bottoms of prepared pans.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter. Add sugar and beat until fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Beat in salt and baking soda.

In a measuring cup, pour vinegar. Add milk to the 1-cup mark.

Add flour and milk in thirds, alternately, until all is combined. Beat for 2 additional minutes.

Pour into the 2 prepared cake pans.

Bake in the center of the preheated oven, for 28 to 35 minutes, checking just at the minimum time for doneness. To check for doneness, gently press your finger into the center of the cake. The depression should spring back. (In my oven, two 8-inch layers take 28 minutes to bake, no convection/fan.)

When done, place the pans on a cooling rack, trivet or hot pad. Allow to cool 3-5 minutes. Run a table knife around the edges of the pans.

Turn the pans over onto the cooling rack. The cakes should come right out.

Peel off the waxed paper immediately, and discard.

Cool the layers completely before frosting or wrapping in plastic wrap to freeze.

***if you do not use vinegar, you can substitute 1 tablespoon baking powder for the 1 tablespoon vinegar plus 3/4 teaspoon baking soda. Then use 1 full cup of milk, in place of 1 scant cup of milk.


For setting layers, if you want a really flat top surface for decorating, then place the top layer, upside down on the frosting covered bottom layer. When I just want a homey-looking cake, I set the top layer, right side up. It gives the finished, frosted cake a slight rise in the center, which can look nice with a simple frosting.

And now I'm hungry for cake!

November 2015 Grocery Spending Journal

For the month of November, I have $138.43 left in the grocery budget.

Nov. 1 Cash & Carry for Karo corn syrup, 1 gallon. spent $12.97

Country Farms produce stand -- the last day. I bought 30 lbs of small oranges for 49 cents/lb, 24 lb box of new- crop Red Delicious apples for $8.95 (about 37 cents per pound), 4 acorn squash (from 2.25 lbs to 2.5 lbs each), priced at 50 cents each (about 22 cents/lb), 6 yellow and green peppers (2 for 49cents) and 11 jalapeno peppers (for making salsa for 77 cents total. I spent $28.16.

Nov. 3 Fred Meyer This is my Senior Discount day for November. The Senior Discount gets me 10% off of house-brand items. I stumbled upon marked down, gallon jugs of organic skim milk, marked at 99 cents, not in the regular milk cooler, but over with the organics. With my discount, they were 89 cents each, I buy 5. I also buy sunflower seeds in the bulk bins, for $1.34/lb, whole almonds for $6.29/lb, whole pecans for $9.71/lb. In the baking aisles, I find pecan pieces in 6-oz packets for $3.59 (or $9.57/lb). I buy 6 (these will be the only pecans I buy for the year, as they're pricey). I also buy powdered sugar for $1.61 in 2-lb bags, I buy 6. In the regular milk case, half-gallons are on sale with coupon for 99 cents each, with my discount, they're 89 cents each. I buy 6 half-gallons of whole milk. Spent $50.87

Nov 6. Dollar Tree for my monthly run. I buy 2 quarts of almond milk, and spend $2.

Nov. 12. I stopped in at the local garden center to buy daffodil bulbs. They sell pumpkins in fall, but then turn  their business over to Christmas in early November. They put their remaining pumpkins out for free sometime in November, every year. I happened by there on one of those days, and picked up 4 nice large pumpkins, and several small sugar pie ones. Don't worry, I left plenty behind!

Nov. 12,13 Cash & Carry for the ground beef on this week's specials. 80/20 ground beef is $1.99 per pound, in 10-lb chubs. When I get there, they are all out. I ask, and am told they will have more in at opening. While there, I pick up 1 bag of shredded Cheddar cheese (I want 2, but not sure if it will all fit in fridge, will decide tonight if I should get a second bag -- $10.85 each), 4-lb jars of peanut butter on sale for $5.48 ($1.37/lb), I buy 4. Spent $32.77


Back on the 13th, to get the ground beef they were out of the night before. Bought 20 lbs of ground beef ($19.90/10-lb roll) and 5 more pounds of shredded Cheddar ($10.85), plus 1 bottle of sparkling apple-cranberry juice for Thanksgiving ($1.99). Spend $52.64


Nov. 16 Fred Meyer. As mentioned on my facebook page, I went to Fred Meyer to get a turkey. The deal is spend $50, buy a turkey for 69 cents per pound. Fortunately, FM is a discount store, as well as a grocery store. So I was able to spend the $50 without paying inflated prices on anything. In food, I bought one almost-20 lb turkey and 4 half-gallons of milk (99 cents each with coupon) and 4 half-gallons of orange juice (99 cents with coupon). After running everything in the calculator that I carry in my purse, I was 1 cent short of the $50, so I picked up 1 Lindt truffle, on sale for 25 cents, getting me over that hump of a minimum spend in order to make the turkey deal. Spent $19.93 on food, including the turkey.

Total spent so far -- $199.34

Nov. 18 Trader Joe's for cocoa powder, $2.49/9-oz canister, best price on cocoa powder in our area. I want 2 canisters for birthday cakes and holiday baking. I spent $4.98. Cocoa powder is much less expensive than baking chocolate or chocolate chips. And you can make some very nice desserts with it, such as Buche de Noel, or a cocoa glaze for homemade eclairs. I also like to bake pinwheel cookies, swirls of chocolate (cocoa powder) and vanilla dough in a refrigerator cookie. They look "fancy", but are very affordable to make.

Nov. 19 Fred Meyer for that other turkey. I bought very little "food", just 3 half-gallons of orange juice (99cents each with coupon). All of this orange juice -- I freeze it, after pouring out 1 glass. These 3 half-gallons were enough to satisfy the minimum, with the other purchases. Plus the turkey brings me up to $16.47 today.

Total for the month, so far -- $220.79

Nov 18-22 -- several stops at Albertson's, often with family members in tow. 10-lb bags of potatoes are on sale for the week for 99 cents/bag. So far, I've bought 90 lbs of potatoes. If I happen by Albertson's or Safeway in the next 2 days, I may pick up one more bag. 100 lbs of potatoes sounds like a huge amount, but they go quickly. And what is left in mid-winter will be cooked, mashed and frozen to serve later in winter, and into spring. So far, spent $8.91

I did stop in to Albertson's one more time for potatoes and 1 mushroom(yes, 1 mushroom, to add to my home version of cream of mushroom soup for green bean casserole). The potatoes were 99 cents for 10 lbs, and the mushroom was 33 cents. spent $1.32

Nov. 28 At Fred Meyer, picking up gift cards to use for Christmas shopping (4 X fuel rewards on gift cards this week). Also checked the egg cooler. Found 1 dozen repackaged eggs (I posted on these in June) for $1.19. I knew I'd be needing another dozen eggs, at least, in addition to the eggs I have frozen, to get me until Easter. I was very glad to find the repackaged eggs!

Now I'm done shopping for the month. For November, I spent $232.21, $93.78 over. But, we are pretty well-stocked right now. There's not a lot that I need, now. If I had to, I could get by with only buying milk, and still do fine for quite a while. That's a pretty good feeling, and totally eases the pain of going over budget for so long.



What I bought in November

Dairy
5 gallons skim milk
10 half-gallons whole milk
2 quarts almond milk
10 lbs shredded Cheddar cheese
1 dozen eggs

Produce
30 lbs of small oranges (perfect for lunches)
24 lbs Red Delicious apples
4 acorn squash
6 sweet peppers
11 hot peppers
lots of pumpkins
7 half-gallons of orange juice
100 lbs of potatoes
1 mushroom

Meat
19.91 lb turkey
19.57 lb turkey
20 lbs 80/20 ground beef

Pantry
1 gallon Karo light corn syrup
sunflower seeds
whole almonds
whole pecans
2  1/4 lbs. pecan pieces
12 lbs powdered sugar
16 lbs peanut butter
1 bottle sparkling cider
1 Lindt truffle candy
18 ounces cocoa powder

In December, I'll buy a ham or two, maybe some cream cheese, and perhaps some other holiday foods, but not sure, yet. I never did buy canned pumpkin. I bought some fresh pumpkins in October, and then got several more pumpkins for free, this month. I've been cooking and freezing the puree. I should have enough pumpkin to get through the year.