Betty Crocker: 'New Method' Cake Recipe (1940s)

[frigilux]

Eddie's thread on America's Test Kitchen's 'Reverse Creaming' method for cakes reminded me of a 1940s short film by Betty Crocker introducing their revolutionary no creaming/4-minute new method. It is similar to reverse creaming.

THE FILM: It begins with a few minutes on the history of cakes. Jump to the 7:53 mark for the kitchen demonstration of the new method.

 

Photo 1: Ingredients for variations on white cake.

 

Photo 2: First, follow the 5 steps at the top of the opposite page. These steps merely said to measure everything out and allow milk, shortening, and eggs to come to room temperature before continuing.

 

Photo 3: Continuation of instructions.

 

Apology for photos: The newer 'Add Photos Here' feature won't accept PDF format. I switched them to JPG, but now they won't enlarge when the 'view full size' box is checked.  Get out your magnifying glass!

 



 

 

[frigilux]

Tried using the old 'Choose File' method of importing the above and it didn't work.

 

[washman]

Hi Frig!

 

[frigilux]

Hi, Ben!

 

[washman]

FWIW

I notice she is using softasilk cake flour. I think you can still get it.

Back in the day, I baked a lot of cakes and my favorite was from a Canadian Cookbook featuring Purity flour. I researched and found out it was a general purpose moderate gluten flour. I used their recipe for what was called a plain butter cake and I used Gold Medal all purpose flour.

I specifically recall advice in part"...........prolonged beating is the only way to secure a fine grained cake........"

So by hand, I beat it 500 times (no lie) and came out with a pretty darned good cake. Definitely superior to any box mix.

 

[ea56]

Eugene

the picures of the Betty Crocker Cookbook pages are just like my 1950 1st edt. I loved watching that 1945 instructional video. Thanks for sharing it. Notice how she economized on her use of bowls by using the measuring cup for the egg yolks when she separated the eggs. This is the way the women in my family cooked, after all, why make more work for yourself.

When I first started baking cakes from scratch at around age 12 these are the recipes I used because that was really the only cookbook we had at home. My Mom pretty much winged it when baking or cooking. I never remember her measuring to make pie crust, biscuits, cookies and some more rustic cakes, and they were always good. These double quick recipes produce a pretty good cake, and it really is important to have the ingredients at room temp. I think the finished cake has more volume. Why I really like the reverse creaming method better is its easier and to my mind produces a moister cake. What Cook's Country said about why it is better is because all the flour gets evenly coated with the butter and when the liquid ingredients are added and the batter is beaten less gluten is produced giving a more tender cake.
Eddie

 

[mixguy]

Cake Mixing Methods

Interesting how speed setting changed and varied with mixer manufacturers. Sunbeam used speed 8 for creaming and speed 4 for one bowl or quik mix cakes with the model 12. Sunbeam Model 9 used speed 8 for creaming and speed 2 for one bowl of quik-mix cakes.

Seems like when the 'new method" cake recipes were first created slower speeds were employed (less aeration was possible) Could it be the fear of over mixing? The instructions specified mixing times and stress that accurate timing was important.

The newer paste method of mixing seems to create a cake much like a Quik-Mix or one bowl cake.

Betty Crocker published one cook book during the 1950s having the same cake written for both mixing methods (creaming and one bowl) The amount of ingredients varied (mostly with sugar)

Cookbook authors disagree about which mixing method they like and I know there are members here that disagree about which mixer they like to use in mixing cakes as well.

I have used Softasilk and Swans Down cake flour. I have also King Arthur's cake flour blend, but have not yet tried their newest cake flour in the blue box.

Stating all this to get feedback from members based on their experiences.

 

[mixguy]

Reverse Creaming Thread

I see others have explained in detail there what I was eluding. Many food scientists among us. Great reading material!