Piece of Cake: Cake Baking Tips & Fabulous 1930 Layered Chocolate Cake with Fruit Filling Recipe

By Vicki McClure Davidson

A colleague of mine recently gave me several old cookbooks that were his mother's. She is well past 90, and because of her fragile health and failing memory, has had to enter into an assisted living facility. While sadly taking care of selling off or giving away a lifetime of his mother's possessions, my friend spied a few old cookbooks of hers and thought I'd enjoy them.

Zowie, he was SO right. I love thumbing through and using cookbooks that are older than I am, especially those from the Great Depression era. These are filled with practical cooking tips and recipes from an era of frugality and expertise, some even have fascinating historical information on dishes of that era that may not be well-known now. Many of the pages have some spatters, smudges, and smears from long-ago batters and gravies. Those are the cookbook pages that I zoom in on first, since they more often than not are indicative of the recipes that were the family's top favorites.

In one of the vintage cookbooks, there was an unbelievable little gem. A yellowed newspaper clipping of a layered chocolate cake with fruit filling recipe, snipped from a 1930 publication of "The Daily Plain Dealer." I've included two photo captures of it below (both front and back). Amazing!

I was able to determine the year this was published because of the back side of the recipe, which showed partial ads for two new movie releases at the time: one was with William Haines, Leila Hyams, and Marie Dressler in the romantic comedy The Girl Said No and in the other, Constance Bennett with Richard Barthelmess in the film Son of the Gods. Both films were released in the year 1930. At the very bottom of the clipping is a pitch for home delivery of "The Daily Plain Dealer" newspaper. Only 18 cents per week for home delivery!

For the past 80-plus years, this make-it-from-scratch chocolate cake recipe clipping has quietly served as a bookmark. Because of the age of the clipping, I'm guessing that my friend's mother somehow acquired it years after it was published, because she would have only been between 10 to 15 years old in 1930. So cool and amazing...

The recipe below calls for using "top milk," in the filling, which according to Merriam-Webster if you're not familiar with the term, is the upper layer of milk in a container enriched by whatever cream has risen. The first known usage of the term was back in 1891 and before homogenization and pasteurization became common. It is the cream that rises to the top of non-homogenized milk and is much richer and thicker than regular milk. This top milk reference will show up in many older cookbooks.

A terrific explanation about top milk, and another make-it-from-scratch cake recipe can be found at Diary of a Locavore and some more info on top milk is available at this location at Yahoo.

If you don't have access to top milk, you should be able to substitute it with light cream, heavy whipping cream, or even double cream in the recipe.

This layered chocolate cake with fruit filling recipe, or one similar to it, may have been made by your grandmother or aunt during the Great Depression era before any frugal housewife worth her apron would buy a cake mix. I've provided both the screen capture of the clipping and have typed the recipe up as well, with a bit of modification where it seemed advisable. Click here to see a larger version of the vintage newspaper recipe clipping.

The baking time was not included in the recipe (uh, oh), so I had to dig around for some general advice.

According to two sources (Baking911 and the Wilton cake pan site), if you are using 8- or 9-inch round cake pans, the rule of thumb is about 30 - 35 minutes baking time.

To be safe, and if your oven runs a bit hot, I'd suggest checking it at 29 minutes, piercing the center with a toothpick for doneness.

Chocolate Cake with Fruit Filling

4 squares bitter chocolate
3 T sugar
1/4 c boiling water
1/2 c butter
1-1/2 c sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 c cake flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c milk

Grate chocolate, add sugar (3 T), and boiling water, melt over hot water, stirring occasionally.

Cream shortening and add sugar (1-1/2 c) gradually while continuing creaming process. Stir in the chocolate, separate eggs, beat yolks well and add to first mixture. Add vanilla, then dry ingredients (sifted together) alternately with milk. Lastly, fold in stiffly beaten egg whites.

Bake in two layers in a moderate oven, 350 degrees Fahrenheit. When cool, spread with the following fruit mixture.

Fruit Filling

1 c top milk
3/4 c sugar
1/4 c dates, chopped
1/4 c raisins
1/2 c nutmeats, chopped
1 tsp vanilla

Mix top milk with sugar and stir over hot water until sugar is dissolved. Add fruit and cook until thick.

Cool, add vanilla and nutmeats, and spread between cake layers.

Frost the cake with your favorite chocolate frosting.

1930 newspaper clipping with chocolate cake recipe from The Daily Plain Dealer

Back side of the 1930 recipe newspaper clipping from The Daily Plain Dealer, with 1930 movie ads

CAKE MAKING TIPS

There are many little-known tricks and tips to creating a perfect cake from scratch.

Ingredients and oven temperature are very important, but there are other simple secrets and tips as well. Below are but a few:

This first set of cake tips is from the 1989 publication of Reader's Digest - Cook Now Serve Later, The Reader's Digest Association, Inc., Pleasantville, New York. Project editor was Gayla Visalli.

Most cakes will keep well for a day or two at room temperature if protected by a cake cover or by a wrapping of aluminum oil or plastic.
If you plan to freeze a cake, it is best to freeze it unfrosted (frosting a frozen cake is easier, too). Wrap each layer in heavy-duty aluminum foil, label, and freeze at 0 deg F for up to 8 months.
If you choose to freeze a frosted cake, use a frosting made with butter and confectioners' sugar; it should not contain egg whites, brown sugar, or artificial flavorings. Partially freeze the cake first, then protect the icing with a layer of wax paper before wrapping it in aluminum foil. Allow 1 to 2 hours for a cake to defrost at room temperature.

Cake Making Tips from Chef Rick — visit his site for more cake making tips:

Generously grease the inside of the pan with solid vegetable shortening. Use a pastry brush to spread shortening evenly, making sure all inside surfaces are well covered. Dust with flour, tap out excess. If shiny spots remain, touch up with more shortening and flour, or use vegetable pan spray.
Always use fresh eggs. Eggs separate best when cold, but egg whites whip up best at room temperature.
Chill the cake between the filling and the frosting. The cake will be much easier to work with.
Apply a thin layer of frosting to the cake then refrigerate until it is set before applying the final, heavier layer of frosting. This will seal in the crumbs, ensuring a clean final appearance.

Tip from CDKitchen, Flouring Cake Pans:

When flouring a cake pan, take into consideration the flavor of the cake. If you plan to serve the cake dusted with powdered sugar, a white ring on the side of a chocolate cake takes away from the appeal. For light cakes, use white flour to flour your pans. When making a dark cake, use powdered cocoa. The cocoa works in the same manner as the flour with regard to release and it doesn't leave a white ring around the edge or on top of the cake.

And this on keeping the cake plate neat and clean while decorating:

To decorate a cake directly on its serving plate, slip strips of wax paper under the edge of the cake, allowing them to hang over the rim of the plate. Frost cake, then, with a quick motion, pull out the paper. This leaves the serving plate nice and clean without a trace of frosting.

Cake Frosting Tips from the Betty Crocker website:

If the cake is very soft and crumbly, apply a "crumb coating" to prevent cake crumbs from mixing with the frosting. Spread a thin layer of frosting over the entire cake, then let stand 5 to 10 min. or until frosting is set. Spread remaining frosting over cake.

Make sure cakes are completely cooled before frosting. A warm cake can cause the frosting to soften or melt.

Cake Baking Tips from About.com, Southern Food — visit the site for more little-known tips:

If your oven temperature is questionable, invest in an oven thermometer. Some ovens can be off by as much as 75 degrees F.
Before mixing the batter, prepare the pans, turn the oven on, and make sure the rack is in the center.
Shiny pans reflect the heat, and are your best choice for cake baking.
Reduce the oven temperature by 25° when using glass pans.
To make a lighter cake, separate the eggs first. Add the yolks to the butter mixture, beat the egg whites then fold into the batter.
Substitute 8-inch square pans for round if you want, or use 2 to 3 8- X 4-inch loaf pans. The baking time will be less, so begin checking about 15 minutes before the time suggested.
Have all ingredients at room temperature for best results.
Grease pans with about 1 tablespoon of fat per layer pan.
To split layer cakes loop a long strand of unflavored dental floss around the center of the cake horizontally. Cross the ends and slowly and firmly pull on each end to cut cleanly through the cake.

Some more terrific cake tips from the 1989 The New Basics Cookbook, written by Julie Rosso & Sheila Lukins, Workman Publishing, NY:

Don't open the oven door while a cake is baking until you are quite sure it is close to being done.
Let a cake cool completely before slicing or icing it. It's usually better the next day.
For more flavor, before icing it, dab a cake with sugar syrup mixed with a splash of liqueur or liquor.
Fruitcakes and pound cakes are easier to slice when they are cold.
Slice cheesecakes and sticky frosted cakes with a hot wet knife. Have a tall glass of hot water on hand to dip the knife and damp paper towels to wipe it after each slice.
For even slices, cut a whole cake in half, then quarters, then into the desired number of slices.
To cut a round cake, start at the center and work toward the edge.

Frugal Café Philosophy

Piece of Cake: Cake Baking Tips & Fabulous 1930 Layered Chocolate Cake with Fruit Filling Recipe

CAKE MAKING TIPS