PastrySampler.com's Recipes: Cakes, Genoise, Pound Cakes and Fruitcakes

Perfect White Cake
This recipe is adapted from an old McCall’s cake booklet, and in it calls to cream butter with "well-scrubbed hands…this chore will take you about 15 minutes," with black and white pictures of pretty hands doing so. It also makes use of hand rotary beaters to whip the whites to peaks. Luckily, modern-day appliances make better use of our hands, but it still is interesting to see how pastries were made before modern technology.

2 3/4 c cake flour, sifted before measuring	4 egg whites, room temperature
4 t baking powder	1 c milk
3/4 t salt	1 t vanilla
3/4 c butter or margarine	1 t almond extract
1 1/2 c sugar, divided

Sift cake flour, then measure. Mix flour with baking powder and salt. Sift this mixture 3 times together. Cream butter until very light. Add in 1 cup sugar in parts, and continue mixing until the sugar granules are dissolved into the butter. In separate bowl, beat whites until they peaked then add in 1/2 cup sugar spoonfuls at a time, beating well to incorporate the sugar before adding more, until the meringue has shiny, stiff satin peaks. Mix the milk with the extracts. Add flour and milk mixture alternately to the creamed mixture, starting and ending with flour. Fold meringue into batter very gently, without any patches of egg whites in batter. Divide batter between prepared pans. Bang pans once sharply on counter top to remove any air bubbles and prevent tunnels from forming. Bake cakes for 25 minutes. Let sit in pans for 5 minutes before turning out onto cooling rack.

Whipped Cream Cake
This is a perfect cake to serve with strawberries sweetened with sugar.

1 c whipping cream	1 1/2 c sifted flour
2 eggs	1 c sugar
1 t vanilla	1 t baking powder
	1/8 t salt

Whip cream until it holds soft peaks. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in vanilla. Mix and sift flour with sugar, baking powder and salt. Add dry ingredients to cream mixture, stirring until well blended. Pour batter in prepared pan. Bake for about 50 minutes until lightly browned. Let stand for 10 minutes before removing sides of pan. Serve this cake with sweetened fresh fruit.