This weekend I had a yellow cake bake-off. Since I don’t have a lot of people to help eat the cakes, I made 3 half batches using recipes from the Magnolia Cafe cookbook, a Carole Walter book, and Paula Deen. All 3 cakes were variations on the old 1-2-3-4 cake which calls for 1 cup butter, 2 cups sugar, 3 cups flour, 4 eggs, 4 teaspoons baking powder, 1 cup milk and about 1 teaspoon of vanilla. It’s a recipe which tastes different depending on technique, type of flour, and method of measurement.
Since I only posted pictures and descriptions of the first two cakes, I’ll go ahead and tell you a little more about the Paula Deen cake (pictured below). It was similar to the other two, but instead of using half self-rising and half all purpose or sifted cake flour, Paula used 3 cups sifted self-rising flour. The cake tasted delicious and of the three, it was the most convenient. However, the texture was a little coarser and looser crumbed than both of the others.
So that’s it for 1-2-3-4 cake variations. I’m enjoying these yellow cake trials and I think I’ll move on to some yellow cakes that are highly rated, but which use different proportions (e.g Shirley Corriher’s, CI’s, and Bonnie Butter Cake by Betty Crocker).
| Magnolia | Carole Walter | Paula Deen |
| Really great cake! Tasted like a cross between a sponge cake and a yellow cake. Not as crumbly as some other cakes, yet tender. Not a lot of baking powder flavor. This was my favorite of the 3. | Wonderful, light, melt in your mouth cake. If you are sensitive to baking powder flavor, you might notice its salty metallic flavor. My husband didn’t notice it and this was his favorite. | Loved it! Very convenient and a good cake to make if you have self-rising flour on hand. I preferred the texture of Magnolia’s cake which wasn’t quite as crumbly, but this was still a very good 1-2-3-4 |
| Magnolia | Carole Walter | Paula Deen |
| 1 1/2 c. self rising flour (6.8) 1 1/4 c. ap flour (5.6 oz) 1 cup unsalted butter (8 oz) 2 cups sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla 4 large eggs 1 cup milk (whole) |
3 c. sifted cake flour (11.2 oz) 1 T. baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 cup unsalted butter (8 oz) 2 cups superfine sugar 4 large eggs 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla 1 cup milk (whole) |
3 cups self-rising flour 1 cup butter (8 oz) 2 cups sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla 4 large eggs 1 cup milk (whole) |
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Isn’t that so interesting that all 3 recipes are so similar yet you can notice such diferences in cakes’ textures?! That’s why I just love pastry! I love the trhowdowns Anna, keep them up!!!
Glad to be of help! I love Bakewise – and Magnolia and Paula — Girl, it looks like you had fun with your cake off – that is a lot of yellow cake! Yum!
I enjoy your comparisons and your spreadsheets. Have you ever tried the yellow cake from Cook’s Illustrated cookbook “The Best Recipes”? It is a great cake with a fine texture.
It is interesting what a difference such small changes can make!
Rita, I love comparisons too.
Alyssa, thanks for helping me find Shirley’s recipe. The next yellow cake bake-off is going to be Shirley C. vs. Cooks Illustrated vs. Betty Crocker.
I was constantly searching for the ‘perfect’ yellow cake and tried many different recipes, however, none of them were as moist as I’d like until I made the yellow cake recipe from Amy’s Bread in NYC. This is now my go-to yellow cake, and I’ve ended my search.
http://www.cookingbythebook.com/blog/recipes/simply-delicious-yellow-cake/
I love your comparisons too! I use Shuna Fish Lydon’s ecipe as my go-to, but very curious to hear about the results of your next bake-off. Here is Shuna’s recipe in case you want to compare: http://eggbeater.typepad.com/shuna/2006/10/yellow_cake_wit.html.
Duh! now I see the CI snuck in there between Shirley and Betty! That’s what I get for reading w/o my glasses. I am anxious to see you results as I trust your opinions and like your pictures (helps you see the differences in appearance).
Are you making the next three this week or taking a little break from yellow cake? Would you like to see how they ship?
Danielle and Rina, thanks for the two new additions to the list. I’ll see if I can get to them after I try Shirley’s, CI’s and Betty Crocker’s.
CB, now worries! I figured you were just reading fast. Glad you like the pictures. I think the next set of three photos will be better because I will make all the cakes in a 9 inch pan and cut all the pieces the same.
Katrina, I’ll probably bake them on and off between other things. I baked a few other things this weekend between cakes and still need to post.
What do you think of whipping cream cake? I have never done a side by side comparison of a typical yellow cake versus whipping cream cake (super easy to make since you do not have to cream the butter and sugar).
J, one of the cakes I wanted to test had whipping cream as the main fat. But I took it off my list (for now) because I want to keep the butter flavor. Shirley Corriher’s cake has a little of both.
I love that you took the time to compare these. Very interesting.