Excerpt from the Modern Priscilla Cook Book, 1924

CAKE, COOKIES AND GINGERBREAD
However wide the apparent variety there are only two kinds of cake; butter cakes, which contain fat of some kind, and sponge cakes, which are made without fat. Butter cakes usually depend upon a chemical leavening agent, while in sponge cakes air incorporated in beaten eggs supplies the leavening.
Variety in cakes is obtained by combining the ingredients in different proportions, by using different flavors and spices and by adding enriching ingredients like fruit and nuts. Raised cake, made with a foundation of bread dough, comes in the class of butter cakes.
Pastry flour, because of its large proportion of starch, makes lighter and more tender cake than does bread flour. For the very best results the flours milled especially for cake making, from wheat high in starch, are to be recommended.
Careful mixing is of the utmost importance in cake making. For example, one of the commonest faults in the mixing of butter cakes is insufficient creaming of the shortening and sugar. The shortening should be creamed until it is very soft, and the sugar added gradually. The whole mass should be kept light and fluffy. Eggs should be thoroughly beaten before adding, and the batter should be beaten after the flour is added. With sponge cakes, the egg yolks, flour, and sugar should be thoroughly blended to insure a fine texture. Egg whites should be folded in gently so that the air which they hold will be retained.
Divide the baking time for cake into quarters:
(1) During the first quarter the cake should begin to rise, and at the end of that time the portion nearest the tin should be higher than the rest, and bubbles should show over the top.
(2) During the second quarter the rising should continue, and the cake should appear slightly baked next to the tin, with bubbles still showing through the centre.
(3) During the third quarter the baked appearance should extend over the top, and browning should take place.
(4) During the last quarter the cake should finish browning and shrink from the tin. Opening the oven door and moving the cake gently is safe after the first half of the baking time is over.
The most common baking fault is too hot an oven. In too hot an oven the cake bakes (and sometimes burns) next the pan and over the top, before the rising is complete. As a result the gas, which continues to expand, either humps the cake in the place where the heat is lowest, or makes a crack there through which the expanding batter can escape.
The oven temperature varies with the nature of the batter and the form in which it is baked. A very rich cake requires a slower oven than a simpler cake does. A cake containing molasses tends to burn easily, and therefore needs to be baked more slowly than a similar mixture made with white sugar. A loaf should be baked at a lower temperature than a thin sheet or individual cakes. Sponge and angel cake require a very moderate oven.
Variations of any plain cake recipe may be made in the following ways:
Add enriching ingredients to the recipe, chopped nuts, raisins, bits of candied fruit, separately or in combination. Berries and fresh fruits may also be used.
Use the vegetable colorings. In combination with a change of flavoring these are especially effective for "show cakes."
Variety in shape may be had by baking the cake in a high, narrow tin, in a broad shallow tin, in muffin tins (large and small), in layer cake-pans, and in well-greased jelly molds.

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