Bride’s Cake (1917)

 A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband, 1917

This amusingly titled book is written in the form of a novel about a newly married woman named Bettina, who has recipes for every occasion!  

Bride's Cake (Thirty pieces)

1½ C-sugar

½ C-butter

2½ C-flour

¹/₈ t-salt

²/₃ C-milk

3 t-baking powder

¼ t-cream of tartar

½ t-almond extract

1 t-vanilla

4 egg-whites

Cream the butter, add the sugar and continue creaming the mixture. Mix and sift three times the flour, salt, baking powder and cream of tartar. Add these dry ingredients alternately with the milk to the first mixture. Add the almond and vanilla extracts. Beat two minutes. Cut and fold in the egg-whites which have been stiffly beaten. Pour the cake batter into a large, round loaf cake pan, having a hole in the center. Bake forty-five minutes in a moderate oven. When the cake is removed from the oven, allow it to stand in a warm place for five minutes, then with a spatula and a sharp knife, carefully loosen the cake from the sides, and turn out onto a cake cooler. When cool, cover with White Mountain Cream Icing.

Suggestions for Serving the Bride's Cake

The Bride's Cake may be baked in this form and placed in the center of the table for the central decoration. A tall, slender vase, filled with the flowers used in decorating, may be placed in the hole in the cake. Place the cake upon a pasteboard box four inches high and one inch wider than the cake.[120] This gives space to decorate around the cake. The cake and box may be placed on a reflector, which gives a very pretty effect. If cake boxes containing wedding cakes are distributed among the guests as favors, use the one in the round pan for central decoration and bake others in square pan. Square pieces may then be cut, wrapped in waxed paper, and placed in the boxes.

When Alice cut the bride's cake, the thimble fell to Ruth, which occasioned much merriment, while the dime was discovered by Harry in his own piece. The ring went to Mary, who emphatically denied that the omen spoke truly. But[268] when Mary also caught Alice's bouquet of lilies-of-the-valley, the young people refused to listen to her protests.

"Dear Alice," said Bettina, as she helped the bride into her traveling suit, "may your whole life be as beautiful as your wedding!"

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Verdict:  I was looking for a way to use up egg whites after my daughter made ice cream, and this used just the right amount!  It’s lovely. Not super light and fluffy, a nice old-fashioned dense cake with a crispy sugary shell. I wouldn’t be ashamed to serve it for a wedding. Based on my Bundt pan though, it serves more like 15 portions rather than 30. Thanks, Bettina!