Cake Secrets (Igleheart Bros., 1920).

This booklet gives you some idea of what cake-baking was like before mixes, electric mixers, or even ovens with thermostats and consistent heat. What it was was complicated and chancy. Check out this baking instruction from the Regulation Butter Cake recipe: “Put the batter into the pan and let bake about 35 minutes. Have the heat moderate until the cake has risen, then have strong heat until three-fourths of baking time, then gradually reduce the heat.” Practically every cake, even the butter cake, requires stiffly beaten egg whites, and this before the invention of the electric mixer. It’s no wonder there’s an extensive “Causes of Cake Failure” section in the back. Igleheart’s made Swans Down Cake Flour and the booklet also contains recipes for such things as biscuits, cream puffs, and pie crust. A real piece of cake-making history.

Graphic Design: Plain, clean, and simple.

Illustrations: The cover has a rather laughable faux leather look with the title in an Old-English-style typeface. Inside are many quite beautiful full-color illustrations of cakes and other baked goods.

I wonder who makes the regulations for butter cake.

Isn't this a beautiful two-page spread?

Well, it's got some rat in it.

Aren't these the lightest, fluffiest biscuits you've ever seen in your life? Pass the butter!

Recipes Called Something “Surprise”: 1––Strawberry Surprise.

Recipes Containing Prunes: 1––Prune Pie.

Great Recipe Names: Emergency Cake, Creole Cake, Queen Tea Muffins.

Nutrition Quote: “Right here I want to call your attention to a fact which, in my opinion, is not generally understood––homemade cake is a real food. Bread has long been a synonym of food, and as cake is a refined, sweetened, and flavored bread, there is no question as to the place cake takes in the dietary [Ed. note: Take that, Marie Antionette detractors!]. Generously represented in most cakes are the food elements from which our meals are chosen––the protein in eggs, milk, and flour, the carbohydrates in the flour and the sugar, the fats in the milk and butter, the minerals in the eggs and the milk. Because of its high nutritive value, cake is most desirable at a meal that lacks hearty food in the form of meat or fat or their equivalents; but as sugar satisfies hunger almost instantly, cake should be eaten at the end of a meal.”

Sample Recipe:

Emergency Cake
[Ed. note: They don’t specify the emergency, so I assume they mean running out of cake.]

1 2/3 cupfuls Ingleheart’s Swans Down Cake Flour, after sifting once
1 cupful sugar
2 teaspoonfuls baking powder
2 egg-whites
Soft butter as needed
1/2 cupful milk
1/4 teaspoonful grated nutmeg

Sift together the flour, sugar, and baking powder. To the whites in a measuring cup add enough soft (not melted) butter to half fill the cup; add milk to fill the cup; turn into the dry mixture with the nutmeg and beat vigorously 7 minutes. Bake in a loaf or sheet.