This simple recipe is quick and easy. The nice thing about the recipe is that it can easily be adapted to make quite a few variations. The recipe comes from a booklet published by V & R Publishers (Pretoria) sometime in the 1960s. Unfortunately there is no details of the author(s) anywhere in the booklet. All I know is that the booklet was sold to my parents at the primary school I attended.
Ingredients
- 1 cup sugar and half a cup of boiling water. Mix until sugar is dissolved and let mixture cool.
- Whisk 3 egg yellows (keep egg whites), half a teaspoon of salt and a third of a cup of cooking oil together.
- Sift 1 and a half cups of cake flour and 3 teaspoons baking powder together.
Method
Whisk egg- and sugar mixture together. Slowly add this mixture to the flour mixture and mix well. Fold in whipped egg whites and 1 teaspoon vanilla essence. Bake in greased cake pans at 200C for approximately 20 minutes.
Variations
Chocolate cake – Sift 3 tablespoons cocoa with the flour and add a dash more cooking oil.
Orange cake – Replace the vanilla essence with the grated skin of 1 large orange.
Coconut cake – Add three quarters cup dessicated coconut just before folding in the egg whites. Add a dash more cooking oil.
Coffee cake – Sift 2 teaspoons coffee powder with the dry ingredients.
Happy eating!
Hi! Are you sure this cake takes 3 tablespoons of bakingpowder? thanX
Thanks Natalie, it is teaspoons of course. I have made the necessary change.
how much should i use to bake a 10″ cake?
The cakes shown in the photos were baked in 7″ pans. To make two layers in 10″ pans you will have to double the recipe as the bigger pans are not only bigger, they are deeper.