Vintage Recipe Reviews- Gold Butter Cake with an Orange Honey Glaze
Hey everybody! Today I am excited to share something special with you! I am going to start a new series on my blog dedicated to vintage recipes. I have tons of mid-century magazines that I have been pouring over the last few years, and there are so many things I’d love to share with you. I am going to start off with posting an old recipe once a month and see how it goes. My first recipe is for a Gold Butter Cake from Women’s Day Magazine, February 1952
Here is the Original Recipe:
This issue had a bunch of cake recipes. They all looked good, but this one was something I’ve never tried before. The closest thing I’ve ever made was a pound cake. I had a bunch of beautiful sweet oranges too, so it seemed kinda perfect to try this month.
I made a few adjustments. Instead of lemon extract, I used a half teaspoon of lemon zest and a half teaspoon of orange zest. I omitted the mace since I did not have any. I followed the directions for making the cake exact otherwise. I used a bunt pan, but I think my pan was too big since my cake didn’t fill the pan even when it puffed up. I’ve only made one bunt cake before and I don’t really remember it so I have no idea about bunt cake perfection. Mine looked pretty sad when it came out. The bottom puffed up instead of being flat. Also, I baked mine at 350 degrees but it only took about twenty-five to thirty minutes to bake. So you will want to make sure and keep an eye on it and test it after about twenty minutes.
The glaze I used was the Orange Honey Glaze and I added in a little lemon zest in with the orange zest. I spooned it over the cake when it was hot and it soaked in nicely and smelled wonderful!
We let the cake cool completely and served it up with an orange slice and some whipped cream. I wasn’t really sure if I was going to like the cake since I am more of a layer cake lover and I was worried the cake would be dry. The cake was dense but it had a great flavor to it and the glaze had soaked in a lot around the top and bottom so it was really moist but a little dry in the middle. The orange and lemon and honey flavors were so good! It was tart, but not overly tart and sweet, but not super sweet. Overall I was really pleased with this cake. My husband LOVED it! I made it last night and it is already almost gone. I would definitely recommend giving it a try next time you want something sweet! Let me know if any of you try it out. I’d love to hear your thoughts on it!
Cool idea for a series. I’d of left out the mace too, only because I have no idea what it is!
Yeah, I was right there with ya, I had no clue 🙂 Looked it up later and turns out it is from the same tree as nutmeg. Glad you enjoyed the post!
Lovely, I have always meant to start a series like this on my blog. Some of my best secret cookie recipes are vintage.
That’s awesome Daphne! I just started a pin board for my series. Let me know if you do any vintage recipes on your blog and I’ll pin them 🙂
Super fun to try out vintage recipes and I adore your bundt mold! This recipe is super similar to one of the only bundt cakes I’ve ever made… for a friend’s birthday who adored bundt cakes. You’ve reminded me that I have yet to try out any of the baked goods in a cookbook called “Vintage Cakes” that I was given a couple of Christmases ago!
Thank you Kristin! I borrowed that book from the library and everything looked so good! Another one I thought was awesome was called the Brown Betty Cookbook if I remember correctly 🙂
The citrusy cake sounds good. Try using an angel food cake pan like they did (it has the removable bottom) or a loaf pan instead of the bundt pan..different pans work for different recipes.
I wonder what mace even tastes like, I’ve never had it?
Thanks for the tip Tammy! I think I will try the loaf pan next time. I looked up mace and apparently it is from a nutmeg tree. Some sites say you can sub nutmeg for it.