Ah, yes, 1963 was an excellent year for tender buttermilk cake that keeps on giving. And by that I mean that it GETS BETTER after the first day (even unfrosted). Yeah. Weird, huh? And, guess what? It even gets better-er after the second day! Yes, way! We tried it (a few times, actually) and it’s true!

The perfect old-fashioned cake for a lovely spring or summer day. Oh heck! It’s always amazing – no matter the weather.

Yes, 1963 was a very good year for a number of lovelies with staying power…

…like cute salt & pepper shakers…

…like adored leaders of the nation…

John F. Kennedy in the Oval Office, July 11, 1963

…like the nation’s favorite convenient TV dinner…

…like Alfred Hitchcock’s movie, “The Birds“, starring Tippy Hedren…

…like America’s favorite family…The Ozzie & Harriet Family…

Stuff Going on in 1963: Postage stamps are 5 cents, zip codes hit the streets, discotheques become the rage, the “Judy Garland Sings at the Palladium,” while “Let’s Make A Deal” debuts on NBC, Peter, Paul and Mary win their 1st Grammy for “If I Had a Hammer“, the soap opera “General Hospital” is launched, The Righteous Brothers move it to the left with Harlem Shuffle, the first push-button phone rolls onto the market, John Christopher Depp II is born in Owensboro, Kentucky and Beatlemania takes the world by storm with “I Wanna Hold Your Hand”.

And in Wichita, Kansas, the Wichita Eagle‘s Home Town News (fka Wichita Morning Eagle) publishes the third printing of Volume II of their “Rare Recipes and Budget Savers” compiled by Frank Good, Editor of the Home Town News.

Frank Good collected recipes from his readers, spent 50 years writing a gardening column for Wichita newspapers, wrote many gardening books and edited a couple of great recipe books!

It was also a great year for The All American Cake — The Buttermilk Cake!

And this is where we found our lovely vintage cake recipe…

Although Frank Good passed away in 2005 at the age of 86, his memory lives on (big time) in the 3,500 volumes at the Frank Good Library much of which was donated by the Goods. It is the largest collection of horticultural and gardening advice in south-central Kansas and it is the home of the Wichita Gardens — a 9-acre botanical garden known as “Botanica“. The Botanica Gardens include an amazing array of diverse gardens: aquatic, butterfly, pansy, tropical greenhouse, juniper (with more than 30 types), peony (with 104 varieties), rock, rose (with more than 350 rose plants), woodland (with azaleas, dogwoods, elm, hackberry, honey locust, mulberry, osage orange, and redbuds), and there is even a sensory garden, a Shakespearean garden, a pine tree arboretum and a xeriscape demonstration garden! Whoa! That’s one MAJOR GARDEN!.

The Key Ingredient: This brings us to our light and lovely, moist and delicious vintage cake known as The Golden Buttermilk Cake (not to be mistaken with The Buttermilk White Cake (which uses only egg whites). Buttermilk (formerly known as sour milk) actually contains NO BUTTER (who knew?). 🙂 We’re using reduced fat (2%) cultured buttermilk for this recipe so I’m thinking you could call this a healthy cake. Maybe? Just always cut yourself a think slice (or not!).

Making your own buttermilk: Although some folks add a tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice to sour out a cup of regular milk (or even substitute plain white yogurt), I’m thinking you should go for the real deal here — just to make sure you achieve a perfect tender slice (but feel free to play around with your homemade buttermilk recipes (I LUV THAT!) and let me know how it goes). 🙂

Okay! Let’s get this buttermilk cake party started!!

To get yourself in the mood for this vintage cake, you can listen to 10 minutes of snippets of the top songs of 1963 if you >> Click here << (Hot tip: It will play in the background in a separate window while you put on your vintage apron.) 🙂

Tools Needed for Buttermilk Cake:
2 round cake pans, 9″ diameter
Wax paper, good quality (or parchment, for lining cake pans)
Cooking spray (or butter & flour, for greasing up the cake pans)
2 small bowls (or cups, for bringing butter to room temperature & stirring eggs)
Fork (for mixing eggs)
2 Large bowls (for mixing dry ingredients & main batter)
Whisk (or fork, for mixing dry ingredients)
Spatula (for scooping and smoothing batter)
Electric mixer
Measuring cups and spoons

Ingredients for Buttermilk Cake:
1/2 cup of unsalted butter
2 large fresh eggs
1-1/2 cups granulated white sugar
2 cups cake flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup cultured 2% fat buttermilk (the star of the show!)

Directions for Baking Buttermilk Cake:

Place an oven rack in center position and pre-heat the oven to 350.

Prepare two 9-inch cake pans by spraying them with cooking spray (or rubbing them with butter & dusting with flour). Lay in a circle of good-quality wax paper (or parchment) into the bottom of each cake pan, and spray them again with cooking spray. Set them aside for the big batter event coming up shortly.

Nuke 1/2 cup of unsalted butter in the microwave in 10 seconds to bring the butter to room temperature.
Tip: The butter should be soft to the touch but hold its shape and not be melty.

Bring 2 large fresh eggs to room temperature by setting them out on the counter for about 20 minutes (or placing them inside a warm bowl of water for about 5 minutes).
Tip: This cake will be fluffier when you use room temperature eggs. Ask a scientist type — it’s true. 🙂

Using an electric mixer, beat on high-speed for about 3 minutes until it becomes fluffy:
the prepared (room temp) butter

Beat into the creamed butter on high-speed for about 2 minutes until fluffy:
1-1/2 cups granulated white sugar

Measure into a bowl and whisk to fully incorporate:
2 cups cake flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Measure out and prepare to use:
1 cup cultured 2% fat buttermilk

With the electric mixer on low-speed, add into the creamed butter-sugar in alternating one-third parts:
the measured-out buttermilk
the mixed dry ingredients
Tip: Even though I have used dried cultured buttermilk for cake baking many times, since this is a buttermilk cake, I recommend using the real deal here. 🙂
Double Tip: Just pour a little buttermilk, dribble in a little flour mixture and repeat a couple of times until all is well-blended. No need to fret over portioning out the one-third quantities.

When the buttermilk and dry ingredients are completely incorporated into the batter, blend the batter on medium-speed for about 1 minute.

The batter will be fairly smooth and thick.

Crack the room temperature eggs into a small bowl or cup and thoroughly blend the eggs using a fork.

With the electric mixer on low-speed, slowly dribble into the batter and beat on medium-speed for about 1 minute:
the fork-blended eggs

The batter will become glistening and shiny. whoo hoo!!
Tip: I DOUBLE DARE YOU to try not to test this lovely batter (since they say you shouldn’t sample batter with raw eggs).
Double tip: If the batter tastes awesome, the cake is gonna taste awesome! 🙂

Interlude: We tried to weigh the batter to get the batter evenly divided between the pans (but it didn’t work — cause I haven’t read the instructions yet. Duh! But more on this in an upcoming blog post about temperature reading baking tools (after I get my instructions down). 🙂

Here is the batter (somewhat evenly) distributed between the prepared cake pans. (I never get it quite right but, since this is a vintage cake, that’s the way we want it anyhow — looking imperfect, homemade and yummy.) 🙂

Place the pans in the pre-heated oven and bake at 350 for about 25 to 30 minutes until the toothpick tester comes out clean.

Note: We don’t recommend a baking thermometer for this cake (unless you are an expert with your thermometer and it has a very fine prong) because this cake is quite delicate (and we are not planning to frost the cake) so there would be a hole left by the baking probe that will show at serving time — and we don’t want to mar our lovely old-fashioned cake with a spike hole. 🙂

The cake will rise in the oven a little over the top of the pans, but as the cakes bake fully, the cakes will sink down a bit in the pan.

The cakes will transform to a golden brown color and will separate from the sides of the pan when they are done.

Cool the cakes in their pans for 10 minutes before turning them out on a rack to cool. This is where the wax paper on the bottom of the pans prevents any worrisome sticking issues.

We are not going to flip the cake on the cake platter so be sure the tops of the cakes stay upright during cooling.

Buttermilk Filling (Not Frosting): This is the recipe for filling the cake, without frosting the tops and sides of the cake. If you want to frost the outer cake then double this Buttermilk Filling Recipe, then use half for the cake filling and, to remaining one-half of the prepared recipe, blend in 2 cups of fresh whipped cream (plus a little extra powdered sugar to taste).

Tools Needed for Buttermilk Filling:
Medium Mixing Bowl
Electric Mixer
Spatula (for scooping and spreading)
Measuring cups and spoons

Ingredients for Buttermilk Filling (Not Frosting*):
1/4 cube (4 Tablespoons) unsalted butter
2 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup buttermilk
*For frosting the entire cake: Add 2 cups heavy cream (pre-whipped)

Directions for Buttermilk Cake Filling:

Nuke in the microwave for a few seconds to bring to room temperature:
1/4 cube (4 Tablespoons) unsalted butter

Using an electric mixer, blend on high speed to fluff (about 1 minute):
the room temperature butter

Dribble into the whipped butter in alternating quantities:
2 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup buttermilk
Tip: Sifted powdered sugar is best to prevent little lumps, but I’m lazy and it still seems to work fine) 🙂

Beat all on high for about 3 minutes until nice and fluffy.
Tip: You may need to add a few drops more buttermilk or a few tablespoons more powdered sugar to get it to your favored consistency.

This is the filling thoroughly blended…

The filling is creamy and lightly stiff.

We had to rush this cake at the last-minute (teen testers’ schedule) so we actually frosted this cake while it was slightly warm. My grandma would have called this a “hot-frosted cake”. I thought it would be ruined but, instead, it was awesome! The cake was lightly warm so some of the filling soaked in just a bit. On the other hand, for you, I recommend waiting until the cake is fully cooled. 🙂

The “hot-frosted” cake…

You could leave the cake top absolutely plain or…just for looks (and it does look cute), dust a tiny bit of powdered sugar on the top of the cake for a vintage cake look.

This buttermilk cake is an amazing taste treat. It just reminds me of all those old-fashioned goodness-y things that should be much more common these days. 🙂

Leave the cake in a covered cake holder (or under a big bowl) on the counter for a day (or even two days) and the cake will become even more delicate and moist.

Let’s get in for a nice close-up of the light and delicate texture of this amazing buttermilk cake, shall we? Did I say tender? Oh yeah, I think I did. 😀

Serve it with a tall glass of chilled milk, a fine glass of champagne or even a lovely cuppa tea!

Happy baking to you and your family! And thank you for joining us!

Don’t forget to join us on Facebook, on Twitter and on Pinterest! You can see recipes in the testing stages as we go along. 🙂

Leslie

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