You have likely noticed that many old-time recipes are somewhat sparse on baking instructions, so experimenting with the recipes is sometimes necessary and part of the fun.
I purposely include several recipes of the same kind on each webpage since usually one or two of the recipes will suggest a baking time, type of baking pan to use, and so on. What one recipe suggests will often work with the other recipes on the page too.
Also, the old-time baking recipes are often very forgiving which is why many simply say or imply, "bake until done." The big trick successfully used in baking old-style cakes and other baked goods is to test often for doneness.
As for the size of cake pan to use, what I sometimes do is have a couple of medium-sized pans (or a medium-sized pan and one smaller pan) ready for the cake batter. In the end, I might only require the use of one pan, or I might use them both; you can sometimes decide what size is needed by judging the quantity of batter.
Old-Time Cake Baking Tips
The best of everything!"
Cake will never be better than the things whereof it is made, no matter how skilled the maker. But it can be, and too often is, dismally worse, thus involving a waste of heaven's good gifts of sugar, butter, eggs, flour, and flavors.
Having the best at hand, use it well. Isaac Walton's direction for the bait, "Use them as though you loved them," applies here as many otherwheres.
Cake Baking Tips For Cakes Great And Small
•Have the eggs very cold, butter soft but not oily, flour dry and light -- oven dry it in muggy weather.
•Let the butter soften well before undertaking to cream it. A stout, blunt wooden spoon is the best for creaming butter, along with a deep bowl very narrow at the bottom.
•Sift flour three times for ordinary cakes, twice for tea cakes, and so on, four to five times for very light things, sponge cake, angel's food, and measure it before sifting, and don't forget the needed amount -- then you will be in no danger of putting in too much or too little.
•Always put a pinch of fine salt in the bottom of the mixing bowl, which should be freshly scalded and wiped very dry. A damp bowl clogs with either sugar or flour, making the stirring much harder.
•Unless specifically directed otherwise, separate the eggs, set the whites on ice till time to whip them, beat the yolks very, very light -- to a pale, frothy yellow; add the sugar, free from lumps, a cupful at a time, then the butter beaten to a creamy froth, beat hard together for five minutes, then add alternately the flour and the egg whites beaten to the stiffest possible froth. Add a pinch of salt as beating begins, and if the egg supply is scant, a teaspoonful of cold water to each white. This will increase the quantity and help to make the cake lighter, as it is the air bubbles imprisoned in the froth which give it its rising virtue.
•Add fruit and flavoring last thing. Fruit should be well floured but never clotted.
•If batter appears to be too stiff a little whisky thins it excellently, and helps to make it lighter. Put in two tablespoonfuls to six eggs, using more in proportion. Rose water or a liqueur have the same effect but give their own flavor -- which whisky does not.
•Grease deep cake tins plentifully, with either lard or butter -- using only the best.
•For heavy cakes such as fruit, spice, and marble cake, line tins with double thicknesses of buttered paper and either set shallow pans of water in the oven while baking or stand the pans themselves in other pans with a quarter inch of water in the bottoms.
•If cakes brown too fast, open the oven door, a trifle, and lay over the pan a thick, well buttered paper until the oven cools.
•Never jar the oven while cake is baking in it -- neither by banging the door, nor dumping heavy vessels on top of it. Beware likewise slamming kitchen doors, or bumping things about in the room. Fine cake demands as many virtues of omission as of commission. Indeed, the don'ts are as essential as the doings.
•Layer cakes need to be mixed thinner than deep ones. The batter must run freely. Half fill the tins and set in a hot oven, taking care not to scorch before rising is finished. Butter tins very freely -- it is economy in the end. Be sure the tins sit level in the oven -- thus you escape an ungainly final loaf. Get filling ready as baking goes forward so as to put your layers together while still warm and pliable.
•Let cake cool before frosting, so as to trim sides smooth.
•Take care fillings are not too watery, also that they are mixed smooth. Spread evenly, and press down a layer firmly all over, before putting filling on top.
•Layers simplify greatly the problem of baking, but to my mind, no layer cake, not even the famous Lady Baltimore, is equal to a fine deep loaf, well frosted, and meltingly rich throughout.
Wood Stove Oven Temperatures Chart
Very Slow Oven = 275°F (135°C)
Slow Oven = 325°F (163°C)
Moderate Oven = 375°F (190.5°C)
Hot or Quick Oven= 425 °F (218°C)
Bread or Pastry Oven = 360°F (182°C)
Pastry Oven = A piece of writing paper will curl up brown when it's at the proper heat for baking pastry.
Note: Oven baking temperatures can vary 25°F (4°C), plus or minus.
Carefully testing for doneness every few minutes is recommended for best baking results.
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