GOOD FOOD.
GREAT HISTORY.
Presented as a centerpiece novelty for holiday children's parties, the Little House Cake combines a classic butter sponge base with an elaborate decorative construction. A deep rectangular cake serves as the base of the house, while a gabled cardboard roof conceals small party favors. The entire structure is frosted with boiled icing, adorned with red candies for architectural outlines and garden pathways, surrounded by evergreen sprigs, and dusted with granulated sugar to evoke a winter landscape.
The Little House Cake
If you are planning to indulge the little folks with a party during the holidays, you will want to know about the Little House Cake. The cake mixture is of the cup cake variety, very good, but not calculated to make any child regret the party. Here it is:
Three-fourths cupful of butter, two cupfuls of sugar, three cupfuls of pastry flour, one-fourth teaspoonful of salt, two and one-half teaspoonfuls of baking-powder, four eggs, one cupful of milk, one teaspoonful of grated orange rind, and one-fourth teaspoonful of mace. Mix the cake as usual, creaming the butter and sugar, adding the beaten egg-yolks, then the milk, rinsing the egg bowl with it, sifting the flour with the baking-powder and salt, and adding it to the other ingredients, alternately with the stiffly-beaten whites of the eggs. Bake the cake in a deep, rectangular pan, for it is to form the foundation of the house. (For a good-sized house, make twice the recipe and put the two cakes together with a thin icing between.) The roof is made of stiff cardboard, bent sharply to give the correct peak, with end pieces fastened in place with needle and thread. Ice the cake all over, and when it is dry, arrange on its top little favors to be given later to the guests. Then place the cake on a square of heavy cardboard larger than the house is to be, and fasten the roof in place with toothpicks. The next process is to give the entire cake, with the roof and pasteboard foundation, a coating of boiled icing, and while it is still soft, to outline a door and windows with small, red candies. Press the candies firmly into the icing, and with them mark also a path from the door to the edge of the foundation of the cardboard. Then arrange a border of holly leaves or evergreen all around the edge of the cardboard and stick bits of evergreen here and there into it for trees and shrubs. Make a chimney of the red and white paper resembling bricks, and place it on the peak of the roof with a tiny Santa Claus peeping from it. When all is finished, shake coarse granulated sugar over the house, garden, trees, and Santa himself, and place the house on its sugar-coated garden on a slightly elevated situation in the center of the table. After the children have feasted their eyes on the sugar house, the roof is removed, and each child is regaled with a slice of the cake and made happy with a gift from under its roof.
Public rights statementThis material was originally published in the United States in 1921 and is believed to be in the public domain in the United States. Source: Good Housekeeping 1921-12: Vol 73 Iss 6, 1921-12-01, page n58, via https://archive.org/details/sim_good-housekeeping_1921-12_73_6. Repastory is not affiliated with or endorsed by Good Housekeeping 1921-12: Vol 73 Iss 6 or its current owner. Rights may vary outside the United States.
Cream the butter and sugar together. Add the beaten egg-yolks, then stir in the milk (rinsing the egg bowl with it). Sift the pastry flour with the baking powder and salt, and add to the creamed mixture alternately with the stiffly-beaten egg whites, adding the grated orange rind and mace. Pour the batter into a deep, rectangular pan and bake. (For a larger house, bake two cakes and sandwich them with thin icing.)
When cool, ice the cake all over. When the icing is dry, arrange little favors across the top surface. Place the cake on a wide square of heavy cardboard. Construct a peaked roof using stiff cardboard with triangular end pieces sewn on with needle and thread, and anchor it over the cake using toothpicks.
Coat the cake, cardboard roof, and surrounding cardboard base with boiled icing. While still soft, outline doors, windows, and a front pathway using small red candies pressed into the icing. Line the cardboard border with holly or evergreen, inserting small evergreen sprigs as miniature trees and shrubs. Add a paper brick chimney topped with a small Santa Claus figure. Dust the entire house and garden setting with coarse granulated sugar.
publication context
The Little House Cake with its wealth of toys hidden beneath its roof
Good Housekeeping 1921-12: Vol 73 Iss 6 · Page n58 · View context source ↗
Source evidence: The Little House Cake with its wealth of toys hidden beneath its roof
Follow your curiosity through more recipes, advertisements, and stories from the printed page.