Aug 21, 2012
I had fun playing with this, seeing if I could improve upon some issues of concern. First, I thought it unusual that baking soda was in the ingredients list, but not baking powder, especially since there wasn’t anything particularly acidic in the ingredients like lemon juice or buttermilk that would necessitate that. I also noticed the flour to sugar ratio was off, with not enough sugar. The submitter herself states the cake is not very sweet. And, while there aren’t many reviews of Aunt Kate’s cake, even some mentioned it was heavy and dense. Since the submitter also mentioned the cake was from the early 1900’s, I thought maybe baking powder wasn’t on the market yet. Nope, it was introduced in the mid 1800s. Still, I thought some baking powder was needed to give the cake some lift, making it lighter and fluffier. Knowing baking soda is four times as powerful as baking powder, I used 1/4 tsp. baking soda, 1 tsp. of baking powder and just 1/4 tsp. salt. One cup of strawberries seemed a lot to me for this little cake, which I thought might be “dragging” the cake down – I reduced it from 1 c. to 3/4 c. and added 1/2 tsp. of natural strawberry extract to compensate. Finally, I wanted the cake a little sweeter so I added 2 T. more sugar. I baked this as cupcakes and the changes did prove to result in a light and fluffy, nicely sweet cake. This is just slightly strawberry flavored, but once covered with the frosting (I added 1/2 tsp. strawberry extract) it was just right.
—naples34102
