“And I want you to come over early Saturday morning and help me prepare lunch. I’m going to have the daintiest things possible. . . things that will match the spring, you understand. . .little jelly tarts and lady fingers, and drop cookies frosted with pink and yellow icing, and buttercup cake. And we must have sandwiches too, though they’re not very poetical.” — Anne of Avonlea, ch.xii

This recipe for a buttercup cake comes from the (aptly named) 1906 Inglenook cookbook. It’s a lighter version of the gold cake — a dense, yellow cake made with just egg yolks — popular in Victorian times.

To cut down on the egg usage, I halved the recipe to make one thin 9″ cake.

Cream butter, sugar and eggs

Fresh baked, unfrosted buttercup cake

A close-up of a slice of the beautiful, thin, soft, dense buttercup cake

Ingredients

Cake
3/4 cup butter
1 1/2 cups of sugar,
4 egg yolks
1 whole egg
1/2 cup sweet milk
1 cups of flour
1/4 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of baking powder
Rind (grated lemon peel) of half a lemon

Golden frosting
2 egg yolks
1 cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla flavouring

Directions

Cake

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 9″ spring form cake pan.
2. Sift flour, baking powder and baking soda. Set aside.
3. Cream together eggs, sugar and softened butter until fluffy.
4. Gradually pour in milk.
5. Fold in flour mixture and lemon rind. Do not overmix.
6. Pour into pan. Bake for 20 minutes or until tester comes out clean.

Golden frosting

1. Beat egg yolks until they are light and fluffy.
2. Add a drop of vanilla flavouring
3. Stir in caster sugar until it is stiff enough to spread
4. Frost the cake as desired

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