1-2-3-4 sheet cake is a traditional American cake and is simple and elegant. It can be used as a sheet cake, or as seen here, 3-layered with strawberries.
When I originally made this cake, it was for my son Spane’s second birthday. He insisted on having a Barney cake, and so I dutifully made a Barney cake. I’m sorry, but I don’t want to put that picture up here. I’m done with Barney and so is Spane.
A Traditional Cake
This 1-2-3-4 sheet cake, however, will never, ever get old. It’s a very simple cake to make, and my goto white cake. It’s a recipe adapted from *The Joy of Cooking, which in turn is an adaptation of the original 1-2-3-4 cake, so named because it uses 1 cup each of milk and butter, 2 cups of sugar, 3 cups of flour, and 4 eggs. If you were illiterate as many pioneering and colonial American women once were, your recipes would have to be very easy because you would not be able to write them down, and you would want to be able to pass them down to your daughters. We will probably never know who invented this cake, but I for one, am very glad she did.
This recipe makes a lot of cake. It fits nicely into a large 15 x 10-inch sheet pan or three nine-inch round pans. It’s an excellent recipe for a crowd. As a matter of fact, I used to make two layers of this cake and put strawberries and cream as topping and filling when I made the birthday cakes for Dean Witter in Beverly Hills. If you double this recipe, it will easily feed 50 people. This also makes a wonderful Fresh Strawberry Sheet Cake.
If you really want to see what the Barney looks like, I originally put this recipe on Big Oven and my original Barney decorated cake picture is there. When you see it, you’ll understand why I didn’t want it here.
1-2-3-4 Cake Recipe
Email Me the Recipe
1-2-3-4 Sheet Cake
Equipment
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Ingredients
- 8 ounces unsalted butter, unsalted at room temperature
- 2 cups Sugar
- 4 Egg Yolks
- 1 cups Milk
- 2 ½ cups Cake Flour, sifted
- 2 ¼ teaspoons Baking Powder
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- 1 tablespoon Vanilla
- 1 tablespoon Almond Extract
- 4 Egg Whites
- 1 tablespoon Vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 °F. Grease the pan and line it with wax or parchment paper. If you are making a layer cake, wet the cake strips and wrap them around the pans.
- 2 1/2 cups Cake Flour, 2 1/4 teaspoons Baking Powder, 1/2 teaspoon SaltSift the flour, baking powder, and salt into a separate bowl.
- 8 ounces unsalted butter, 2 cups SugarIn a stand mixer, cream butter, and sugar until light and fluffy.
- 4 Egg YolksAdd the egg yolks one at a time.
- 1 tablespoon Almond Extract, 1 tablespoon VanillaAdd the extracts.
- 1 cups MilkAlternate adding the milk and flour mixture one-third at a time, scraping the bowl as needed.
- Remove the batter to a large bowl.
- Wash and dry the mixer bowl.
- 4 Egg Whites, 1 tablespoon VanillaWhip the egg whites until stiff.
- Stir one third of the egg whites into the batter to loosen it. Fold in remaining egg whites carefully.
- If you are making round cake layers, divide batter between the prepared pans. Otherwise, pour into a 15 x 10 jelly roll pan.
- Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes on racks.
- Remove cake from pan and cool on serving dish.
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Thanks, I’ve been looking for that recipe for a while. It’s old, and not everyone has a good one.