1950s Springtime Fancy Cake is the perfect April dessert

The days are getting longer, the air is alive with a thousand and one fresh, earthy scents, and the skies are, well, if not blue quite yet, than at least less likely to be chocked full of snowflakes.

For many north of the equator, spring has sprung and for those who are still wrestling with the final days of wintry weather, it soon will. Though we may have a ways to go before we're in the mood to sport an air conditioner as a hat or eschew any type of footwear that isn't a sandal, the warmth of spring is slowly emerging and before long, we're be into the thick of the hottest months of the year.

Before we hit that point though, let's take full advantage of our ovens and put them to good use in whipping up this super simple, budget-friend Springtime Fancy Cake recipe from 1953.

As with just about all vintage recipes that call for it, if shortening isn't your cup of tea, then by all means swap in your favourite butter, margarine or vegan cooking fat substitute instead.



{Sweet, fun and super easy to make, this delightful mid-century cake calls mainly for ingredients that most of us have to hand already and telegraphs a sense of spring as marvelously as the first blooms of the season. 1950s cake recipe ad image source.}


At its heart, this is a very basic white layer cake, but with the addition of sprightly mint green frosting and some really pretty daisies made from slices of white marshmallows and yellow gumdrops, it becomes a splendidly festive dessert offering that would easily see you through a myriad of spring and summer events, as well as lovely everyday meals alike.

For those, like myself, who are gluten-free, a cake like this is a total cinch still, too. Just put your favourite white or golden cake recipe to work or use a GF boxed mix for either.

You could change the frosting colour and/or candies used here as well, but I personally like it exactly as it stands now. This cake radiates with the spirit of spring, is pretty as a picture, and could easily be turned into cupcakes (with one candy topped flower on each cupcake), if so desired.

I’m elated that that spring is here again and love that vintage recipes like this help to capture to the elegance and joy of this season alike.

Today’s charming 1950s layer cake is bound to be a hit all throughout April and May, then clear through to June and summertime itself, where its adorable candy daisies will be every bit as at home then as they are right now while spring finds its sea legs once again.

Festively fun 1950s Catch-a-Valentine Cake recipe

It occurred to me recently just how much I love baking and making sweets for Valentine's Day. As a day where all things dolce are celebrated and noshed upon, I'm certainly not alone here, but I think part of why St. Val's Day desserts jump out at me so much is because, generally speaking, this is a holiday where sweet really, really reigns supreme.

There are arguably not a ton of standard savoury dishes for this day (though those with aphrodisiacal qualities, such as raw oysters, have long been firm favourites for a Feb. 14th dinner, as have been luxurious eats such as steak, lobster, and lamb), where sugary treats come out on top and most of us, even those who often eat very health consciously, are apt to indulge in something sweet, fun and tongue pleasingly wonderful.

I generally whip up one or more chocolate dishes for Valentine's Day, but I love anything pink or red as well, from tinted popcorn balls to homemade marshmallows to frosting topped sugar cookies. Today's mid-century recipe for the smile-inducingly named Catch-a-Valentine Cake has pink in spades and would be equally lovely for Easter, Mother's Day, a bridal or baby shower, birthday party, wedding or anniversary.

Fabulously simple to make, yet wonderfully impressive looking, this festive take on a classic marble cake (with two different coloured versions of the same cake batter, as opposed to two separate flavours of cake, though you could certainly use extracts to flavour one or both of them, if so desired) is a cinch to whip up and a fun treat for any February 14th related celebration.



{Beautiful to look at and wonderful to taste, this elegant 1950s Valentine's Day cake recipe is such a crowd pleasing choice. Naturally, if shorting isn't something you're too fond of, feel free to substitute butter, margarine, or another suitable cooking fat of your choice. Vintage recipe image source. Click here for a larger version.}


Valentine's Day itself might not be everyone's cup of (sweetened) tea, but most of us will agree that our eyes turn as wide as saucers when desserts celebrating this festive occasion are laid out before us, be they at home, in a restaurant or at the local grocery store.

This cake - which can easily be made GF by using your favourite store bought white or golden gluten-free cake mix - is free of chocolate, so it's a good choice for those who might be unable to eat it to to medical reason or simply not a fan. It's one of those delightful vintage cake recipes that looks fancy, but is not at all complicated and which most home cooks can successfully put together and bring to the table, where a chorus of cheers is bound to erupt from excited diners.

If you can't find candy hearts of any sort for the top, strawberry slices can easily be formed to make a heart shape and tiny food cutters (such as this lovely little set) can be used to cut hearts and other shapes from berries and many other fruits (and vegetables), too.

I hope that as Valentine's Day draws near, you'll get a chance to indulge in a sweet treat that truly brings you culinary joy, be it a classic cake like this 1950s gem, a decadent box of mixed chocolates, a rich soufflé, a refreshing ice cream sundae, a luscious fruit tart, a fragrant cinnamon bun, a crunchy French macaron, or anything else that - rather fittingly, one might say - your heart desires. I know I will be! :)


*PS* Thank you deeply to each of you for your understanding and kindhearted blog comments regarding the recent death of my computer. As the new one I ordered from Dell on Feb. 3rd hasn't even shipped yet (*le sigh*),

I'm thinking that - best case - I'll be receiving it on the three week end of the delivery time estimate I was given when I ordered. As mentioned in my post here last week, I am still online, just substantially less as I'm making due with accessing the web just from my phone. Hopefully my new laptop will get here soon and I can slip right back into my usual online routine (complete with a tons of catching up!).

A festively fabulous 1950s recipe for Coconut Candy Cane Cake

When my family meet sup for a meal, there are a lot of diverse dietary needs (most medically based) amongst my relatives and I that must be taken into consideration. Though there will always be some types of dishes that no everyone can partake of, when cooking for a crowd of my nearest and dearest, I do really like to create recipes that can safely be eaten by as many folks as possible. And certainly at no time of the year does that ring more true than this month, with the merriment and excitement of Christmas starting to hit its stride.

I'm always on the prowl for tasty, crowd pleasing, easy to prepare foods that I can bring to, or prepare and serve at home for, holiday get-togethers, and when I happened upon this fabulously fun 1950s Coconut Candy Cane Cake earlier this year on Flickr, my eyes lit up my Christmas bulbs! With a few tweaks (using gluten-free flour or a GF cake mix and swapping eggs for an egg substitute), it's something that both myself and most of my relatives can safely eat and that makes it an instant winner in my books.

With December 25th just nineteen days away and plenty of wonderful social occasions on my busy calendar this month, I'll be whipping up this great vintage Christmas cake soon for at least one of them and hope that it proves to be every bit as delicious and appealing as it looks.



{There's no need for a fancy cake pan to create this festively shaped dessert. Just cut and arrange squares, frost and adorn them with coconut, and you'll have an instantly eye-catching, completely Christmas season perfect vintage cake to bake and take (or serve) anytime this season. Image source.}


The recipe above suggests using boiled (aka, 7-minute) frosting, but as it traditionally contains egg whites, I'll be skipping it in favour of butter cream or another egg-free frosting myself. Aside from that and the two tweaks mentioned earlier, I won't be doing a thing to this wonderful vintage Christmas cake recipe - short of tucking into a big piece of it that is!

You could easily tint some shredded coconut green, too, if desired, to create the look of an iconic three-colour candy cane. If coconut isn't a hit with your family, you could easily skip it and use coloured sprinkles/sanding sugar or icing instead to produce the desired candy cane look. Small candies, such as mini jujubes or mints, could also be put to work in the same capacity.

I love that this vintage holiday season cake looks fabulously impressive, but isn't time consuming or challenging to make in the slightest (always an extra big plus at this time of the year). Partner that with the fact that I can serve a slice to just about everyone in my family, and I'm one seriously happy Christmas time baker! :)

Serve up a slice of scrumptious 1950s Spice-Berry Cake

"Welcome as the first spring crocus, this cake with the delicate air, is different, delectable, designed for spring menus". So begins the write up for this wonderfully easy, equally tasty 1950s classic spice-berry layer cake, and what an apt description is it. Though we're technically a couple of week's shy of spring's official return, milder weather is started to crop up again for some and will continue to do so for those in the Northern Hemisphere from here on out.

As the icy shackles of winter fall away, one's thoughts come dessert time turn to lighter fair. It may be a touch too soon to dust off the ice cream maker, live on feather light meringues, or opt for chilled fruit salad over everything else, but by the same token, we're beginning to feel like we've had our fill of rich, heavy custards, thick slices of pies, and dense pastries.

Something in between the two - fragrant and satisfying, but not quite a meal unto itself - is called for, and having heard that plea, this terrific cake comes a calling.

{Hailing from the fine folks at A&P (a US chain of supermarkets), this lovely, straightforward, endlessly inviting Spice-Berry Layer Cake is just what our menus need these days, as we leap from the depth of winter into the pleasing warmth of spring's embrace - and menu - once again. Image source.}

This is the kind of cake that does wonders both for causal weeknight desserts and on more formal occasions, such as Easter, May 1st, Mother's Day, wedding or baby showers, or if you're hosting a springtime dinner party - not mention it's natural use as a birthday sweet treat, too.

With its flavourful mixtures of spices, raisins (which you could easily leave out, if you're not a fan), and jam, this is the kind of cake that one feels a touch of the old-fashioned in, so to speak, when you bite into. Most spice cakes (and muffins and cookies) have always held that quality for me. They're homey, inviting, timeless and just as pleasing to the palette as one could ever hope for.

Spring, full on spring, that is, will be here soon enough. For now though, let's give this often overlooked period between winter and spring (which, admittedly, is rarely as gorgeous, romantic or appealing as the sublime days between autumn and fall) a hearty hello care of our kitchens and this great 1950s dessert, as well as others like it that aren't inseparably tied to the either the season we're leaving behind nor the one we're cheerfully hopping into this month.

A sweetly charming vintage 'Be my Valentine' cake recipe

There are certain times of the year that are synonymous with sugary treats aplenty, and few are more famous or beloved in this respect than Valentine's Day. February 14th, the day of amore and fabulously lovely things to eat, be it a glass of bubbly or a heart shaped box of chocolates.

By and large, I don't eat a lot of sugar, so holidays feel like an extra big treat for me, and I rarely pass up the chance to indulge for just one festive day. This year, as much as I love chocolate (the darker the better!), I feel like I'm in much more of a cake mood, so I went hunting for a vintage dessert that would fit that bill and today's absolutely darling 1950s vintage recipes does the job splendidly.

It's enrobed in a hefty layer of pink coconut, boasts a cute heart made, fittingly, from red gumdrop candies (you could easily use cinnamon hearts, Red Hots, or jelly beans instead, if you preferred), and sounds just as sweet as sweet can be. You could also - and I think that this is precisely what I'll do - bake it in a heart shaped cake pan for an extra dose of seasonal flare.



{Perfect to send youngsters off to school, share with your honey bunny, or have star as the main attraction at a February 14th party, this wonderfully easy, budget friendly 1950s cake is bound to ensure you'll have folks lining up around the block to ask you to be their Valentine this year. Image source.}

 
By all means, if you'd prefer, swap in your favourite white (or golden, cherry chip, or even chocolate, the latter being especially fitting for St. Valentine's) cake recipe instead, and should you, like me, need to keep things strictly gluten-free, I recommend using two boxes of Betty Crocker Gluten-Free Yellow Cake Mix (it, and the chocolate version, really are the best GF cake mixes I've found on the market so far) for this fun recipe.

You could also whip up a batch of pink coconut and red candy heart topped cupcakes instead, or as well. Perhaps using pink, red, gold or otherwise festively hued or patterned cupcake wrappers (liners). A cute little conversation heart candy, instead of the red sweets, would be an endlessly February 14th appropriate touch, too.

Whether you leap for the nearest chocolate truffle, swoon for caramels, or have a hankering for cake as well, I hope that you get a chance to satisfy your own cravings for something beautifully sweet, special and busting with the spirit of this deeply lovely time of the year at least once this week. I know that as soon as I grab the heart shaped cake pan from the basement and whip up this great vintage Valentine's Day recipe, I'll be doing just that!

And remember, my darling friends...

{Image source}

The perfect last minute Easter cake recipe

While it may not always entail the dizzying hecticness of Christmastime, the days leading up Easter can certainly still be a very busy period in their own right, especially if you're hosting parties and/or having out-of-town guests staying with your for the holiday weekend.

Often, as the first glorious days of spring begin to emerge like blooms poking through the last vestiges of snow, so too do we yearn to head (run at break speed) outdoors once more and suddenly spending hours in the kitchen lacks the same appeal it did just a couple of short, freezing cold months ago.

Easter however, is a beautiful, important time of the year and a celebration that is not to go unmarked by many of us. Though we might not scamper around the house collecting chocolate eggs any more, that doesn't mean we're not entitled to a sweet treat of our own this weekend, too.

Keeping in mind that you may be busier than a bunny in a carrot patch, and/or that you might not feel the need to break your back over your holiday dessert, I went digging around Flickr and unearthed a thoroughly lovely vintage recipe from 1951 for Lemon Gold Cake that would be flat out fantastic for Easter.





{Cheerful, inviting, and absolutely scrumptious looking, this wonderful Lemon Gold Cake practically has the words "Easter dessert" written all over it! Image via tikitacky on Flickr. Click here for a larger version of this lovely 1950s cake recipe.}



The invigorating, tart, endlessly fresh taste of lemon and the return of spring go hand-in-hand like bluebirds and happiness, and are a must for this time of the year in my books. This cake looks like a total snap to whip up as is, but you could make things even easier on yourself and swap in your favourite cake mix, if so desired. I make a very similar cake with Betty Crocker's Gluten-Free Yellow cake mix and olive oil, which is always a hit with gluten and non-gluten eaters alike.

Aside from perhaps decorating the top of the cake with some candied lemon peel, candied (edible) flower petals, white chocolate curls, fresh raspberries, or in the spirit of the holiday, your favourite Easter candy, there isn't much I'd want to alter here. Cakes like this are classic, elegant, beautiful, and flat out delicious - no need to mess with decades of success.

Lemon is a crowd pleasing favourite that becomes all the more delectable and festively perfect when brought to the table in the form of an appealingly pretty yellow cake that echoes the sunlight we're finally starting to get blessed with again this fine Good Friday.

If you're not celebrating Easter of if you already have another dessert (or two!) in the works, fear not, this vintage recipe will serve you well all throughout the spring (wouldn't it be lovely for a Mother's Day tea or bridal shower?) and well on into the sizzingly hot summer days.

Have a blast baking and a truly wonderful Easter long weekend, my dears!

A darling 1950s Coconut Snowman Cake to celebrate the start of winter

At noon on this fine, frosty day the sun will appear at its lowest altitude above the horizon, ushering in the start of the final (or first, depending on who ask) season of the year: winter. Many of us have had our first (or thirtieth!) snowfall already this year, scrapped ice from our car windows, long brought our summer patio furniture in, stoked wood fires, and begun cooking and baking our most beloved cold weather dishes.

Up until now though, we were technically still experiencing autumn, and while I'm a touch sad to see my very favourite season of the year bid us farewell once more, I'm also happy that the gentle serenity and soulful beauty of winter is here once more, ushering in with it all manner of hearty, sweet, filling, warming, wonderful recipes.

Today's vintage recipe however isn't so much about knocking the chill out of your bones, in fact, the sight of it might even make you a little colder, as it just happens to be for a splendidly cute Coconut Snowman Cake that is nothing short of adorable and which would work splendidly for all manner of Christmas, New Year's, and winter celebrations.




{I first spotted this charming 1950s snowman cake recipe on Pinterest a few weeks ago and instantly bookmarked it to share here once winter hit. Image discovered via Kitschy Cupcakes on Pinterest.}



And speaking of December 25th, it really is right around the corner now, isn't it? Hard to believe that we're just four more sleeps away from Christmas morn’s beautiful arrival. I know that, like me, many of you scarcely have a moment to pause and catch your breath right now, which is why I wanted to share a recipe with you today that could work equally well for Christmas (should you be in need of a great cake to serve on the big day) or any other time throughout this snow-covered, elegantly lovely season.

Though this cake does require a little handiwork to construct, it isn't overly tricky (one good sized cake baked in a 9 x 13 x 2 inch pan is all it takes to build the whole snowman) and can be decorated anyway you desire. You could even make a pair and decorate them as matching Mr. and Mrs. Claus snowmen for the holidays (or scale down the dimensions and create mini individual snowmen to serve to all your guests).

There's much to be done today and over the weekend, so I'll keep this post short and sweet (as an adorable vintage snowman cake). Before I skedaddle back to the kitchen (oh how I adore holiday baking!) to whip up some more festive goodies though, I want to wish each of you an immensely beautiful start of winter.

May this season hold an endless supply of enchanting sights, relaxing moments, wonderful smiles, immense happiness, and yummy desserts aplenty for all of us!

Celebrating Chronically Vintage's 3rd birthday with Colorvision Pink Swirl Cake

Time flies. It also runs, hops, dances, and parades through the ever expanding volume that is human history. Every second of every day, it marches onward leading to great days and ordinary ones, memorable events and others that are forgotten before they're even done. As I've gotten older, one thing I've noticed is that we - as a species - tend to recall the highs and the lowest the best, our minds filtering out some of the rest to make room for those exciting and important times that are waiting on the horizon still for us.

Filled squarely under the "good day" heading, is today's date, April 18th. For it was on this day precisely three years ago, that I decided to launch Chronically Vintage (for musings on the events that lead to that transpiring, check out my first and second blogiversary posts).

To celebrate this auspicious milestone (CV's third birthday), I thought it would be fun to share one of the girliest, delightfully fun 1950s cake recipes you could ever hope to encounter.

Sporting the instantly loveable name of Colorvision Pink Swirl Cake, this recipe from 1951 is created by adding  your favourite fruit gelatine (Jell-o) to a Betty Crocker marble cake that you whip up from scratch.

Here the the recipe is done up in pink, which since it just happens to be my all-time favourite hue, is what I'd be inclined to go with for a birthday or anniversary celebration like today, but you could certainly opt for any other colour you desired.

{Get your mid-century baking grove on with this thoroughly enjoyable 1950s pink marble cake recipe. It's just the ticket for all kinds of holidays, celebrations, and day-to-day desserts alike. Image via vintage.kitten on Flickr.}

Come Halloween you could use orange Jell-o for an autumnal hit, lime gelatine for Christmas or St. Patrick's Day, blue raspberry for the 4th of July, grape for Mardi Gras, the list goes on and on. Aside from just looking fantastic, fruit flavoured marble cakes taste delicious and the gelatine involved here helps ensure your finished cake stays wonderfully moist.

The frosting, too, can be tinted any colour you wish, and there's certainly nothing to say that you have to match the frosting hue to that of the marble cake. Just think of how fun red frosting would be with a green marble cake (or vice versa) for Christmas.

The name of this cake hails from the fact that coloured TV programming was starting to become more widespread at the start of the 50s, and like many fads of the era, it was easy to get people's attention if you incorporated words associated with them into other areas of life.

If such a thing were possible, I would bake a humungous Colorvision Pink Swirl Cake and invite you all over for a shindig to join in my merriment today. Over the past three years, I've shared some the best and roughest moments of my life with all of you. You've listened, supported, encouraged, and blessed my life with your friendship and avid readership.

In turn your own sites have provided me with volumes of inspiration, knowledge, and the sense of being part of a community of kindred spirits. I treasure each of you very much and am nothing short of elated to jump into the next year of vintage blogging with all of you.

Thank you everyone for being so much a part of the reason why this site is going strong and feeling so optimistic after three years. Join me, sweet friends, in raising a proverbial glass to the future of Chronically Vintage and all of the adventures and every day moments alike that are just waiting to be experienced and blogged about.

Here's to the beauty, wonder, and intrigue of the future and what it holds in store for this site - as well as to each and every one of you!!!

Your man will love this vintage Spring Rhapsody Cake

✯ Day 103 of Vintage 365 ✯

 

Whereas modem women have nearly unmentionable (this being a family friendly blog!) suggestions pelted at them from the glossy covers of magazines such as Cosmo, as to how one can please their man and get him to love you (has anyone else ever wondered why magazines that are supposedly for women are so often filled with ways not so much to ensure that us ladies are satisfied, but that the men in our lives are?), vintage gals - according to this charmingly illustrated Swans Down flour ad - simply had to whip up one of these beautiful looking Spring Rhapsody Cake (which is claims, men positively adore).

{Click here for a larger version of this inviting vintage Spring Rhapsody Cake recipe.}

 

Featuring food colouring tinted seven minute frosting (my favourite kind of frosting in the world; when I was growing up it was always affectionately called "marshmallow frosting" at my house due to the similarity in taste and colour it bears to marshmallows) and utterly darling carved gumdrop tulips, this cheerful dessert is a cinch to make (especially if you use a cake mix - as this recipe suggests - for the base, though of course you could just as easily put any white or yellow cake recipe you fancy to work here).

Swans Down cake flour has been on the market since 1895 and is still going strong today. Though I've never baked with it myself (we don't have that brand up here north of the 49th), I've encountered numerous vintage recipes for it over the years and have generally thought they looked both delicious and easy to create.

I was drawn to this delightful recipe (which comes via Woof Nanny's Flickr stream) and wanted to share it with you all because the moment I spied it, my mind rushed to thoughts of what a perfect cake it would be for Easter (which is just around the corner!).

Whether you bake this lovely vintage cake for the mister in your life, yourself, a friend, or a whole crowd, its pretty decorating job and classic flavours are sure to please anyone - man or woman - at your table! :)

Bon appétit!