This delicious recipe comes from the 1953 edition of The Family Circle Cake & Cooky Cookbook.
Louella's White Cake
3 cups sifted cake flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup PLUS 2 tablespoons milk
4 egg whites
1. Grease bottoms of 2 nine-inch layer-cake pans or 1 oblong cake pan, 13x9x2; line with waxed paper; grease paper.
2. Measure cake flour, baking powder, and salt into sifter.
3. Cream shortening until soft in large bowl; add sugar gradually, creaming after each addition until mixture is well blended; stir in vanilla.
4. Sift and add dry ingredients, alternating with milk; blend until smooth after each addition.
5. Beat egg whites until stiff but not dry; gently fold into batter just until blended.
6. Pour batter into prepared cake pans.
7. Bake in moderate over (375 degrees) 25 to 30 minutes, or until centers spring back when lightly pressed with fingertip.
8. Cool cake in pans on wire cake racks 5 minutes; loosen around edges with knife; turn out onto cake racks; remove waxed paper; cool completely before frosting.
Strawberry Filling
1 package (12 ounces) quick-frozen strawberries, thawed
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
1/4 cup sugar
1. Drain syrup from thawed strawberries into small saucepan; stir in corn syrup and sugar; cook over low heat to dissolve sugar, stirring constantly.
2. Boil syrup until candy thermometer registers 238 degrees, or until 1 teaspoon of syrup dropped into cold water forms a soft ball that flattens when removed from water.
3. Remove from heat; blend in strawberries; chill; top 1 layer of cake with strawberry topping.
Chocolate Butter-Cream Frosting
1/2 cup butter or margarine
4 cups (1 pound) sifted confectioners' (powdered) sugar
2 one-ounce squares unsweetened chocolate, melted
2 tablespoons undiluted evaporated milk or cream
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1. Cream butter or margarine until soft in medium-size bowl; add sugar gradually, creaming well after each addition.
2. Stir in melted chocolate, evaporated milk or cream, salt, and vanilla; cream together until frosting is smooth and of good spreading consistency.
My Notes: For the cake, I would recommend NOT using waxed paper to line the pans unless you make sure all of it is covered with cake batter. Otherwise, the paper smokes like crazy in the oven. I made the strawberry filling the night before I made the cake so it could chill and give me less work the next day. For the frosting, I used regular milk instead of evaporated milk and it turned out fine. I am not the world's expert on cake making by any means, and this cake still turned out SUPER TASTY!
