Saturday, November 10, 2007

Bonnie Butter Cake with French Silk Frosting

Long, long ago when I was a young woman, the mother of the man I was then dating came to visit him. Not only were we serious enough that he wanted to introduce me to his mother, but since it was also her birthday, he wanted to show off my culinary talents and asked me to bake her a cake. I wanted to impress her but there was no internet back then and I only owned one cookbook, my trusty Betty Crocker cookbook.

I found a recipe in it for a three layer cake. Three layers! French frosting! At that time, I impressed easily. I also was blissfully unaware of the old adage that you should never make a brand new recipe for company. Betty Crocker never lets me down. The cake came out perfectly. Too perfectly.

His mother refused to believe that I had baked it. She accused me of buying a cake at a bakery and trying to pass it off as my own. My then boyfriend tried to defend me. He had witnessed me make it but she was adamant. I was a liar and a cheat. My relationship with her son did not survive very long after she left.

But I still bake that cake! It’s easy and delicious. Two things to bear in mind when you are making it. Don’t skimp on the time beating it or it will be dense and heavy. Go the full five minutes for a light airy texture. And double the frosting recipe. I’m sorry. Betty lies. As you can see from the picture, it does not make enough to fill and frost three 8-inch layers.

Verdict: Yum!! This one’s a keeper!!

Bonnie Butter Cake with French Silk Frosting
(Source: Betty Crocker Cookbook)


Bonnie Butter Cake

⅔ cup butter or margarine, softened
1 ¾ cups sugar
2 eggs
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
3 cups cake flour or 2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 ¼ cups milk


Heat oven to 350°. Grease and flour baking pan, 13x9x2 inches, or two 9-inch or three 8-inch round layer pans. In large mixer bowl, mix butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla until fluffy. Beat 5 minutes on high speed, scraping bowl occasionally. On low speed, mix in flour, baking powder and salt alternately with milk. Pour into pan(s).

Bake oblong 45 to 50 minutes, layers 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool.


French Silk Frosting

2 ⅔ cups confectioners’ sugar
⅔ cup soft butter
2 ounces melted unsweetened chocolate (cool)
¾ teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons milk


In small mixer bowl, blend sugar, butter, chocolate and vanilla on low speed. Greadully add milk; beat until smooth and fluffy.

Makes enough frosting for two 9-inch layer or three 8-inch layer cakes.


Recycle: vanilla bottle

Compost: eggshells

32 comments:

Anonymous said...

This was the first "made-from-scratch" cake I ever baked. I think I was 10 or 11 years old at the time. I still believe it was the best cake I ever made! Thanks for your funny story. Grace

Anonymous said...

I also love this cake. I remember cooking it as a child too. Today I'm going to cook it for my mother's birthday - as a coincidence. Thanks for posting!

Anonymous said...

My best friend in high school (in the 1970s) would make this cake. It was so yummy! Now I can give it a try with my children (it looks easy enough - without a box :))

Anonymous said...

Since seeing this, I have made this twice, both with rave reviews! This has to be my new favorite cake, and without question my very favorite yellow cake. Thank you so much for sharing this!

Anonymous said...

This is the best cake ever--I have made this since the 70s and when my daughter wanted the recipe, she took the page out of my book and I never got it back! She's since moved and I still have my original Betty Crocker book and it's still missing that page. I just sent this to my daughter. She'll love it, too.

Anonymous said...

I too used to bake this cake as a young child in the 80s. My mother had the Betty Crocker cookbook (it was old and falling apart, but I learned to bake from that book.) The only cake my mom liked was this one. I am currently living in Korea and the need to bake a cake came up, and I don't have time to go to the store and buy something. So remembering this cake I got online and looked it up. Thanks so much for posting it. It helped me out of a bind! Lisa

Tawny said...

This cake is what I crave the most. Just like everyone else, my mom would make this cake for birthdays when I was growing up, so not only is it tasty, it's also nostalgic. I have been searching for this recipe for some time now and I am soooo
excited to finally have it back! My mom finally trashed the old Betty Crocker cookbook when the binding completely gave way. Since that fateful day I have hunted for the recipe that could create such a moist, sweet, creamy taste.

Valerie said...

Thank you, thank you for posting this recipe! I had a super hard time finding this recipe, it's no longer in the new Betty Crocker books. This is my favorite cake that my mom used to make me as a child for my birthday. I am going to attempt it right now for my husband and my 5 year anniversary.

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Anonymous said...

I'm making this cake today for my daughter's 24th birthday! Betty Crocker's cookbook is my "old faithful" and I appreciate your read your story and everyone's comments!!

Anonymous said...

This was the first cake I ever baked by myself. I was 14 and made it for my mom and dad's anniversary cake. :O) Thanks for posting!

Anonymous said...

I first baked this cake in 1958 for my brother's first birthday. I was six and my non-baking, non-cooking Mom let me wreck the kitchen and make it twice when I didn't put baking powder in the first time. I have made it for every one of my children's brithdays and today I have the privilege to make two for my first grandchiild's first birthday. My copy is an egg and vanilla icing mess and so I was thrilled to find it on line! Thank you and happy birthday to all the lucky cake recipients out there.

Anonymous said...

I also love this cake. However, now I am looking for a Betty Crocker Chicken Curry recipe from an early 1970s cookbook, which I have lost in moving. Does anyone have it. It is very mild and does NOT have tomatoes or apple in it. Thanks in advance

Anonymous said...

I grew up making this cake with my mom, and now for the past 25 years I've been baking it for my kids birthdays. To keep it "special" I only bake it for their birthdays. =)

KK said...

I used to make this in college, because I had a roommate named Bonnie. It became a favorite. I hadn't baked it in years, and then just recently made cupcakes with it for my daughter's birthday. It brought back memories. I'm still friends with Bonnie, so I let her know, and she sent me a link to your blog posting.

I liked your story, and I think you got lucky that that boyfriend didn't last. Yikes - that mother would have been a handful!

Anonymous said...

My husband and older son request this cake EVERY year for their b-days. I'll be making it Th for my hubby's 40th. You're so right about beating it long enough, I have made that mistake!

Anonymous said...

to Anonymous asking about curry chicken. I got out my mom's old cookbook.
Curry Chicken
3 Tbsp.butter
1/4 c. minced onion
1 1/2tsp. curry powder
3 tbsp. flour
3\4 tsp. salt
3\4 tsp. sugar
1\8 tsp. ground ginger
1 c. chicken broth
1 c. milk
2 c. diced cooked chicken
1\2 tsp. lemon juice
3 to 4 c. cooked rice
Melt butter, Saute onion and curry. blend in flour and seasonings.Cook till smooth and bubbly. Stir in broth and milk. boil one min. Add chicken and lemon juice. serve with rice.

Patricia Resnick said...

I made this cake for a friend's 50th birthday one year. It took a triple batch of cake and five times the frosting recipe (3 sheet pans full!) and it was a big hit.

I made it again last night to take to a friend's Thanksgiving dinner. I switched it up and used it for the cake layer on a pineapple upside cake, since we don't care for the cake portion of the original Betty Crocker pineapple upside down cake.

I'll let y'all know how it turned out after we eat it later, Thank you for posting this great, classic recipe! It's also my all time favorite yellow cake.

Anonymous said...

This is 50s versiion of curry sauce
1/4 c butter and folure and salt
1/8 tea sp pepper 1c milk 1/2 tsp curry pdr. Will this work?
lise.

Anonymous said...

I think back when, that IS how much frosting was on a cake (even if it's not enough for now!). I love this cake and frosting and have the old Betty Crocker book with rich indulgent recipes (to today's health crazed world).

Anonymous said...

I love this cake! It is very good filled with chocolate pudding then iced on the sides and top. You can crumb coat the layers before the pudding to keep it from sinking in.

DawnK said...

Bonnie butter cake is my favorite cake ever. My mom used to make it when I was a kid. I can't believe that your ex-boyfriend's mom didn't believe that you had made it from scratch. It really is that good!

Unknown said...

My Dad made this cake for every birthday in our family when we were growing up! He would pile on the french silk frosting! It is delicious, and as adults we ALL make this cake for our families as well.

Anonymous said...

I have been looking for this recipe for years. I have even looked through all of my mother's Betty Crocker cookbook. I was so excited to read all the stories they are just about like mine. I used to cook this cake in the early 70's every week for my family and I was a young girl. Thank goodness for the internet. I am going to bake the cake tonight for the first time since early 70s.

Jill said...

I love that the cake survived even when the relationship did not. Behold the power of food!

Amy Griffiths said...

i was talking about this recipe just last night, it is my absolute favorite. guess what i'm making tomorrow. i love the recycle and compost notes at the end!

Anonymous said...

I have been making this recipe for almost 40 years, my family calls it The Cake. Instead of three layers I bake it in a large glass pan, the frosting amount works well and is not too much frosting when it is only the top of the cake. My two secrets: time it so it is still a little warm in the pan, and use less cocoa and one drop of almond extract in the frosting so it tastes a bit like delicate Swiss chocolate (my French grandmother's trick)

Anonymous said...

Does anyone know whether a stand mixer or hand held mixer is best for this recipe?

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Anonymous said...

I have been making this cake since I was a kid in the 70's It is my go to cake for birthdays and the like. My BC cookbook fell apart, but I saved the pages. I am so very glad to find the recipe online....

Lynn B said...

When I was young and just married, we had received the Betty Crocker recipe book for a wedding gift. After we moved into our newly built and first home, I wanted to make this cake for my family. I followed the recipe exactly including the French Silk frosting. The cake flavor was amazing and so was the frosting. The only problem that I had was that the cake was a little dry. I have made this cake several times since then and the cake was always a little dry. My kids have great memories of this cake and have asked me several times to make one for them. I have just been way to busy to even try it. This year my daughter wanted to surprise me with one for fathers day. She called my wife and got the recipe from her for the cake. She did a beautiful job and the cake looked great. It also tasted great but still a little dry. I don't know if it is the elevation, we live in Utah, or what? Is there some way that I could add more moisture to this cake?

Thanks,

Jingle said...

This was also my first from scratch cake in the late 60’s. Right out of mom’s Betty Crocker cookbook! Yummy!! Love it!!