Vintage Labor Saving Cake Recipe with Broiled Icing (2024)

The Labor Saving Cake, otherwise known as a One Bowl Wonder, is a WWII-era recipe brought back to life with just a small tweak or two. It’s cute, it’s lightly lemony, it’s delicate, it’s easy and it has a nice history. The frosting is a Small-One-Bowl-Wonder of its own — with just a fork required to mix it up and slather it on. The buttery brown sugar coconut icing is gently broiled right into the top of the cake for a nice homey look and taste. We’re thinking it might be ideal for Sunday supper dessert or an awesome potluck contribution.

Cosmic Recipe Connection: This recipe just fell into my lap. Literally. I opened my old Fannie Farmer cookbook to search for inspiration for an easy-to-make vintage cake. The goal was to find a fast-prep vintage cake recipe to balance out some of the more elaborate kitchen baking projects we have had going on here lately. What happens? Just as I open the book, a long, folded, yellowed newspaper clipping tumbles onto my lap. I say out loud, actually, “What’s this?” It was a series of recipes in a food column called, “Cook’s Tour With George Rector”. The last recipe in the article was called “Labor Saving Cake”. 🙂 Seek and ye shall find is how it happened.

Being a research hound, I checked up on George Rector a bit. I could see that his syndicated newspaper column originated in The Saturday Evening Post in 1927 as “A Cook’s Tour”. (Could Anthony Bourdain have had George in mind when he created his 2002 TV series with this title?) 🙂 I found that Mr. Rector was a colorful character, known in broad circles at various times as a: law student, commercial spokesman, foodie, chef, food columnist, cook-book author, showman, hotelier, dining car cuisine director and restaurateur (with an equally intriguing restaurateur father, Charles Rector, who collaborated with him on many of his food projects). Folks loved reading his writings even after he passed away on November 26, 1947. In fact, people still read his books today. Some of the books he authored are: “The Rector Cook Book”, Rector Publishing Co., 1928; “Home At The Range With George Rector”, Rector Publishing Co., New York, 1939; and “Dining in New York With Rector”, Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1939. Alexander Kirklan wrote about Mr. Rector in “Rector’s Naughty 90’s Cookbook”, Doubleday, 1949, with a marketing slug that goes like this: “More than 400 tantalizing recipes, the majority hitherto unpublished of those famous restaurateurs, George and Charles Rector…Embellished with anecdotes and gossip concerning the glittering clientele, the celebrated personalities and gourmets of their day.”

My mom, Viola Geary Odell, in 1943 when she worked at the Voice of America in New York

In the 1943 cake recipe article that fell from the sky, Mr. Rector, explains that one of his readers sent the recipe to him a few years prior…so that means this recipe rises up from at least 1940. We may safely presume this is a WWII era (or earlier) cake used at a time when folks were interested in preparing home-baked goods for the table but without a lot of time on their hands. (I’m guessing we can all relate to that even now.) The traditional woman’s role in the home was altered during WWII, of course, with female workers replacing the mainly male workforce called away to military duty. According to Mr. Rector’s article, the draw of this cake is the fact that it can be mixed all in one bowl. I do notice, however, that the General Mills History site states that it introduced the One Bowl Method for streamlining cake making (including dispensing with the creaming of the butter and sugar and using shortening as a butter replacement) in 1943, a few years after the reader sent in the recipe (according to George) but the same year this article was published.

Uncle Victor Geary in WWII Navy uniform

Likely the General Mills statement was true on a very large-scale during that era (though one-bowl cakes were around long before, like forever) — but maybe Mr. Rector, the wartime conditions and General Mills brought this fast prep method to the forefront. There are lots of variations on the theme of a one-bowl cake throughout history, especially during times of low resources, though most popular one-bowl cakes often lacked key ingredients, like scarce fresh eggs. So speediness is included in this recipe, yes. But, what seems unusual in an historical context about this 1940’s era cake is that it is being offered during a time when food rationing was common. George even talks about Victory Gardens in his article. So I’m thinking that this little cake, made with a good amount of sugar AND butter AND three fresh eggs, would have been considered an extravagant affair for its day — when resources were few and far between. Okay. End of your Cake History Lesson for today. You get an ‘A’. 🙂

George Rector

We Tweaked the Recipe Just a Tad, Sorry, George: We think this recipe is just about right, although we substituted fresh lemon juice and lemon zest for the lemon extract called for in the recipe and we used unsalted butter, adjusting salt in the recipe. We also think the broiled icing works best when applied to a cooled cake, instead of to a warm cake as directed in the article. That way, the butter doesn’t instantly melt and soak in so quickly and allows a nuttier flavor and caramelization of the brown sugar and butter. Otherwise, we’ve left it all on its own to delight your guests in vintage style.

Traveling With Cake Ingredients: I packed up every single thing I needed in order to bake this cake at my mom’s house including a hand mixer. We tested this recipe for cake and frosting with some variations (like, using molasses and white sugar in the frosting instead of the brown sugar, more or less sugar in the cake, etc.), and we found the first recipe variation was the best — so that is what we are presenting below with step by step photo instructions in so that you may Bake This Cake. :).

Cake pan loaded with supplies for the traveling cake baker.

Recipe note:
t=teaspoon
T=Tablespoon
c=cup

Tools needed for Labor Saving Cake:
One large mixing bowl (the main event)
Grater or zester (for zesting lemon)
Electric mixer
9×12″ baking pan* (see Baking Pan Size Note below)
Spatula
Measuring cups and spoons

*Baking Pan Size Note: I didn’t have a 7×12″ baking pan so I used an old vintage pan with dimensions of around 9×12 (with slightly slanted and roughed-up edges) that held 13 cups of water filled to the brim) but I think you may substitute a 10″x2″ round or 9″x12″rectangle glass or metal baking pan (or smaller pan) that holds 5 cups of batter that will rise to at least 6 cups of volume up to 1/2 to 3/4ths full in the pan. Just check your proposed pan by filling it with 6 cups of water to be sure it will hold that amount with some room to move. A shallow pan for a nice low-level cake to be cut into square serving slices is the goal here.

Victory Garden WWII Poster

Vintage Labor Saving Cake Recipe with Broiled Icing (2024)

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