This is the time honored white cake basic memorialized in such austere volumes as Joy of Cooking. I found a recipe I loved when my family lived for a short time in Baltimore. It came from a sweet little wisp of a cook booklet published by Barbara K. Morgan—written, in its entirety, by hand in an old fashioned calligraphic font.

The recipe I followed from this beautiful little book is called Snow White Cake—so sweet! I made it for my daughter Liz’s first birthday. She devoured it, as babies do, with both hands. Here’s the original page…

I frosted the cake with whipped heavy cream, adding thin slices of fresh strawberries I’d sprinkled with fine granulated sugar and then macerated for about a half hour.