Lightning Cake

At a used book sale a couple of years back, I found a 3" thick book called the Encyclopedia of Cookery, printed in 1949. It has all manner of strange and marvelous information in it, although not too many recipes. Last night, two of my sons, who are college roommates, called me to ask how to cook a whole chicken - with only salt and pepper for seasonings, and no onions. Anyway, during the course of the conversation, while these two had the phone on "speaker" laying on their kitchen counter while they tried to figure out how to get the giblets out of the bird, one of them asked me what a "red pomelo" was, because he had found one at the supermarket. So I looked it up in this book, then, in flipping through, found this cake recipe.

LIGHTNING CAKE

1 egg
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup milk
3 tbsp melted butter
1/4 tsp lemon extract.

Cream the egg and sugar until thickened and light yellow. Add the dry ingredients, sifted together, and then the milk, butter and lemon extract. Beat until smooth; pour into a pan and bake approx. 22 to 25 minutes at 350.

Now, this cookbook referred to using filling between the layers, but, unless you double the recipe, you aren't getting layers. I used my springform pan, which was really too big, as you can see by the thickness of the cake; however, everyone loved it. This is what was left after dessert last night; none is left now. I used a lemon flavored whipped cream frosting, and the guys loved it. (I opted out of it; I want to lose those 5 to 10 pounds of holiday flab before they attack me. Then I can eat without remorse.)