A Layer Cake as Easy as 1-2-3-4

A layer cake as easy as 1-2-3-4

By Melissa Clark, The New York Times When James Beard published his family’s recipe for 1-2-3-4 cake in Woman’s Day magazine in the mid-1960s, he never expected the deluge of complaint letters that followed. The recipe for the tender-crumbed vanilla layer cake, was straightforward enough: 1 cup butter, 2 cups sugar, 3 cups flour and four large eggs. But Beard’s mother, as he wrote when he reprinted the recipe in “American Cookery” in 1972, went …