Retro Recipe: Cake Flour Pancakes

I recently came across an old pancake recipe from Swan's Down for "Lightest Ever Pancakes". The recipe card intrigued me, since it looked like it was probably created mid-century, and I LOVE old recipe cards. Since I happened to have some Swan's Down cake flour, I made them for breakfast this morning. I followed their recipe exactly at first, even though the batter looked too thick. The first few pancakes were really thick and never created the bubbles you look for to tell you when to flip. So I added a few splashes of milk and a little vanilla to the batter to thin it out. Also, it irks me to make pancakes without vanilla, pancakes need vanilla.

The vintage Swan's Down recipe card can be found here. I just love vintage recipe cards.

This is the way I made it after my slight adjustments:


2 cups cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 1/4 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup melted butter

Measure sifted flour into sifter; add baking powder, salt, and sugar. Beat egg in bowl or

large pitcher, add milk, and blend. Sift in dry ingredients all at once, add melted butter,

and beat with egg beater just until mixed. Do not over-mix pancake batter, it makes them tough and chewy. It should be slightly lumpy, not perfectly smooth. Bake on hot griddle, turning only once.

Verdict: These were awesome. The texture is very, very light.

This is how the first stack came out, before I adjusted the liquid level. They were dense and not as fluffy as I like. They were still good though.