Lightning Cake

Mrs. Farback’s Blitzen Kuchen,” said the spidery handwriting on an old recipe card handed down to my friend Sue Crouse by her grandmother. “Quicker than a mix!” said my assistant, Luli, popping this cake into the oven first thing one late-summer morning. Golden with eggs (about twice as many as in most yellow cakes, in ratio to the butter and flour), this is just about the best plain butter cake you can imagine.