Can we talk about how much more sugar old cake recipes used?

I was flipping through my grandma's 1975 Betty Crocker cookbook and a basic yellow cake called for a full two cups of sugar, which is way more than my modern recipes use. I made it last weekend and it was honestly TOO sweet, like a sugar rush in every bite. Did cake formulas just change that much over the years, or was my grandma's sweet tooth off the charts?

3 comments

3 Comments

rowanjenkins2mo ago

My mom's 1970s cookie recipes always taste like pure sugar to me now.

gonzalez.vera1mo ago

Right?! I had the exact same shock. My aunt sent me her famous chocolate cake recipe from 1982 and I swear it had almost double the sugar of my go-to version. I made it for a party and everyone was buzzing off that first bite, literally shaking from the sugar crash an hour later. I think people back then just ate way more sugar in everything, so their taste buds were totally used to it. A soda or a bowl of cereal back then had way more too, so a sweet cake didn't stand out as much. Now I have to cut every old recipe by at least half a cup or it's just painful.

harris.drew2mo ago

Nah, you just got used to less sugar... that old cake is the real deal. Our taste buds are the ones that changed, not the recipes.