More On 100-Year-Old Cake
A couple other issues of New Idea Woman's Magazine (1906) give more cake hints. I apparently did none of these things so I'm lucky I came out with something even slightly resembling cake.
--Grease the pans with beef tallow to keep cake from sticking. Mmmm, beef tallow.
--Only frost what you're going to eat that day so divide the cake up.
--When you put cakes in the cake box cut an apple in half and put that in with it to keep the cake moist.
--Freshen up stale cakes by sprinkling the top with water or milk, then put back into a "quick" oven (whatever that is) and heat it up, then frost it after it cools.
--Mix batter with a wire whisk to fluff some air into it.
Then there's some complicated ramble about fiddling with the dampers to regulate the heat in a wood stove for baking but then suggests using a cheese grater to get the burnt bits off.