I’m told this comes from a edition of a book called Making Things: The Handbook of Creative Discoveries by Ann Weissman. Yes, even you can make a cake from scratch (and brag about it, hopefully).
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) melted butter
1 egg, beaten
3/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon flavoring (vanilla, lemon, orange zest, etc)
Sift dry ingerdients (set a strainer in a bowl and dump dry ingredients in, sift). Drop beaten egg into melted butter; add milk and flavorings to egg mixture. Mix wet and dry ingredients with spoon, whisk, or mixer. Pour into prepared pans and bake at 350 until cake comes away from sides of pan.