I’ll have to say that cakes from scratch taste better. Two nights ago I made Red Velvet Cake for a DFW doper. I’ve never had a red velvet cake before much less attempted one so it was a little dry. I know how to fix that so next time it won’t be dry.
I’m having some friends over for dinner and bunko tomorrow so I made a Mississippi Mud Cake tonight and after I frosted it, I had to cut a small piece to sample it. It is definitely the best cake I’ve ever had.
I must be going through some kind of cooking kick because I’ve made two homemade cakes in three days and tomorrow I’m trying out a new recipe for beef stew.
A second vote for the Berenbaum book. Two other things for scratch cakes: become blind to the words “or margarine” (butter! butter! unsalted butter!) and use cake flour instead of all-purpose. Cake flour is lower in gluten than all-purpose so makes a fine, tender texture. (If you live in the South, your all-purpose may be OK - Martha Washington and White Lily all-purpose are apparently almost cake flour, unlike their national-brand and Northern cousins.) It’s also bleached, and the bleaching allows it to absorb moisture better; the downside is that at least one source I’ve read (I can’t find it - I think it was Cooks’ Illustrated) has claimed that those with extremely sensitive palates can sometimes detect a slight chemical flavor. Not something I’ve ever noticed.
A slight hijack: What are people’s opinions on frosting? I’m not that into it, really. My favorite are bundt cakes with just a dusting of powdered sugar or a light glaze. And I hate-hate-hate boiled icings with a passion. So much sugar they hurt my teeth.
Slight hijack, but: I noticed the addition of vinegar into a from-scratch cupcake recipe I made recently (a recipe quite similar to yours, in fact), and it puzzled me too. I think the deal is, it’s a small amount, not nearly enough to affect the taste, but it makes the batter slightly more acidic, meaning it will react a bit more strongly with the baking soda and give you a better rise. This is just a guess, mind you, but it’s the best explanation I’ve come up with.
Someday I’ll split the batter and only “vinegar” one half, and tell y’all how the two different sets of cupcakes turn out.
Actually, the vinegar trick I remember as an emergency substitute for buttermilk: you need to let it stand for about 15 minutes IIRC. So maybe the recipe at one time called for buttermilk?
Hmmmm so far it looks like most prefer homemade cakes.
Some of you could share some of those yummy recipes you told us about. I think I’ll look into the cake mix doctor book for summer baking .
Yes! It’s absolutely disgusting. There are people who claim not to be able to tell the difference. I think they’ve rotted all their taste buds out. Canned frosting is to real buttercream frosting as Kool Whip is to heavy whipped cream or as Miracle Whip is to mayonnaise. Vile, just vile.
I much prefer cake from scratch to cake from a mix, but I don’t get as worked up about it. On the rare occasions I have used a mix, I use butter in place of oil and milk in place of water to make it a little more palatable. Baking from scratch is cheaper and only a little more time-consuming. The results are infinitely better.
I generally prefer to bake cakes from scratch, because I think they’re much better. However, if I’m pressed for time, or if it’s for a non-discriminating audience (such as cupcakes for a bunch of kindergarteners), I’ll use a mix and doctor it up, using a secret I learned from my Mom.
To improve the taste of boxed cake mixes, add a bit of REAL vanilla extract. (1/2 to 1 tsp or so.) The problem with most boxed cake mixes (and many store-bought ones) is that they use fake vanilla, which gives it that fakey taste.
Never buy artificial vanilla flavoring. If it’s worth your time to make something, it’s worth the slight extra cost to use real vanilla.
I’m seconding this; the chocolate sheet cake recipe I make often (not as often as the fam likes) calls for EITHER buttermilk or soured milk, and I often do the vinegar/milk combo. You know the milk is soured when you swirl it and see chunks. (sounds gross, but it tastes good. You eat sour cream, dontcha?)
I have never made a boxed mix, it only takes about 20 min to mix a basic cake anyways. The frosting is another thing altogether… irritating sitting there mixing the boiled icing. Sigh.
This is the recipe I use for children’s birthday cakes or for cupcakes. It’s easy to make and has a light texture. It’s from the old Joy of Cooking.
Sift before measuring:
1 3/4 cups cake flour (or, what I do, all purpose flour less 2 tablespoons per cup)
Resift with:
1 Tbs. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt (which I leave out because I use salted butter)
Melt over hot water:
2 oz unsweetened chocolate (or, melt it on low power in the microwave)
Add to melted chocolate:
5 Tbs boiling water
Cream until soft:
1/2 cup butter
Add and cream until light:
1 1/2 cups sugar
Beat in, one at a time:
4 egg yolks
Add the cooled chocolate.
Add the flour mixture in 3 parts, alternating with:
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla
Whip until stiff, but not dry:
4 egg whites
Fold them into the batter.
Bake in a greased and floured 9x13 pan for about 1/2 hour at 350 F.
The trick to folding in the egg whites is to fold in about a third of them first. The rest of them will blend in more easily and you’ll keep more of the air.
2 cups self-rising flour
1-1/4 cups white sugar
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large box instant chocolate pudding
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, grease
and flour a 9 x 13 inch pan, or two 9 inch round pans.
Cream together the shortening and sugar. Beat in the
eggs. Add the flour, milk, and vanilla, and beat to a soft
smooth batter.
Bake 20 to 35 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the
center of the cake comes out clean.
When the cake was done I put 1/2 a cup of coke (you may need to add a little more coke as you go) in a boiler. I added powdered sugar and instant hot chocolate mix (no measurments on these just I just cooked and stirred and added more of each until it looked right to me then I poked holes in the (cooled ) cake and poured this mixture over the cake.
As you can tell I didn’t have any coco in the house. But the cake was great !
Oh yeah, the post below robinh’s and above Vanilla’s was supposed to start with, This is the cake I made yesterday. Sheesh I’m not only losing my mind but my sentances too.
From scratch, definitely. Cakes are pretty simple and scratch cakes don’t have that distinctive taste that comes with the preservatives in the boxed mix.
