Cake, Boxed Mix or Homemade ?

In My Humble Opinion
41

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My mom used to make a homemade frosting that was extremely light and very quick. As I remember it involved using powdered pudding mix and CoolWhip. You could use any flavor of pudding mix you wanted. Does anyone know the recipe I’m talking about? It was so easy, but it’s been years and I just can’t remember.

My grandmother taught me how to make an orange juice glaze for pound cake that I think is wonderful. Just put a can of oj concentrate in a saucepan, heat on low to medium heat, adding enough sugar to sweeten to taste. (I’d recommend starting with ¼ c at a time until it’s sweet enough for you.) Then pour over a hot cake and let them cool together. The glaze soaks into the cake and then forms a slight “crust” as it cools. Yummy!

42

Sho 'nuff. Just make sure proper credit is given when people are moaning orgasmically.

Banana Cheesecake

three 8 oz. packages cream cheese
1 cup sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 tblsp banana liqueur
3 eggs
2/3 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips

Crust:
3/4 cup graham crumbs
3 Tablespoons brown sugar
3 Tablespoons melted butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix butter, brown sugar, and crumbs together to make crust. Lightly grease sides and bottom of a 10-inch springform pan, press crust mix into sides and bottom of pan, sprinkle roughly 1/3 cup of chocolate chips over bottom of crust, then set aside.

Mix together cream cheese, sugar, vanilla extract and banana liqueur. Fold in eggs, one at a time, beating well after last egg is in. Pour into crust and bake 40-50 minutes or until center is set. (Note: using a water bath may help even flow of oven temperature. Set cake pan into another pan which must be wider and higher and which, when filled with hot water, will allow the water to come halfway up the side of the springform pan. The springform pan must not float – remove some water if necessary. It also mudt be a tight-fitting pan, for obvious reasons). Take out of oven and sprinkle top with remainder of chocolate chips. Wait a minute or two for them to melt, then spread. Cool to room temperature, unmold, then refrigerate.

Variations: replace chocolate chips with shaved chocolate, and place thin banana slices across the top of the cake before sprinkling the chocolate. Substitute crushed Oreos for graham cracker crumbs.

Grand Marnier Cheesecake

4 eight oz. packages cream cheese (softened)
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
4 tblsp Grand Marnier
1 grated rind of an orange
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 eggs
2 cups sugar

Crust
1/4 cup graham cracker crumbs

Butter bottom and sides of an 8-by-3-inch pan (if you use a
springform, it will have to be a very tight fitting one that won’t leak, since water bath is mandatory for this one). Sprinkle crumbs into pan and turn pan carefully to coat bottom and sides. Coating will be very thin and spotty. Refrigerate.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Place cream cheese, cream, Grand Marnier, and sugar in a bowl. Beat slowly until blended. Fold in eggs, one at a time. Add orange rind and vanilla and beat until mix is smooth.

Pour mix into crust and place springform pan into water bath. Bake 2 hours. Turn oven off and leave cake in the oven for an additional hour. Remove pan from water and place on a rack to cool for 2 hours, then unmold. Chill and serve.

Variations: this can be served with an orange sauce drizzle, or sliced oranges or twists.

Let me know how they turn out! rmunoz@cox.rr.com

  • Rick
43

Thanks so much, Rick! I will definitely let you know how they turn out. :slight_smile:

Sheri

44

You know, reading this thread…I don’t think I’ve ever eaten a cake made from scratch before.

45

???

[rereads]

!!!

What kind of commie town did you grow up in, anyway? :eek: :smiley: No bake sales? No county fairs? No church suppers? No grandmothers or great-aunts who wouldn’t conceive of using a box mix?

Wow.

Now, I spent a fair amount of time in North Dakota growing up, where home baking is still a Big Deal and people compare notes on their kuchen. Another wing of my family is in Texas, were my great-aunt Shirley Jo is justly renowned for her key lime pie and her zucchini bread (I’ll never forget how much convincing it took to get a 13-year-old me to try it!). So it’s just hard to imagine not baking (says the man who just test-drove his new 50th Anniversary Star Bundt[sup]®[/sup] Pan)…

46

Scratch Chocolate Cake is the most requested one around here. I do buy boxed yellow cake mix though to use as a quick cobbler topping though, not as “cake”.