Cake, cake, cake! Need recipe help!

Cafe Society
1

Hey, I’m a pretty good cook, generally. Some things I can make quite well, where other things, I haven’t really done too much of.

Cakes fall into this category. I’ve made some cake-like breads, which were yummy and good. But not a true cake.

I tried to make one, last week, from a recipe off the internet, from a search for, ‘simple cake recipe’.

It was very simple, but wasn’t very good, and didn’t come together like a cake at all. I could tell it wasn’t right before I baked it. It came out somewhat cake-like, and I iced it and we ate it, but it wasn’t great. I was convinced the person who posted this abomination of a recipe had never actually made it.

I have found the very best way to acquire recipes is from someone who actually makes it, regularly. Some of my best successes, for all sorts of dishes, have come from recipe threads here on the dope.

So I’m asking you to help a girl out and offer up some of your favorite cake recipes. (Please remember I am not a pro, simple is better.)

(While I am mostly interested in cake, if you’ve got some other favorite recipe you adore, please feel free to share!)

2

What kind of cake? Layer cake that you would ice? Or something like a pound cake or bundt cake? Or, something like stir-it-in-a-bowl-without-using-a-mixer cake that you’d cook in an 8x8 pan? Any particular flavors you’re looking for?

I can post some after I learn more about what you are looking for. In the meantime, here are some sites that have trustworthy recipes:
Food and Cooking - Quick Recipes, Kitchen Tips and Tutorials (especially good since you’re learning about cakes, very step-by-step with TONS of pictures)
Everyday Food | Cooking Shows | PBS Food
www.myrecipes.com
www.epicurious.com

Also, half the battle with cakes and baked goods is knowing some basic rules and techniques. A great site with this sort of info is www.baking911.com. She also has trustworthy recipes, but I think you have to join the site to get them.

3

Thanks for the links Claire Beauchamp.

I am hoping to master a chocolate cake and maybe a lemon cake, two flavours I adore!

4

Oh! I have a great chocolate cake recipe which has never failed yet. Will post it when I get back home mid-week.

And, come to think of it, a lemon cake recipe, which I will also post.

And Pioneer Woman has some nice orange muffins which you could practise your cake-making skills on while you’re waiting for other recipes. (You could probably make them with lemon instead of orange, come to think of it…)

5

“If you mix flour and water, it’s glue. Add eggs, it’s cake!”
-Rita Rudner

6

The picture looks nasty, but this cake is really good. I halved the sugar (habit, I do that all the time when I bake) and made a cream cheese icing to go on top. Turned out absolutely delicious!

7

friend elbows

Here is a simple, never miss chocolate cake:

longhair’s chocolate cake recipe

2 1/2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup cocoa (hersheys unsweetened cocoa)
2 rounded teaspoons baking soda
1 cup soured whole milk (add a teaspoon of vinegar to the milk don’t use skim or 2%)
1 cup vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
1 cup hot water (add last)

combine all dry ingredients, then add liquid ingredients, with hot water last. put into 9x12 floured baking dish and bake at 350 till a toothpick in center comes out dry, (approx 45 minute)

8

A couple of people have mentioned the Pioneer Woman- I tell you you cannot go wrong (especially now its fall) with her pumpkin cake w/ Whiskey Cream. It’s TO DIE FOR! Or to KILL FOR!! (you pick) and it’s really, really easy. For some reason, now that I’ve baked that cake, my mom thinks that I have this gift of baking that no one else in our family has (it’s not true, and a little annoying). So be warned, if you bake that cake for friends or family, you may be destined to bake a cake for every gathering there-after.

9

My wife’s most excellent chocolate cake recipe. The secret ingredient sounds nasty, but if you think about it, it’s just an emulsion of vinegar, oil, and eggs, all normal cake ingredients.

10

The best cake in the whole world

If you go with it, let me know, there’s a few changes that need to be made for it to turn out just right.

11

My favorite cake in the world is my sister’s red devil’s food cake from an old Hershey cookbook. I’m trying to get the recipe.

12

This is one of my favourites, adapted from two singularly incompatible recipes into one sweet, sticky treat. You have to get your hands on blood oranges. You can use dairy milk in place of the soy if you prefer.

Blood Orange Cake

1/3 cup olive oil
2 small blood oranges

1 cup soymilk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
2 tbs cornstarch

1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup + 2 tbs sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp almond essence

Glaze ingredients:
Juice and zest of one blood orange
1/2 cup of powdered sugar

For the Cake:

Preheat oven to 350ºF and grease a 9″ springform cake pan.

In a mixing cup, combine the soymilk, vinegar and cornstarch and set aside.

Roughly chop up the blood oranges – use organic to be sure they’re pesticide free – skin and all, discarding the tops and tails and being careful to remove the seeds. Put the orange chunks in a food processor and blend with the olive oil until you have a marmalade consistency puree.

Mix dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
Mix the soymilk mixture with a fork to dissolve the cornstarch and pour into the flour mixture. Add the oil and orange mix, sugar and vanilla and almond essence, and mix well.

Pour mixture into pan and bake for 25-30 minutes

Glaze:

Combine glaze ingredients and mix until powdered sugar is dissolved.
If using springform pan, poke holes in the cake with a skewer and pour glaze over the cake while it is still hot and in the pan. Otherwise, turn the cake onto a plate and pour the glaze over it. Allow cake to cool and syrup to soak in before eating.

I’ve been meaning to try making it with oranges and lemons instead, as a sort of marmalade cake, but haven’t get there yet.

13

Easiest thing. Buy a good package cake mix. Follow directions.

Then, make the frosting from scratch.

Really.

14

I used to bake a lot for enjoyment (second the chocolate mayonnaise cake for a good easy chocolate cake that is really moist), and cake from a box is really good. Better than even most of the things I’ve pulled together from books with names like “The Cake Bible” (which is a GREAT cake book) or Chocolatier magazine.

If you haven’t baked a lot of box cakes, start there. After you get good at that, the trick is to find good recipes and to sift the flour! and get all the dry ingrediants mixed well together. Look for recipes that add moisture, traditional cakes are often fairly dry and we - in our “pudding in the mix” cake world, like moister cakes.

15

I used to bake cakes from scratch every time. But the quality of most cake mixes is almost as good as homemade, and the cost is comparable. Store-bought frosting is inedible, though.

If you insist on baking from scratch … The Betty Crocker Cookbook is not what you’d call haute cuisine, but their cake recipes are pretty darn good. Unlike with recipes pulled off random Internet sites, you can be sure that each recipe has been tested many times before Betty Crocker will publish it. I’m partial to their recipe for Black Midnight chocolate cake, but I’m not sure it appears in the latest edition of the cookbook. This recipe, I think, is identical to the one in my book, except that it should specify cake flour.

The first few times you cook something new from scratch, follow the recipe exactly. If it says to sift the flour, sift it. If it says to use cake flour, don’t use all-purpose. If it says to preheat the oven, do that. The recipe might not say so, but you should let the eggs warm to room temperature before adding them. After you’ve gained confidence, then you can start experimenting with different things.

16

In my experience, baking can be as much about technique as recipe sometimes. Don’t overbeat the eggs, sift the flour (and measure by eight, preferably), use parchment paper to line pans, LET THINGS COOL, etc.

Also, ingredients matter. Be sure your baking soda / powder is fresh or it just won’t rise right. I made that mistake with the last cake I made…

17

I came here to post the Guinness cake recipe, same as Joey P. Believe me, it is the best cake I have ever tasted, let alone made. And it’s really simple to make. Here’s an Americanized version of the recipe.

18

Hershey’s Black Magic Cake - the mix is almost liquid, but oh my…SO good! I’ve used it as a bundt, cupcakes, 2 - 9" layer cakes. Fill it with some type of chocolate mousse or raspberries and make your own chocolate frosting. To.die.for.

Lemon Cake - (has blueberries in it, which you could probably omit). The fresh lemon zest in it makes it a very wonderful and refreshing cake. I didn’t make the icing, as I just made a simple glaze of lemon juice, zest, powdered sugar and a bit of water.

19

Update

I decided to start with longhair75’s recipe, it seemed simple enough.

It’s in the oven as I type this, but I am less than confident.

It went together wonderfully, I sifted the flour. Up until the cup of hot water at the end. Then it looked less like cake batter and more like soup. Leaking from the springform pan, yikes!

A quick review of the recipe shows it calls for 1 cup veg oil, 1 cup milk PLUS 1 cup hot water. Is it just me, or is that a lot of liquid for a cake with 2 + 1/2 cups of flour?

But, then, what the hell do I know. We shall see, at any rate.

Thank you all for your suggestions, I really appreciate it very much. I might try the mayonnaise cake next, and definitely the lemon cake. I’ll probably give a miss to anything with coffee in it, though, as I’m not a fan. Still, I appreciate your input, truly.

20

If you’re worried about coffee or beer in a cake I’d say you’re missing out. Each heightens the flavor the chocolate, and believe me you don’t taste it. For mine I just use a tsp or tbs of espresso granules to make the coffee.

As far as baking in a springform pan, I generally reserve those pans for something that has a crust and where the batter is pretty thick. ie: cheesecakes