# Yellow cake mix + chocolate icing = ? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 9, 2004, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yellow-cake-mix-chocolate-icing/254330 "2004-07-09T18:54:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![EX\_913](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/4da419/32.png) [@EX\_913](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EX_913)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2004, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yellow-cake-mix-chocolate-icing/254330/161 "2004-07-19T03:16:19Z")
(slight hijack) What is a Chocolate sundae then? Chocolate or vanilla ice cream? Is Chocolate Cake different? (/hijack) I have more recently seen Yellow cake with chocolate frosting labeled as a “Diner Cake” and I have always named my cakes by the dominate flavor, regardless of batter or frosting flavor. ---
**Author:** ![TeaElle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8491ac/32.png) [@TeaElle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TeaElle)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2004, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yellow-cake-mix-chocolate-icing/254330/162 "2004-07-19T08:04:58Z")
> [@Idlewild](#): > > Absolutely delicious. Pretty easy to put together too (though I do have lots of baking experience.) My husband declared it among the best pound cakes he’s had, and he’s got a grandmother who can out-cook everyone I know. Thank you for sharing the recipe. You’re very welcome! I’m so glad to know that it turned out well for you, I’m always nervous when I share a recipe for a baked good, that it’ll turn out poorly and I’ll be thought a bad baker whose judgment is questionable. I might have to make a pound cake tomorrow to celebrate that yours turned out well! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2004, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yellow-cake-mix-chocolate-icing/254330/163 "2004-07-19T12:24:25Z")
Oh, for Chrissake! Slap those yellow cake layers together with some custard, put on the chocolate icing, and when come back, bring Boston Cream Pie. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2004, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yellow-cake-mix-chocolate-icing/254330/164 "2004-07-19T15:10:38Z")
> [@Kepi](#): > > Sounds like you’re looking for [7-Minute Frosting](http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_24186,00.html). Thank you! I didn’t realize it was cooked (not that I would notice, being a little kid), but that sounds about right. It didn’t indicate if the finished product had a thin “crust” or not. It figures that something I thought would probably be very easy would turn out to be more complicated (for a non-cook). > [@](#): > > 1 1/2 cups sugar > 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar or 1 tablespoon white corn syrup > 1/8 teaspoon salt > 1/3 cup water > 2 egg whites > 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract > Place sugar, cream of tartar or corn syrup, salt, water, and egg whites in the top of a double boiler. Beat with a handheld electric mixer for 1 minute. Place pan over boiling water, being sure that boiling water does not touch the bottom of the top pan. (If this happens, it could cause your frosting to become grainy). Beat constantly on high speed with electric mixer for 7 minutes. Beat in vanilla. No double boiler. No knowledge of how much water to use to make sure none of it touches the top pan. No intuition of when this beating in of vanilla is supposed to take place. No indication of what to do with it after said 7 minutes is over (leave it in the pan to cool? Put it on the cake immediately?) And why, for the love of god, would someone please tell me, WHY SALT?? Yuck! Yuck! Yuck! Yuck! Yuck!! Chocolate sundaes…wow, EX\_913 has a point. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2004, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yellow-cake-mix-chocolate-icing/254330/165 "2004-07-19T15:54:45Z")
Equipose, salt is added to all sorts of food, even sweet foods. If you look at the labels of any ready-made desserts, you’ll find they’re doused with tons of salt. Just about any packaged or pre-prepared food you can find will come with added salt, simply because salt is a cheap and easy way to enhance the flavor of just about any food. The amount of salt added to that recipe…1/8 of a teaspoon…is very small, not enough to impart a salty taste to the frosting. But it will enhance the other flavors and round them out. If you’re worried about salt intake for health reasons, by all means leave out the salt. But you will also have to stop eating most pre-packaged foods, even ones that don’t taste salty, and do a lot of label reading until you find brands that don’t have much added salt. If you’re worried about a salty taste, that amount of salt isn’t going to make the frosting taste salty, just “better” in some indefinable way. If your tastebuds are particularly sensitive to salt, then go ahead and reduce or cut out the salt. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2004, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yellow-cake-mix-chocolate-icing/254330/166 "2004-07-19T16:17:09Z")
Oh, one more thing, about the vanilla. Lots of recipes will have you add vanilla at the very end, because vanilla flavoring is volitile and will vaporize after long cooking. So for liquidy things, where you CAN add vanilla after cooking it is much more effective to do so, so you don’t have to use as much vanilla. So for this recipe, after the cooking is finished and the pot taken off the burner, add the vanilla and stir it in. You could add it any time during the cooking process, but you’d have to add more to get the same amount of vanillainess. Oh, if you don’t have a double boiler (I don’t either), just use a regular saucepan and a large glass pyrex bowl. Put about an inch of water in the pot and put the bowl on top…you’ll be able to see if the water is touching. For most things, this setup is actually superior to a dedicated double-boiler setup. ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2004, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yellow-cake-mix-chocolate-icing/254330/167 "2004-07-19T17:55:19Z")
> [@Excalibre](#): > > Cake mixes are sad, pathetic attempts to mimic actual cake by adding high fructose corn syrup to hydrogenated latex. They have the consistency of foam rubber, and much the same flavor as well. To crave one would be the same as really craving a cup of 12-hour-old burnt gas station coffee. Unlike the hamburger example, in this case there are two foods, one of which is vastly inferior to the other, made only to save time. Such a thing is an abomination. It makes the baby Jesus cry. It leaves an indelible stain on your soul. Feh. When I bake a cake from scratch, it, too, has the consistency of foam rubber and the flavor of sweetened latex. Why the hell should I eschew the convenience and the SUPERIOR flavor of a cake mix for the toil and uncertainty of cooking from scratch? For approval from the likes of you? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2004, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yellow-cake-mix-chocolate-icing/254330/168 "2004-07-19T18:36:23Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > Oh, if you don’t have a double boiler (I don’t either), just use a regular saucepan and a large glass pyrex bowl. Put about an inch of water in the pot and put the bowl on top…you’ll be able to see if the water is touching. For most things, this setup is actually superior to a dedicated double-boiler setup. Or, you can forget the double boiler all together. I learned this watching some chefs in a gourmet restaurant in Scotland making hollandaise. This is not a tip for the beginner cook, but you can set your stove for a low flame and whisk away holding your saucepan or bowl a few inches about the flame. If you’re worried, you can move the pot in and out of the flame area. It takes a little practice (not as much as you’d think), but speeds up cooking significantly. Of course, you have little room for error if you do it this way, but it does work. ---
**Author:** ![sperfur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9adbd/32.png) [@sperfur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sperfur)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2004, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yellow-cake-mix-chocolate-icing/254330/169 "2004-09-01T02:09:30Z")
> [@blowero](#): > > Yuk. Cream cheese belongs on a bagel. > [@StarvingButStrong](#): > > Open your mind, man! Cream cheese is a versatile and wonderful food that can do much more than simply grace your bagel. > > > [@Kat](#): > > > > The best cake is chocolate cake with whipped cream frosting and strawberry filling. This is the cake I request every year for my birthday. I never ever get it. Because my birthday is also my sister’s birthday, and she does not like chocolate. This makes me sad. > > Do you know, I think this is the saddest post I’ve ever read? A little girl who has grown up and never, not even once, gotten the cake of her choice for her birthday! I agree! **Kat** , you are hereby invited to my house for your birthday and we will make whatever cake you choose. ---
**Author:** ![sperfur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9adbd/32.png) [@sperfur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sperfur)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2004, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yellow-cake-mix-chocolate-icing/254330/170 "2004-09-01T02:20:36Z")
Try this part again. > [@blowero](#): > > Yuk. Cream cheese belongs on a bagel. Open your mind, man! Cream cheese is a versatile and wonderful food that can do much more than simply grace your bagel. ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2004, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yellow-cake-mix-chocolate-icing/254330/171 "2004-09-01T04:05:24Z")
> [@sperfur](#): > > I agree! **Kat** , you are hereby invited to my house for your birthday and we will make whatever cake you choose. _perks up_ Really? You sure you won’t mind an extra person at your house that day? 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yellow-cake-mix-chocolate-icing/254330.md?page=8)