Plus, there’s always a bunch of extra milk chocolate frosting left over in the Pillsbury/Duncan Hines/Betty Crocker container for me to gobble down straight.
(Mmmmm … partially hydrogenated soybean oil with sugar in it!)
First of all, anybody who’s description of the cake making process begins with “open the box of mix” needs to be smacked. Like :smack:
Second of all:
Bzzt! Sorry, thank you for playing, but no. In our family, devil’s food cake (made from scratch, from a recipe for devil’s food cake, natch) gets either boiled frosting (which isn’t boiled and isn’t frosting, but that’s a whole other story) or seafoam icing. And it’s still devil’s food cake because the devil’s food name refers to the cake, not the icing.
The name of the cake is based on the cake, not what’s on the cake.
Do y’all think red velvet cake has red icing? It’d look like an autopsy!
And lemon cake? With that bright yellow food coloring laden frosting? That stuff’s just scary and shouldn’t ever be served outside of a very dimly lit church basement where it can be bypassed in favor of the devil’s food cake and peach cobbler.
If we said ‘chocolate cake’ or ‘white cake’ that meant both frosting and cake were chocolate or white. If the cake part and the frosting part were different flavors then both had to be mentioned in the description: ‘chocolate cake with white frosting’ or ‘white cake with chocolate frosting’ or whatever. Except for spice or carrot cake – we only ever had spice or carrot cake frosted with cream cheese frosting, so we never had to stipulate the frosting. ‘Spice cake’ meant ‘spice cake with cream cheese frosting’ and ‘carrot cake’ meant ‘carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.’ ‘Lemon cake’ for us was never frosted – it meant a very lemony cake baked in a ring pan and glazed with powdered sugar glaze. We never frosted applesauce cake either. Angel food cake was rarely frosted – usually it was eaten plain or with fresh fruit over the top. Once I was old enough to bake, I sometimes made angel food cake split and filled with lemon pudding and frosted with whipped cream… We called this 'angel food cake with lemon filling and whipped cream frosting. ‘Strawberry short cake’ wasn’t cake at all – that was made with sweetened bisquits, strawberries and whipped cream. We never had yellow cake – I guess because my mom favors white cake so that’s what she used to make. I had a book of religious stories, though, when I was very little. One of the stories was about some naughty children who ate a cake their mother had made. They couldn’t find a knife, so they spooned themselves big scoops of cake with a serving sppon. The cake in the story was yellow cake with chocolate frosting… how I used to drool over the pictures in that story!
I like cake.
Damn. Now I’m all hungry.
I forgot ‘coconut cake,’ which is my mothers favorite – that was white cake frosted with 7-minute frosting and covered with coconut.
Yellow cake with chocolate icing is called yellow cake. Because what other kind of icing would you put on it, I ask you? :dubious:
I am taking this out of all context and using it as a sig. 
Ooooh, I disagree. Speaking as a person who loves to bake, and is somewhat good at it, I still say that there are times when I’m in the mood for beef wellington, and sometimes I’m in the mood for a greasy spoon hamburger loaded up with all the fixings. Likewise, sometimes I want James Beard’s Red Velvet cake, and sometimes I want yummy from-the-mix yellow cake with chocolate frosting. It’s all about context.
Well, I live in south Alabama and it’s yellow cake with chocolate frosting to me, too! 
Sheesh, doesn’t anyone actually cook from scratch anymore? “Frosting from a can” is a non-sequitur.
You’re absolutely right. The cake making process begins with “buy prefab cake from bakery section of local supermarket.”
Perfect cake, every time!
If it’s not actual chocolate cake - whatever the frosting - then it’s not “chocolate cake”. Next order of business: severe beatings for all those of you who maintain that cake can be made from cake mixes.
So can anyone explain to me exactly what “white cake” and “yellow cake” are? Isn’t a basic layer cake yellow automatically? Do they taste significantly different?
No. No no no no no! A greasy spoon hamburger has, I’m sure, its virtues. (As a vegetarian I couldn’t list them, however). Beef Wellington is a different food entirely. A hamburger may be cheap, but it isn’t made in order to resemble Beef Wellington - it’s a food in its own right.
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.
Okay, how about made from scratch seven cheese macaroni casserole vs. Kraft mac-n-cheese? Obviously, one is very high end and the other is not, but sometimes I just want Kraft! It’s like two different foods, sometimes one is in the mood for one over the other.
Oh, you can make wonderful cakes from mixes, but you have to tinker with the recipe a bit. My grandma makes the best cakes I’ve ever had the good fortune to shovel into my face (and trust me, I’ve shoveled plenty of cake into my face over the years–how do you think I got these stretch marks around my mouth?) and she starts with Duncan Hines mix. I think she puts in an extra egg, maybe, and I know she reduces the heat by either 25 or 50 degrees and cooks it a bit longer. Her cakes turn out fluffy but unspeakably moist, and they’re even better the next day.
Of course, I don’t care for homemade mac-n-cheese casserole, either. It’s never cheesy enough, and I hate the “skin” on the top. It’s just skeevy. And no, that’s not the same food as mac-n-cheese. That is a casserole made with mac-n-cheese, and it is vile. True mac-n-cheese is just cooked noodles tossed in a thick cheese sauce. Cheddar, please, not Velveeta. Velveeta is also an abomination unto the Lord.
I blame the American sugar industry.
Internationally, sugar (sucrose) is cheaper than high-fructose corn syrup, but American import laws forbid (or sharply tax) foreign sugar – so, within the U.S., high-fructose corn syrup is actually cheaper than sugar.
The hydrogenated latex is another story, though. But remember: It’s only partially hydrogenated.
No, no, no.
You get a gorgeous-looking abomination. Their icing is made of sugared crisco, and they use artificial vanilla in the cake.
Bleeeech.
Zenster? Is that you??
No matter what you call yellow-cake and whatever frosting, you must all bow before the ultimate cake: Guinness chocolate cake, with a Guinness and chocolate sauce drizzled over it as ir cools, iced with a chocolate ganache. Pure heaven on a plate.
When used to refer to a yellow cake with chocolate icing, the term “chocolate cake” is an actionable fraud, and I don’t believe there’s a court in the country that would disagree with me.
I want to visit Jess’s house.
Chocolate cake must be chocolate cake, just as chocolate pudding must be chocolate pudding and chocolate bars must be chocolate bars. Someone’s mama is a liar.
I know! For me now it’s the word “cake.” Cake cake cake cake cake…I want to ride a fast-moving train and eat chocolate cake batter (which, really, is the best part of cake).
I feel guilty that I have 2 boxes of cake mix and two containers of frosting in my cupboard. Please, CrazyCatLady or anyone, how to I lessen the stain on my soul short of throwing them out? An extra egg? How much lower degrees and how much longer in the oven? Please help me save my soul.