I have mentioned before that I do love my cake. The MiL knows this, and so she will occasionally make a cake for me, even though she doesn't eat them.
Such a nice person, that MiL of mine.
I asked her if there's any kind of cake she does really like, and she said the fruit cake she sometimes makes. I don't consider that a real cake, since it's full of things like dried fruit and nuts and is saturated in dark Jamaican rum. Eek. Then again, she admitted that she thinks the cakes she makes upon my request are disgusting.
Isn't it amazing that two such different people can live in relative harmony?
ANYWAY.
The MiL made a white cake on Sunday, because she had some egg whites left over after making a chocolate mousse. Then she frosted it with chocolate frosting, per my request. And then I ate it. All of it. It's gone now. I just can't be trusted around cake. Any cake. Well, except maybe that scary fruit "cake."
I am hard pressed to name my favorite cake. The peanut butter and chocolate cake the MiL made for my birthday last year, and then again for my baby shower, is pretty extraordinary. As is the chocolate roulade (a flourless jelly-roll style cake rolled around whipped cream) she sometimes makes. And then there's plain old chocolate cake. The recipe the MiL uses was her grandmother's, and it calls for lard as the shortening. It's really, really good.
So I guess my favorite cake is just a chocolate cake of any kind. I don't really care about frosting--I'm not a frosting kind of person.
And now you KNOW you have to jump in here and tell me YOUR favorite cake. So how about it, poppets? Yellow, white, marble, ice cream, chocolate? What kind of cake makes you go wild?
17 comments:
My god, one of my favorite topics. I adore cake. My favorite is probably chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream, but I like to fold whipped cream into the buttercream to make it less heavy. I hate cupcakes because they have a far too high ratio of frosting to cake, but I do like frosting, just a modest amount. I often find that too much frosting is just masking a poor cake. The cake part is really the most important; I prefer a cake made with butter rather than oil and one that is light but still as structure so that it does not fall apart into crumbs on my plate.
I bet you're sorry you asked now. I could discuss cake for hours.
You know you're not going to be able to get away with a casual mention of an excellent chocolate cake that uses lard without me begging for the recipe! Please share! I'm typically not a huge cake person but my MIL makes an Italian cream cake that is out of this world. It takes so much work that I've never made it... I really should fix that one of these days.
World's Easiest (and best) Chocolate Cherry Cake
1 Quality chocolate cake mix
1 can cherry pie filling
1 egg
1 cap almond extract
Mix. It will be dry and thick.
Bake according to instrux on the box.
If you wanna get all fancy, lay a paper doiley on the top and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Or chocolate frosting. But it's SO not necessary.
Carrot Cake with buttercream frosting...YUM!
Yellow cake with chocolate icing or red velvet cake with cream cheese icing (which is what my wedding cake was, NOM NOM NOM).
Although if we're being totally honest, I can eat the hell out of some boxed Funfetti cake with Funfetti icing. My mom used to make me one every year for my birthday, and it grossed out everyone in my family, which was FINE, because MORE FOR ME.
So, Phoo-D: A few years back the NYTimes ran an article about chocolate cakes and various shortenings: lard came into the article in a very favorable light. Check the recipe archives.
But here goes: Domecon Cake. (Or Grandma Bishop's Cake). I believe that my grandmother learned this cake the year she attended Cornell back about 1910 or so, in the Domestic Economy Course then given in the College of Home Economics (now the College of Human Ecology). Or she could have learned the recipe from one of the ladies' study groups that were popular in farm communities throughout the first seven or so decades of the 20th century. These groups were established as a Cornell project.
Double ingredients for a 9" layer cake.
2 well-rounded tablespoons cocoa
1/4 cup of lard
1/2 cup boiling water.
Combine these ingredients so that the lard melts (which it does easily if it's not stone cold).
Stir in:
1 cup of sugar
1 cup sifted flour
(a balloon whisk works great)
a pinch of salt
When combined, stir in 1 egg and 1 tsp vanilla.
Finally, stir in 1/2 tsp. of baking soda and 1/4 cup of buttermilk or soured milk (unless one has a cow, one must use use milk soured with vinegar; I keep buttermilk on hand, usually). The original recipe requires that the baking soda be stirred into the milk, and I usually do that as quickly as possible, so as not to lose many bubbles.
Bake at 350 in an 8x8 square pan, greased and floured. The batter also makes excellent cup cakes. The exact time depends on the pan and the oven, so just feel the center of the cake. It should be tender but a bit springy.
For layers, line the pan with parchment paper or waxed paper, properly greased and floured in the normal way. Cool briefly before turning the cakes out of the pans. It is very moist and tender. It is superb if eaten soon after being baked, but nobody refuses it the second day.
Notes: Hershey's cocoa works fine, and so does fancy stuff.
If you use butter, use closer to 1/3 cup.
Memorize the recipe, and you can get a cake in the oven in no more than 10 minutes.
My favorite cake is chocolate, called Salad Dressing cake in my family. It's an exchange of mayo for the oil and eggs normally put in, and it's delicious! Chocolate frosting tops it, of course.
If I'm being cliche - I love that red velvet stuff. With cream cheese frosting.
If I'm being old school - I love yellow cake with chocolate frosting.
If I'm being choosy - I love carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.
If I'm being childish - I love ice cream cake.
Let's face it, despite how much I say I don't really like cake, I actually like it quite a bit.
Let's hear it for lemon cake--but only if it's tart! Mary in MN
for me? Marble cake. For husband? Carrot cake. I have fun baking it for him. He does share it with me. Sweet guy.
I like most cakes. But I have had a raging hankering for white cake with chocolate frosting for SOOOO long. I haven't been able to have one yet and have wanting it for months.
I am currently experiencing massive cake envy.
Plain white cake; vanilla icing.
LOVE IT!
How on earth can MiL not like cake? Isn't it one of the four food groups? I had one of the best red velvet cakes I've had in a long time this past weekend when my kids and I were in Chicago. George's Ice Cream and Sweets in Andersonville. It was about 4 layers, and for one of the layers instead of frosting they put raspberry jam. YUM!
I love all cake, I'm really not prejudice against any (unless, like you, its that fruit "cake". It's so not cake).
Favorites:
Yellow with chocolate frosting
chocolate with chocolate frosting
carrot with cream cheese frosting
hummingbird with cream cheese frosting
Yeah, what can I say? I love cake!
I'm with MIL, fruit and cakes are made for each other. Pineapple Upside Down cake, Carrot cake (with raisins, nuts and crushed pineapple), traditional Fruit cake, yum! Chocolate, yellow or white cake, no thanks I'll leave that for you. Put confectionery sugar icing on top and it's way too sweet with no redeeming features. Although, take that same cake and put some low sugar fruit jam between the layers and whipped cream on top and I might have to fight you for it.
Sheila Z
Word verification:
giblayer- the extra padding acquired after eating all the above cake.
Okay, so I am going to have to memorize this recipe. It sounds like the perfect cake to have in your back pocket. Thank you SO much for sharing it MIL! You are the best =).
Red velvet with cream cheese frosting. Spice cake is a close second.
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