Walking Down Memory Lane

I have fond memories of the many cakes my Mom made throughout my childhood.  One of my favorite cakes was a Chocolate Cake that she made which required boiling water.  It was a recipe she collected from the newspaper and was reportedly a favorite of President Truman.  

When I saw a cup of *milk souring (yup, souring!) on the kitchen window sill, I KNEW Mom was making Chocolate Cake! Yum!  She often frosted this cake with 7-Minute Frosting (marshmallow frosting) and covered the cake with shredded coconut.  Below  is the recipe . . . easier to read than Mom's handwriting!

* Sour MIlk - measure one cup of milk, add 1 teaspoon of vinegar or lemon juice.  Allow to sit for 5 minutes.  This is also a substitute for Buttermilk.

Chocolate Cake

2 cups sugar

3/4 c. butter (1 1/2 sticks)

2 eggs

1 t. vanilla

Sift Together:

2 1/2 c. flour

2 t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

1/2 c. cocoa

1 c. sour milk

1 cup boiling water

Cream sugar and butter.  Add eggs, one at a time; then, vanilla.  Beat in flour, alternating with milk into creamed sugar and butter. (Flour-milk-flour-milk-flour). Add boiling water all at once and stir well to blend.

Bake @ 350 degrees in greased pan(s).  2 - 9" pans for 30 minutes; 13X9 pan for 45 minutes.

Picture Gallery

This gallery is a sampling of the many cakes, cupcakes, etc. that I have made over the last few years.  I am not fond of covering cakes with fondant.  Not only does fondant have a bland flavor (in my opinion), I can't seem to successfully cover a cake with it!  However, I do use fondant in creating decorations for my cakes.

Celebrating Adoption!

Video on Simple Syrup

Fun Tutorials

Last summer I stumbled upon a great site called MY CUPCAKE ADDICTION hosted by Elise Strachan.  Don't let the name of the site fool you into thinking she only does cupcake tutorials, she also teaches the viewer how to make GIANT candy bars, and other sweet goodies.  Most tutorials are under 10 minutes in length and are very entertaining.  As a Family and Consumer Science teacher for middle schoolers, this site is great to share with the students when cooking class is over early and I need to keep the kids engaged.

Another site I enjoy learning from is HOW TO CAKE IT hosted by Yolanda Gampp. Yolanda has a quirky sense of humor, and does some amazing cakes. I learned the technique of using Simple Syrup on my cakes, which keeps them moist and fresh longer.

What Did I Do Wrong?

I acquired a recipe for Cream Cheese Pound Cake over 20 years ago when a young bride-to-be asked me to bake and decorate her wedding cake. Brave girl.  Now this was to be my first wedding cake and I approached the challenge with gusto.  I purchased 3" deep pans from 6" to 16", and began to bake.

I began with a 10" round pan and baked the cake according to the recipe.  The smell of cake baking was heavenly, it looked sooo good.  I turned the cake out and admired it. Ah! I was well on my way.  So I thought.  Warm, gooey cake batter began to ooze out of this beautiful golden cake!  What did I do wrong?!

Back to the mixer and whip up some more batter!  I tried lowering the temperature and baking longer, no success.  I was invited to a friend's commercial kitchen and used his convection oven, still no success.  Cake would be nearly burnt on the outside and raw on the inside.  Eventually I stumbled upon the solution.  A HEAT CORE!  By the time I made this five-tier cake, I probably baked the equivalent of three wedding cakes!  Fortunately friends were only too happy to taste my cake fails.


Tips for using the HEAT CORE:

• How it works: The metal core transfers heat to the batter from the center of the cake helping the cake to bake evenly.
• Any cake pan over 10" in diameter needs a HEAT CORE, especially since my pans were 3" deep.
• It's important to grease and flour the inside and outside of the HEAT CORE.
• Fill the HEAT CORE with batter to the same level as the batter in your pan. Just pop the center cake back in the primary cake layer, trim as necessary.

Cream Cheese Pound Cake

Cream:
3 sticks butter
8 oz. cream cheese


Beat in:
3 c. sugar


Add:
6 eggs, one at a time
2 t. vanilla
3 c. sifted flour
1/4 t. salt


Bake at 325 degrees, (greased & floured)10" tube pan, 1 hr.,20 min.

Note:  This recipe yields about 9 cups of batter, (a cake mix is about 5 cups).  Therefore, if you are planning to use a different pan than the 10" tube (AKA Angel Food Cake Pan), know that you may have extra batter.