Scratch Bakers: Post Best Recipes!!! Part Ii (After Crash!)

Baking By ceshell Updated 10 May 2010 , 5:52pm by Tor1985

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playingwithsugar Posted 13 Aug 2008 , 9:37am
post #31 of 142

Is anyone besides me still getting responses to the original thread? I got three of them yesterday.

Theresa icon_smile.gif

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all4cake Posted 13 Aug 2008 , 2:50pm
post #32 of 142

I am getting them still......I then found the beginning of the thread and went back through as many pages as it would allow(27, I think) until I got the link to this one

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sugarycreations Posted 13 Aug 2008 , 4:29pm
post #33 of 142

Sorry I didn't get back sooner, but I went to bed. Imagine wasting valuable time on something as trivial as sleep. lol

Carnation makes it. May be other brands, but I'm not familiar with them. I think the last time I saw it in the store it was with the cocoa mixes. I've made all the cakes I've made from this recipe with this one container. I hadn't even bought it. <G> I inherited it when Jim & I bought a house & he had had it. Came in real handy for this cake.

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aswartzw Posted 13 Aug 2008 , 8:07pm
post #34 of 142
Quote:
Originally Posted by ceani

on the old post people seem to really like the shubox white cake but it calls for coconut cream. what can i use instead because some family members are allergic to coconut.




I'm sure you can substitute regular milk or coffee creamers or something like that.

Thanks for the malted cake recipe! I've been wanting a good one and now I do! thumbs_up.gif

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playingwithsugar Posted 13 Aug 2008 , 10:11pm
post #35 of 142

I wanted to answer the question about coconut cream yesterday, but the system kept stalling out on me.

Baking is a science, and you can't just substitute one ingredient for another, even if they are both liquid. There is a certain density and water content to allow for.

Considering the density of coconut cream, I would use sweetened, condensed milk instead, ounce for ounce.

Theresa icon_smile.gif

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ceshell Posted 14 Aug 2008 , 6:19am
post #36 of 142

I think you can find malted milk powder in...the baking aisle? either that or it's near the chocolate for chocolate milk i.e. Nesquik and that kind of stuff.

There was a pp looking for white/butter/etc. recipes, there are definitely some good ones in the original thread, my current fave is the White on White Buttermilk by Rebecca Rather, although the Sylvia Weinstock Classic Yellow cake runs a close second (thanks to jkalman for recommending that one). I like the w.o.w. one just because it's less dense but both are very flavorful. Super yummy.

LOL I still stand by the Choc. Fudge Brownie cake I posted in the original scratch thread but I am aware that one's preference in cake flavor can be entirely personal. For me it beats the Hershey's (my golden standard until I found CC), the Epicurious Double Chocolate, and the One Delicious cakes hands down. I just made cupcakes out of the fudge brownie cake again, it is sooo flavorful and moist that it's even amazing w/o icing. "Heaven on a Fork" (haha, there was once a thread with that title). I was so glad to have leftovers to freeze, it is all I can do to limit myself to one per night. *steps away from megaphone*

That said, I am TOTALLY going to try that malted milk cake, WOW does that sound GOOOOOOOD!!

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ceshell Posted 14 Aug 2008 , 6:26am
post #37 of 142

sugarycreations have you ever made that recipe with butter instead of shortening?

ETA: Also just noticed the inquiry about a red velvet cake. This recipe here on CC is awesome http://www.cakecentral.com/cake_recipe-7027-20-Sarahs-Red-Velvet-Cake-TWEAKED.html I gave the recipe to a friend to make, people thought she was a gourmet cook. It was very moist, people were saying they were the "best cupcakes" they'd ever eaten.

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sugarycreations Posted 14 Aug 2008 , 4:40pm
post #38 of 142

No I haven't tried substituting butter for the shortening in the cake. Considering the way I've been going through butter testing & choosing pound cakes to sell, I was grateful to find a cake that tested good & didn't use butter. <G> I'm already ready to buy my own dairy for my butter supply. I'm sure you know what I mean.

By the way, I LOVE THIS THREAD. Even though I'm not sure I can afford this thread. (I'm just getting started so already cash poor. lol)

So with this in mind, I'll leave everybody with another recipe. I have no clue where any of my recipes come from unless they are given to me by a friend or relative in which case I write their name on it. I keep a file folder of recipes from magazines, newspapers, internet print outs, etc that's my rountuit file. When I try one of them, I either throw the recipe away or enter it into my trusty Mac depending on the verdict on the recipe. IF I never get a new recipe to try, I have enough in there to try something new at least once a day for 12-15 years. LOL Not that I collect or keep looking for better recipes.

I have tried this recipe both as a pound cake & a layer cake. It was popular both ways. At the moment, I'm working on an ice cream cake for my youngest granddaughter using this cake.

Chocolate Velvet Pound Cake
1 ½ cups semisweet chocolate chips  1 tsp baking soda
½ cup butter, softened  Â½ tsp salt
1 pound light brown sugar  8 oz sour cream
3 large eggs  1 cup hot water
2 cups flour  2 tsp vanilla
Melt semisweet chocolate chips in a microwave oven for 30-second intervals until melted (about 1 ½ minutes total time). Stir until smooth.
Beat butter and brown sugar at medium speed with an electric mixer, beating about 5 minutes or until well blended. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until blended after each addition. Add melted chocolate, beating just until blended.

Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt. Gradually add to chocolate mixture alternately with sour cream, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat at low speed just until blended after each addition. Gradually add 1 cup hot water in a slow, steady stream, beating at low speed just until blended. Stir in vanilla.

Spoon batter evenly into a greased & floured 10â tube pan. Bake at 350âfor 55 to 65 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack 10 minutes. Remove from pan & let cool completely on wire rack.
Sift ¼ cup powdered sugar over top of cake.

Can also be used as a layered cake batter. Use 3 8â pans. Adjust cooking time.

Makes @ 81/2 cups of batter.

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jessfmaldonado Posted 14 Aug 2008 , 11:49pm
post #39 of 142
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gatorfan01



The very best rum cake recipe is the Bacardi Rum Cake. thumbs_up.gif You can find one recipe here: http://www.recipezaar.com/14499

Good luck!




Thanks Gatorfan01,
I usually only make scratch cakes but this is for a dessert table and I have alot of stuff going on already, I will be making the rum cake into petit fours. Thanks for this recipe it looks good, I will be trying it!!

Thanks,
Jessica

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SugarBakerz Posted 15 Aug 2008 , 6:51pm
post #40 of 142

The recipe on here called crazy chocolate cake which is egg free is great too. I have a customer with a son who needs EF cakes and this is all she orders.. sometimes we insert peanut butter inside the cupcakes!

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dandelion56602 Posted 15 Aug 2008 , 7:09pm
post #41 of 142

After reading all the other 26 pages and I decided to make my first scratch cake (besides a few in the past from church cookbooks). I baked Kate Sullivan's One Delicious Chocolate Cake.

My report:

Positive
1)Very very good flavor!
2) Very moist
3) Rose very well (I used the recommended amount in Wilton--3c for 6x3" round & it rose all the way to the edge, increased the 2nd pan by 1/2 c & overflowed)
4)Flat top

Negative
1) Sunk in the middle---I could have made a mistake b/c I'm not use to scratch. I know I didn't over mix--I was terrified of doing that! had it not sunk in the middle I wouldn't have had to level it.
2) Crumbly--that too could have been me. I let them rest 10 min in the pan before turning them out. But my cupcakes were crumbly too & I know I let them cool enough in the pan.
3)Flat top (not so good for cupcakes).
4) The top edge of the cake shrank about 1/4" all the way around, which I don't mind, but the bottom edge didn't shrink at all

Will I make it again? Probably, but will try others first. I found it made about 8 1/4 c of batter. The batter was VERY liquidy, don't know if it was suppose to be, but it was. I'm use to thick batters. And I can't express how yummy it was (I think I gained 10 lbs just eating crumbled cupcakes & what I leveled)

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ceshell Posted 15 Aug 2008 , 8:13pm
post #42 of 142

Yikes that's a lot of problems! I too have been having a heckuva time with shrinkage (same type: top only), but on my white cakes. I finally learned that my pans weren't filled enough.

If you try the fudge brownie cake I posted, that doesn't rise much either but once it's cooked up it doesn't sink (well unless you underbake it which I did the second time I made it, a couple of years ago). If you make cupcakes you really need to fill them 3/4 full or more to get the desired height. The batter is also very liquidy, I think that is a popular technique for chocolate cakes, I have seen it in more than a few scratch recipes. Just an fyi icon_smile.gif

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sugarycreations Posted 19 Aug 2008 , 3:12pm
post #43 of 142

Ok I'm running short of time here. A while back I saw a recipe somewhere on CC for an orange cake that tasted like a dreamicle. Sounded really yummy & different. I'm getting married Saturday & have decided I want to do that cake for my cake. I CAN'T FIND IT AGAIN!! Can somebody please send it to me or the link so I don't have to do something else? Would love to do the mimosa cake as it sounds super also but my best friend is a strict tee-totaler so that would be disrespectful. Some other time for it.

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Gatorfan01 Posted 19 Aug 2008 , 4:38pm
post #44 of 142

I think this is the recipe you are looking for. I haven't tried it yet but it does sound yummy!

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake_recipe-4773-Beths-Wedding-Orange-Cake.html

Congrats on your wedding this weekend. Best wishes for many many happy years together.

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Tashablueyes Posted 19 Aug 2008 , 7:34pm
post #45 of 142

Thanks for reposting, I was just thinking as much as I like the WASC recipes they're a little too moist and dense for my taste once they're filled and iced and I want to try some scratch recipes to see if I can get a sturdy enough cake for tiers and carving without feeling like I'm eating fudge brownies!

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playingwithsugar Posted 30 Aug 2008 , 10:41pm
post #46 of 142

Gee, I'm way behind in this thread.

Malted Milk powder is the same as plain Ovaltine, and is found in the coffee/hot chocolate aisle in grocery stores near me. It is usually on the top shelf.

Theresa icon_smile.gif

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addietx Posted 30 Aug 2008 , 11:29pm
post #47 of 142

Ceshell, I can't find your recipe for Choc. Fudge Brownie cake. Would you please post it?

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ceshell Posted 31 Aug 2008 , 4:28am
post #48 of 142
Quote:
Originally Posted by addietx

Ceshell, I can't find your recipe for Choc. Fudge Brownie cake. Would you please post it?



Sure! It's at the top of page three of the "Hershey's Chocolate Cake' post, this will link you directly to it http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopic-52587-30.html. If you back into the history of that thread you'll learn that the recipe originated from Scott Clark Woolley, and that some members of egullet.com had a chocolate cake taste test forum where they tweaked his recipe until it was their #1 favorite. Halfway thru their huge thread they then started tweaking the Epicurious double choc. cake but I still found this one to have superior chocolate flavor.

I have one leftover cupcake in the freezer from this recipe, I am hoarding it! Nearly 2 years after that post I still think it's the best...I'm dying to know if anyone else agrees or if it's just me! icon_lol.gif

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nickshalfpint Posted 31 Aug 2008 , 2:34pm
post #49 of 142

ceshell, I made the chocolate fudge brownie cake last night and it was DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you for sharing the recipe. I've been looking for a GREAT chocolate cake recipe forever. It was sooooo good!

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nicegurl222 Posted 31 Aug 2008 , 7:15pm
post #50 of 142

im new to this whole forum thing but i have been having fun with it. i have a recipe for sugar cookies that are so good. i got it from a book called confetti cakes. i may post it later on today.

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ceshell Posted 31 Aug 2008 , 11:24pm
post #51 of 142

nickshalfpint, yaaaaaaaaaaayyy! I never hear back if anyone else has tried it. I am so excited! I love that cake soooo much I just always want to spread the joy LOL.

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nickshalfpint Posted 1 Sep 2008 , 12:15am
post #52 of 142

We are chocoholics in this house and it was a BIG hit! I used chocolate frosting on it and it was soooooo good! My daughter loves the chocolate cake from the bakery I used to work at and she said this cake was way better.

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dandelion56602 Posted 17 Sep 2008 , 4:44am
post #53 of 142

I have to give another vote for the Mermaid Bakery Vanilla Butter cake. It did sooooo well. Good crumb, sturdy enough that it didn't fall apart when I removed it from the cooling rack. Had a great flat top w/ the bake even strips & a nice rounded dome for the cupcakes (both awesome qualities in my book). The batter was sooo tasty I'm sad I had to make the cake.

It made about 6 3/4 c batter. And I only have 1 8" round so there was a lot of time between the 1st & 3rd layer & all rose the same height!

(One I'd wouldn't touch w/ a 10ft pole again is The White Lily cake, I wanted to vomit, just an FYI)

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mcdonald Posted 29 Nov 2008 , 4:34pm
post #54 of 142

I know this is an old post but wanted to say that I'm glad I came across it and thanks for all who shared!!!

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szakacs Posted 24 Feb 2009 , 4:58am
post #55 of 142

Hi, Im new to this site and just wondering about hte rating system....
When it comes to the recipes, are people rating them upon sounding good or are they tried, true and trusted???
I love to bake from scratch but am new at getting into cakes. So not quite sure what are some good bases and even better fillings and icings.
Thanks for any of your help.

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sayhellojana Posted 27 Feb 2009 , 2:00am
post #56 of 142
Quote:
Originally Posted by Serious_Cakes

Here's the recipe I use, always a success icon_biggrin.gif





I just found this thread, I love it! I'll have to catch up on this and the old one, too.
I use Serious_Cake's recipe for just about every flavor except chocolate and red velvet. Just change up the extracts and use things like juice concentrates, sour cream, flavored pudding or yoghurt in place of the milk. Its very easy to make and has consistent results.

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CourtneysSweets Posted 26 Apr 2009 , 3:47pm
post #57 of 142

I can't for the life of me find a scratch cake I like. They all seem to floury in taste to me icon_sad.gif

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Rosie2 Posted 26 Apr 2009 , 3:58pm
post #58 of 142

Thank you for starting this thread!!

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FromScratch Posted 26 Apr 2009 , 4:28pm
post #59 of 142

cshell... do you really have to wrap the cake when it's hot? I hate doing that so much. Will it suffer greatly if you let it air cool? I have been wanting to give this a god, but that step skeeves me out.

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ceshell Posted 26 Apr 2009 , 11:58pm
post #60 of 142

FromScratch, I have never tried baking that cake without wrapping it, so I have no idea if the quality suffers without that step. The reviewers at egullet, who originally tweaked the recipe, stated that the step (and subsequent freezing) was crucial, but that's about all I have to go on. I know there is much debate about wrapping cakes but I figure a moist cake is a moist cake, whether it's baked that way or results from trapping in its own moisture, so I don't personally feel it's a high-risk venture; the moistness itself is the risk, not the trapping. Moist things do spoil faster so if you're worried about it...then refrigerate it the way you would a cheesecake or anything else more perishable than standard cake+cookies.

For what it's worth I do definitely get skeeved out by other things though, like raw eggs (I always use pasteurized in IMBC) and leaving out perishable fillings, so I understand your concern. I'd say, make a 1/3 batch (since you won't have to split an egg) and give it a try; at least if it isn't as delectably moist as it turns out for the rest of us, you won't have wasted too many ingredients and plus I'm sure it would still taste great with ice cream, etc! thumbs_up.gif

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