Thanks so much for the encouragement everyone. I have passed the Friday night flop around to my family (they will eat anything) and had to do 3 cakes last night for a church function. I was really on edge hoping they were all right. They turned out great, red velvet, italian cream and decorated pound cake. I feel so much better. So I've gone from telling my husband that I was never doing another cake, to thinking I might need to order some more decorating toys.......... Crazy isn't it? I have a LOVE HATE relationship with cake!!!


Thanks to all and have a wonderful day.

MBHazel

[quote="MBHazel"]Hi!

Cathy 24 most of your tips ar ones I use, however, tell me about tenting the cake. How do you check the cake when it is hidden? Also, when do you remove.

![/quote]


i did this for the first last time last weekend when i checked my oven temp and it had risen (by itself) so i was worried the tops of the cakes would have dried out and i wouldnt get a good rise on my 10 inch so i just set foil on top and folded it loosely round the sides of the tin. it worked great, no hard orange crust and it rose so much better so i do this all the time now and its great for all types of cake.

to check the cakes i just lift the foil up a little and see if they are ok, also you can take them out of the oven and turn them and just replace the foil as its only loosely set over. i remove the foil when the cakes come out of the oven.

hope this helps!!

Thanks Cathy!

Narie and Hbhazel, thanks for the info on the precut parchment circles. I am going to look into it.

I ONLY use doctored cake mixes...given up on scratch cakes looong ago. The doctored cake mixes give me more consistency...every cake perfect!! Also I have the cake mix doctor book, and to be honest...I prefer the gourmet cake flavor thread here on cc...the cake mix doctor is pretty blah to me...baking from scratch is EXACTLY THAT MBHazel...science. Even with culinary training in Pastry Arts...I steer clear from the science of scratch baking.

Since you mention the Cake Bible, are you weighing the ingredients? I know the author says although she gives substitutions, weighing is always more accurate....just a thought.

While we scratch bakers seem to be in the minority, and I not inclined to switch to mixes, I decided to try the WASC cake that everyone raves about that uses a doctored mix. I have also read here on cc that people say it is less expensive than baking from scratch. Well I just got back from the supermarket to get the mix and sour cream. Less expensive, NO WAY. The DH cakes mixes alone were $1.69 each, (BC was more money,), not including the sour cream, the eggs, flour, sugar and everything else this recipe calls for. Unless this cake blows me away (and that is doubtful as I am a big person), I will stick to scratch, and the occasional do over.

Patty please tell how it turns out!

Strawberry: Gee I use a heat core from 8" up, how do you manage getting away with that? Is your temp cut way down???

Jamie: No I have not been weighing , still measuring. Except for the eggs, (I forgot that earlier) My basic recipe calls for 5 large eggs. For years I have been using Jumbo. So I did back off on the eggs. Thinking I would make the cake BETER. I was soooooo wrong.

Bakermom: I have to look at the thread, haven't seen it before.

MBHazel, it is in the oven now but I can smell the chemical smell as it bakes. We shall see.

Cute Patty.

As much as everyone brags about success with boxed mixes, I'm not having luck. Just this week I checked two books out at the libray: One is The Cake Mix Doctor, and the other is a scratch cookbook called Great Cakes.

Both have really yummy looking recipes and I'll try one of the scratch cakes this weekend from Great Cakes. It's a pretty big book with many recipes for cakes, fillings, and icings with variations for many flavors.

I know many people love the Cake Bible, but I made the basic yellow cake last week and it looked beautiful but was so dry we couldn't eat it. I posted this info on Rose Levy Barenbaum's forum and from the responses I should have weighed the ingredients instead of measuring them by volume. I'll also try her sour cream yellow cake recipe soon as I think it will be more moist.

If anyone finds that perfect scratch yellow or white recipe, please share!

Cindy

You need to make the Mermaid Bakery Yellow/ Vanilla Cake.
I have read that people have issues with it, but I can't complain. I made it as it is written. Cameout beautiful and rose nicely. It is a tad bit dense - but trust me it is more fluffy. I really like that cake. I ate it with and without filling/ icing and both were yummy. It will be my go to yellow cake from now.
Try it

If you measure your cake ingredients by weight you will have more accurate results. In the baking trade, they don't use cups and measures, it is by weight. There can be variations in the flour density, etc.

I personally love scratch cakes myself and can taste the artificial packet mixes a mile off. I would also prefer my children to eat wholesome natural ingredients instead of additives and preservatives.

It was a big surprise for me when I started work in a leading bakery to discover they too use packet mixes. Just huge bags of the stuff!

Hi Strawberry,

That is the difference I think, You use 2" pans and I use 3" pans and always use a core from 8" up.