Hi,

I'm getting ready to leave for the day and when I get home tonight, I will be decorating a Dora character cake, which is needed tomorrow by noon.

Last night I baked 2 Dora cakes from scratch...the first one rose up over the pan and dripped into the oven because I put too much batter in the pan.
The end result was not satisfactory.

So I baked cake #2 from scratch, and when I was leveling it, I trimmed too much and it now looks too thin to me, and also when I was taking it out of the pan, part of the character-part crumbled off.........so this morning I used a mix to bake another cake because I really want this cake to taste good and be a great cake.

I was in a hurry, couldn't find on this site, how much of what to add to a mix in order to make it taste more home-made....so....I sort of remembered that you can substitute 1 stick of butter for the 1/3 c of oil, and use milk instead of the water ( I added 1 1/4 cup of milk). This was a white cake mix with pudding already in it, so I left out the extra pudding. I did use 3 whole eggs.

Here's my question: I won't be able to taste-test this cake before I decorate it. Can anyone tell me if I added the proper things? Is it on track to taste good???? It looks great in the pan, seems soft enough, but also a little bit firm...If many of you advise that I added the wrong things in the wrong proportion, I could still make another cake tonight when I get home.

You know that old saying, Haste makes waste? well it's true! But anyway, I just wondered if any of you could answer the question. You all are so helpful!

I think that you added enough to make it taste a lot better than an ordinary mix made as the package calls for. I think you will be FINE! THe butter instead of oil makes a big difference to me. I only hope that since you added egg yolk and butter that you werent trying for purest white as sometimes it can color it a bit. It probably isnt a huge deal on the color of the inside of the cake since it isnt a wedding (unless it is a dora wedding hehe) and thats usually the only time people INSIST on white. But I am thinking it will taste great!

the only difference between what you added and what i add is i only use 1 cup of milk and you used 1 and 1/4 cups. I think your cake cake will be great i like that reciepe alot. Good luck. And don't forget to post your picture. I love to see what everyone else does.

Yep - you did fine. It will be great!

I think your cake will be fine. Like KayDay pointed out, when I have used butter for my cake mixes, I have found that to make them a firmer texture than they normally would have been.

You poor thing, sorry your having such a hard time with this Dora cake. I hope things get better from this point on. I've been there and had to rebake a cake before also. But my problem was my cake split into a thousand pieces when I tried to flip it onto the cake board. It was my fault, I didn't have it supported right.

Hope that helps!

I think your cake will be great! And once you get it all decorated with the icing...everyone will love it!

Thank you all. After reading through your comments I feel that the Dora cake will taste OK. I just walked in the house, after being gone most of the day, and I am now going to decorate the cake. And I'm hoping the decorating will go well. The cake is for a 2 yr old's birthday party--it's a big party with about 40 family members coming...they're also having cupcakes, but I'm not baking those.

Thanks again!