Cake - Double-Post Tuesday

Besides being Taco Tuesday, it's Double-Post Tuesday. Today's Double-Post deals with (yum!) cake!

I always thought it sounded a little strange when someone would say, "You can't have your cake and eat it, too." Why have it if you can't eat it? Somehow, it just didn't make sense. The first time I heard this, I must have been 5 or 6, and asked my parents about it. Try explaining that to a 5 or 6 year old! (Yes, I'm sure I drove my parents nuts at times!)

Well, enough of the chit-chat. Here are six cake recipes to help you through the day, including Red Velvet Cake and All-in-One Chocolate Cake. Enjoy!

Note: By the way, I also have a cookbook that many of my recipes on this blog are in. It's called Off The Wall Cooking, available at Amazon for your Kindle. Give it a try! Also, I'm planning to update it in the near future, as well as possibly pulling it to send to a regular publisher, so if you'd like to check it out while it's inexpensive, that would be appreciated.

ROCKY ROAD CAKE

This is one of the recipes from Off The Wall Cooking.

I was taking a speech class at a local junior college. One week we had to give a demonstration speech; one lady demonstrated how to make this cake, passing out copies of the recipe along with pieces of cake. It’s absolutely delicious. The icing can be used on almost any kind of cake; it would be really good on carrot cake!

Ingredients

1 C chopped nuts

4 eggs

1 C raisins

1 C mayonnaise

1 C mini-marshmallows

1 C water

6 oz. package of chocolate

1 package (18.25 oz) Devil’s Food cake mix w/pudding

Directions

Grease & flour 2 9" pans. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix first four ingredients in medium-size bowl. In large bowl at low speed, mix cake mix, eggs, may & water until blended. Increase speed to medium & beat for 2 minutes. Stir in nut mixture. Pour into greased & floured pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes. Cool in pan 15 minutes on cooling rack.

Icing (for Rocky Road Cake)

1 tsp. vanilla

1 stick butter

8 oz. cream cheese

1 box confectioners sugar

Place ingredients in bowl & cream together. When cake is cool, ice. ENJOY!

POOR MAN'S CAKE

My friend Maryann and I went to high school together, then wrote back and forth for years. She managed to visit twice, two years apart. In one letter, she sent along this and the next recipe. "Maybe my cousin’s recipe," she wrote. We've since lost touch, but I've often wondered why ever happened to her.

Ingredients

1 C brown sugar

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1 C water

2 C flour, shifted

1/3 C oil

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 C raisins

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 tsp. salt

Directions

Mix brown sugar, water, oil, raisins, nutmeg & cinnamon in pan. Boil 3 minutes. Cool thoroughly. Add remaining ingredients. Bake in square pan in moderate oven (350 degrees) for 35 minutes.

POOR MAN'S CAKE #2

Aunt Sammy’s Depression Days

Maryann wrote, "Mom’s recipe. 1931 era. Don’t know if it’s (era) important or not."

Ingredients

3 eggs

1 C sugar

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. vanilla

2 C bread crumbs

Directions

Mix all ingredients together, blending well by hand. Grease 8X8" baking pan. Press mix into pan. Bake at 300 degrees for 30 minutes. Add raisins, fruit, or wine if available.

THE CAKE

This recipe was given to my mom by a friend, who worked as a lawyer for years. She was married to an Episcopal priest; both were involved in the civil rights movement.

Ingredients

1 package (18 oz.) yellow cake mix

1 egg, unbeaten

3/4 C oil

1 package (small) vanilla pudding

3/4 C sherry

Directions

Preheat oven at 350 degrees. Put ingredients in bowl. Beat for 5 minutes. Pour into greased tube cake pan or mold. Bake for 45 minutes.

RED VELVET CAKE

Another one of the recipes from Off The Wall Cooking.

We lived in Connecticut for several years while I was growing up. During this time, a lady called the local radio station and said she’d recently returned from a trip. During a stay in a fancy hotel with her husband, she had this cake in their restaurant. Returning home, she wrote to the hotel and requested a copy of the recipe, saying she’d pay for it. She received a copy of the recipe, along with a bill for $300. (This was during the mid-1960s.) Furious over the bill, she proceeded to read the recipe over the air.

Ingredients

1/2 C butter (note)

1/4 tsp. salt

1 1/2 C sugar

1 C buttermilk

2 eggs, well beaten

1 T vinegar

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. baking soda

2 T cocoa

2 1/4 C flour (sifted)

2 oz. red food coloring

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease & flour two 8" round pans. Cream butter & sugar. Add eggs. Make paste of food coloring & cocoa. Add to 1st mix. Add salt & buttermilk alternately with flour. Add vanilla. Dissolve soda in vinegar & add this last. Blend all ingredients, as little as possible. Pour into pans & bake for 30-40 minutes. When cool, split each layer horizontally.

Frosting For Red Velvet Cake

1 C butter (note)

1 C milk

1 C sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

5 T unbleached flour

Cream butter with sugar. Cook flour & milk in saucepan until very thick, stirring the whole time. Cool. Combine 2 mixes & add vanilla, using electric mixer. Spread on cake.

Note: Butter must be used in the frosting, otherwise the frosting will liquefy & refuse to harden. In the cake itself, though, margarine may be used. Also, if two 9" round pans are used, layers don’t need to be cut in half.

ALL-IN-ONE CHOCOLATE CAKE

This comes from Nigella Lawson, from The New York Times' cooking newsletter. If you haven't signed up for their newsletter, I highly recommend it. Nigella writes, “This is the perfect chocolate cake: beautiful, melting, intense but not heavy. The batter comes together quickly in a food processor, and the cake bakes at 350 degrees for a while, giving the baker time to assemble the frosting, which is given a luscious sheen by a bit of corn syrup. Use the best chocolate you can find for the frosting, and gild it however you like: with a few flowers, some birthday candles or nothing at all.” Time: 1 hour 15 minutes; 10 to 12 servings

To view this online, click here.

Ingredients

For the Cake:

Butter for greasing baking pans

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/3 cup best-quality cocoa powder

6 ounces (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 large eggs, at room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla

3/4 cup sour cream, at room temperature

For the Frosting:

6 ounces good-quality semisweet chocolate, broken into small pieces

3 ounces (3/4 stick) unsalted butter

1 tablespoon light corn syrup

1/2 cup sour cream

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted

Preparation

For cake: heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter sides of two 8-inch cake pans, and line bottoms with parchment paper. In the bowl of a food processor fitted with a knife blade, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa powder, butter, eggs, vanilla and sour cream. Process to make a smooth, thick batter.

Using a rubber spatula, divide batter between pans, and smooth tops. Bake until a cake tester inserted in center comes out clean, 25 to 35 minutes; do not overbake. Transfer to a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes before removing from cake pans.

For frosting: Combine chocolate and butter in a large heat-proof bowl, and heat until melted in a microwave oven or over a pan of simmering water. Remove from heat, and allow to cool for 5 minutes. Stir in corn syrup, sour cream, and vanilla. Whisk in confectioners' sugar until very smooth. Frosting should be thick and spreadable. If necessary, add a teaspoon or two of boiling water to thin it, or additional sifted confectioners' sugar to thicken.

Cut four strips of waxed or parchment paper, and place them side by side on a cake plate, covering the surface. Place one cake layer domed-side down on plate.

Spoon about a third of the frosting onto center of cake, and use a knife or a spatula to spread it evenly. Place the other cake on top, domed side up. Spoon another third of frosting on top of cake, spreading to make swirls or a smooth finish. Spread sides of cake with remaining frosting, and allow to sit for a few minutes until set. Carefully remove paper strips. Place cake under glass or in an airtight container, and set aside in a cool place until serving.