yellow cake mix - substitute

"Dee Randall" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com:

Here ya go...

Basic 2-egg Butter Cake makes 2 8" layers

1 3/4 cups sifted cake flour 2 tsp baking powder 1/4 tsp salt 1/2 cup milk 1 tsp vanilla extract 1/2 cup butter, softened to room temp 1 cup sugar 2 eggs

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Prepare two 8" cake pans. Grease with shortening, and sprinkle with flour. Shake out excess flour.

Sift flour with baking powder and salt and set aside.

Combine milk and vanilla extract.

Cream butter and sugar together until light, continuing to cream till fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add dry ingredients alternately with the milk mixture, beginning and ending with the dry and adding about 1/3 of total per time. Beat just until smooth.

Pour into the cake pans and bake 25-30 minutes, until cakes shrink from sides of pans and are springy to the touch; cool upright in pans on wire rack for 5-7 minutes, then invert on racks. Turn layers right side up to cool completely.

Fill and frost as desired.

Wayne wrote in news:Xns952A905DCDD96waynebw@204.127.36.1:

Dee, I should have said that the texture of this cake is not artificially "fluffy" as a box mix, but it does make a very good old-fashioned yellow cake.

Thanks, Wayne in Phoenix - hot there today?

From the nitpick wit:

I have a question that I just know that you can answer.

Another of my "many" concerns is using "cake flour." I should have mentioned that, but I was hoping against all hope. I have not purchased cake flour in probably 35 years due to it being bleached, etc etc etc. I always get to the shelf, but never pick it up. But, of course, not being a purist and not having cake often, I don't worry about having cake flour in it when I purchase a mix -- maybe 2 or 3 at most a year. However, I am still bulking at those words, "cake flour." Is there any thing I can do to keep from using cake flour and still make a cake. I know it will be tough if I would use AP flour.?? Can I do something to the AP flour to make a passable cake for myself. Or would it be best to just forget about it and make a "coffee" cake instead? Yes, I could eat a lot of those!

I don't even use icing on these mix cakes. You gave me advice once to put "ganache" on my profiteroles. If I did use an icing, it would be something like what you suggested. One might wonder why I'm going to this trouble just for a cake 2-3 times a year -- well, who knows? perhaps I might eat more if I could figure out this quandry.

Thanks Wayne, Dee

news:Xns952A905DCDD96waynebw@204.127.36.1:

Wayne, I guess that fluffiness is another one of my objections to a cake mix. I can still remember a cake I had in Paris that was as heavy as lead. It was only 3 doors away at a tea room. It was dark chocolate and they poured honey all over the top. When my husband was taking an afternoon nap, I was sneak over there and have it. That's been 25 years ago and I can still remember that Heavy cake.

Dee

"Dee Randall" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com:

Oh, it's no nit, but a fair question...

Not to worry. You can use all-purpose flour. There are two schools of though on how to do this, and it really varies with the recipe. Since I haven't tried either with this particular recipe, you may have to make it both ways to decide which you like better.

For every cup of AP you measure, remove 2 tablespoons. (That's one method.) The other is to remove 2 tablespoons of the flour and replace it with cornflour or cornstarch.

If you only make it 2-3 times a year, then it should be a more special cake because it isn't often. That would be my reasoning. Ordinary, uninteresting cake you can have anytime. :-)

You're very welcome! Please let me know how it turns out for you. BTW, I also like those dense cakes that have such richness to the texture.

"Dee Randall" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com:

I'm sorry, but I overlooked your question... Yes, 108°F today. Last week we had two days of 112°F, but as they say, it's a "dry" heat! LOL It's usually around 90°F when we get up in the morning, then off to work in a cool car, work in a cool office, back to home in a cool car, into a pool which feels like bathwater , then into the chill of the house. We desert people live almost the opposite of most folks. We spend most of the three hottest months indoors and enjoy fairly balmy breezy weather the rest of the year. When I lived in Ohio, we spent most of the three coldest months indoors. The drawback to the summers there were humidity and bugs, and I spent a good deal of the summer indoors, too.

You're in your winter there now? What is it like?

Wayne, I know your weather very well. I miss it. Despite the heat, the desert is so uplifting to the spirit. Here in Virginia, (b. in Belpre, Ohio) I spend my summers in a/c and my winters with a furnace going along with the bugs and humidity. Some years there is no spring, nor fall.

Thanks so much for your advice on cake flour advice. I shall save it and use it.

Dee

"Dee Randall" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com:

Dee, if you ever get back out to AZ, please let me know. Next weekend we're going tubing down the salt river, then a cruise on Saguaro Lake.

Cheers! And enjoy the cake!

Thanks Wayne, you're a real friendly guy. Those days in the sun are long gone for me. You deserve the best, so have lots of fun!

Dee

"Dee Randall" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com:

Thank you, Dee. I'm really sorry to hear that you won't be heading this way again.

I spent half of my childhood and most of my adulthood (until 2000) in NE Ohio. I _never_ liked it there. I stayed because I felt a certain obligation to my parents who lived there (I'm an only child). After both had passed away, I was determined to end up somewhere I really wanted to be.

Yellow Cake

1/2 cup butter 1 cup sugar 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 1/2 cups sifted cake flour 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 4 eggs, well beaten

Beat butter; gradually add sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla. Sift together the dry ingredients; add to cream mixture alternately with beaten eggs, beating well after each addition. Turn into greased and floured 8-inch tube pan or 9 x 5 x 3-inch loaf pan. Bake in a preheated 350° oven for 45 to 50 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes in the pan then turn out onto a cake rack. Cool and glaze or frost as desired. Store tightly covered. _________________________________________________________________________ Title: Basic Yellow Cake

Yield: 12 Servings

3/4 c Butter; softened 1 2/3 c Sugar 2 Eggs 2 ts Vanilla 3 c Sifted cake flour 2 1/2 ts Baking powder 1/2 ts Salt 1 1/3 c Milk

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Grease and flour 2-9" cake pans.

2. Cream butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla until well combined.

1. Sift flour, baking powder and salt. Add to butter mixture alternately with milk; beating until smooth after each addition.

2. Bake in prepared pans 30 mintues or until tests clean. Cool in pans on wire rack 10 minutes; remove from pans and let cool completely on rack.

Frost as desired.

Understanding a little about prepared cake mixes, it is not easy to duplicate big name brands at the home kitchen and come out with an analogue by trying to formulate it by omitting lot of uncommon functional ingredients ( used by the manufacturer)that makes the particular cake mix work.. Indeed you can come out with a lot of cookbook type yellow cake mixes but its far from the real thing you want.Indeed its is very difficult( if not impossible) to attain something near of the precisely formulated original by just using OTC ingredients.

You may think that shortening is just a simple fat that can be replaced by butter but it is not. I think your main concern is that you want to keep away from trans fats and indeed most cake mixes contains partially hydrogenated shortenings. Many years back I had success in preparing supermoist yellow cake mix by avoiding partially hydrogenated shortening but instead used liquid shortening (plain refined soya oil) together with a good balance of synergistic emulsifiers blend,that was designed to fit the purpose. I can make an analog of any commercial cake mixes formulation ( laboratory scale)if I am in the bakery premixes laboratory and the presence of the various ingredients and equipments used by the cake mix manufacturer in R&D ,product development. A home cook who is present cannot see much the difference in the tasting session between the two comparable cakes, the analog and the original. But I was never as successful in tweaking any prepared cake mix formulation by using just simple ingredients that you can find in the cupboard ,fridge or in the supermarket.

If any chef or baker claims he can do so otherwise, he is possibly dreaming?.? Roy