Buttermilk Waffles

 

Brown Sugar Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

I know I said that the Mint Oreo Ice Cream was my most bestest, favoritest flavor yet, but I think I've changed my mind or at least this brown sugar vanilla bean ice cream may be a close second.

Crockpot Applesauce

As a child and young teenager, I loved applesauce. I anticipated the soft, sweet, cinnamony, gentle taste as I eagerly ripped open the aluminum top of the plastic, kid-sized package. One second later, I had eaten all of the applesauce and was always disappointed there was no more.

Mint Oreo Ice Cream

I was going to blog about some yummy pancakes I had made the other day but once I sampled this Mint Oreo ice cream, I pushed that thought aside. Also, now that cold weather has taken over many parts of the Northern Hemisphere, I felt it best to share this recipe before it gets even colder.

Pan de muerto Revisited

This weekend (el primero y 2 de noviembre), the day after Halloween, a very sacred holiday will take place - El día de los muertos. Although I am not Mexican, I celebrate and respect this holiday even more than Halloween. Why? Because I am comforted by the idea of honoring loved ones who have passed on and "bringing them back" into the present world via a multitude of tangible symbols such as altars showcasing loved ones' photos and momentos, skullface paintings, sugar skulls. I especially enjoy the culinary dishes that are usually present around these two days, such as mole and pan de muerto.

Dessert Braids: Nutella, Strawberry, and Banana/Cinnamon Roll

I'm back in the States.  After living for approximately two and a half wonderful months in Portugal, et al., you can imagine my reluctance to return here.  Still, I'd thought I'd muse about a few homeland items that I had taken for granted and truly missed that are not readily available in Western Europe (at least at the places I've visited):

Resuscitated Dough for Cinnamon Rolls

So you're looking at the title of this post and are thinking "huh? what?" I hear ya. Let me explain...

These past few years I've made a lot of bread and yeast-based desserts on this blog so I am familiar with the usual signs of good/bad yeast growth, dough quality, etc. While living abroad, however, I have to relearn how to cook in a sense and get familiar with different ingredients and tools. I'm in Lisbon this time around, and I decided to make cinnamon rolls for my two friends who have graciously allowed me to stay with them for two months!

Happy, risen dough! You would never know that this dough had no life in it just a few hours ago. . .

OREO Chocolate Chip Pudding Blondies

You would think that with all the Oreo recipes I've been posting lately that I'm quite fond of these cream-filled, chocolate-flavored cookies. Ah, but you would be wrong, because while I do like to use them as crusts for pies, cheesecakes, and in other desserts, I'm not too crazy about them on their own. So why the plethora of Oreo-based desserts, you ask? Because all the well-intentioned recipients of said desserts are enamored with consuming these cookies in everything.

Oreo Birthday Cake

If you'd rather indulge in Oreo truffle brownies, go here.

In May, my family and I celebrated my cousin's birthday. I love making sweet treats for him because he fully enjoys them, and I heard he sneaks in the kitchen to eat more of my creations. When I asked my aunt what cake she was planning to bring to the party, she stated that she was going to buy one from a grocery store but seeing that I was in town, I could make it if I wanted. . . and of course I volunteered! My cousin deserves more than a cake-mix/processed cake from a grocery store :).

Oreo Truffle Brownies

Many adults have fond, childhood memories of being awakened on Saturday mornings by comforting smells of a special, homemade breakfast lovingly made by a parent or caregiver. In the southern part of the United States, a special breakfast may be comprised of bacon, buttermilk biscuits (and sausage gravy), pancakes, coffee, and/or orange juice.

Reese's Peanut Butter Egg Double Chocolate Brownies

It's funny how I made these brownies almost exactly a year ago. I know it was about a year because Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs were on sale in time for Easter, and I decided to use these eggs in a brownie recipe that I had made 2 or three times previously.

Mexican Hot-Chocolate Cookies: A Comparison

A comparison of Mexican Hot-Chocolate Cookies: adapted version of Everyday Food Magazine on the left/Cooking Channel on the right

For El Día de Muertos (The Day of the Dead), I decided to make Mexican Chocolate Cookies for my students because the cookies were portable and pleasant hybrids between Mexican and U.S. desserts. I tried out two recipes: 1) a heavily adapted version from Everyday Food Magazine on Martha Stewart's website and 2) a recipe from the Cooking Channel website. While both recipes yielded delicious cookies, one was clearly better than the other. Before I reveal the winner, let's talk about the pros and cons of each recipe and its end product.

White Chocolate Crumb Muffins

Wow. I haven't updated in more than a month! Things have been pretty rough for me here in LA because I hadn't found a job even after submitting 10-20 applications a day and 3 interviews. To make matters worse, I will have to move out of my girlfriend's house very soon because she is allowed to have only 3 people in her rental home. I will have to live in my car if I don't start earning money soon! After having worked so hard in school for so many years, the thought of living in my car is a terrible one. Fortunately, I just landed a job teaching Spanish online for Oklahoma public schools (if you knew my family background (most of them live in OK), you would understand the irony in all of this). I will be teaching 7 hours a day as a substitute until I get my emergency certification to teach in Oklahoma while still residing in California (ah, the power of the internet and Skype). Anyway, I just hope you all can keep me in your thoughts and prayers while I go through this difficult time.

Buttermilk Pound Cake & Big News

The photos in this post were taken a day after I made this cake.

BIG NEWS: I'm moving back to Los Angeles in fewer than 10 days. I have applied for a leave of absence from graduate school, so I hope to return to school in a year. I have been in school non-stop since kindergarten. So, I went from elementary to high school to earning my BA to my first master's degree to my second master's to doctoral coursework and then to my qualifying paper (a condensed version of my dissertation). For practically 2 years, I have been working on my qualifying paper in graduate school because my depression and lack of willpower have been preventing me from moving forward. When I tell myself to work on my paper, I end up doing something else like cook, bake, read other blogs, post entries, take photos, watch TV, lie in bed, stare at the walls, cry, etc. Before you blame my lost of will on baking and blogging, I must tell you that I was feeling this way one year before starting this blog, which is also one year before I started to cook/bake.

Daring Bakers: Swiss Roll Ice Cream Bombe Cake

The July 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Sunita of Sunita’s world – Life and Food. Sunita challenged everyone to make an ice-cream filled Swiss roll that’s then used to make a bombe with hot fudge. Her recipe is based on an ice cream cake recipe from Taste of Home.

I was finally able to take decent photos of my cake. I know I'm super late, but at least I posted this before August! HAH! So, I bet you're wondering my cake doesn't look a Swiss roll ice cream cake. I will give you three seconds to guess why. . .just think about my sausage buns, and you'll figure it out.

1 segundo.

2 segundos. .

3 segundos. . .


Yep, you guessed it. My overheating oven apparently isn't too fond of sponge cake, so it ruined the first one completely and almost ruined all of the second one as well. I managed to salvage most of the cake, but I was unable to make Swiss rolls out of it. So, I slathered on the vanilla bean whipped cream (which is just "genious-ly" good!), cut the cakes into circles and rectangles, and placed them into two ramekins and one loaf pan.

I used the leftover hot fudge from my Chocolate Sybil Cake. I still have more left for chocolate milk. YUM!

This one looks more like an elaborated s'mores cake than a bombe ice cream cake.

Although my ice cream cakes are not nearly as pretty as the other daring bakers' cakes, at least they still tasted pretty good, and I completed the challenge.

For the ice cream portion, I made coffee ice cream and chocolate ice cream. I used different ice cream recipes from those on the challenge because I wanted egg-based ice cream, which tends to be creamier. Everything tasted fantastic except for the sponge cake, but I think that is because of the egg-white flavor and my oven's performance (or failure to perform well).

TWO THINGS I LEARNED DOING THIS CHALLENGE:

1. Whole eggs can expand big time! I thought that with the addition of egg yolks, eggs couldn't expand that much, but I was pleasantly surprised. I don't know why, but I was.

 

2. That there exists such a thing as vanilla bean whipped cream that doesn't require the removal of the seeds. This whipped cream was AMAZING!!

 3. That there really are foods that can stick unmercifully to Silpat despite what the company claims.

TWO THINGS I KNEW ALREADY BUT SOMEHOW FORGOT:

1. My oven sucks even after being "fixed" twice. 
2. Ice cream melts quickly and can be frustrating so set up everything for your photo shoot ahead of time.

 3. That I love ice cream cake!

I apologize to all my fellow DBers for being so late. A lot of things are going on in my life that I will let you know about later. I enjoyed this challenge despite the moments of frustration while taking photos of the melting ice cream haha. Now, I need to find volunteers to eat up all this excess ice cream and cake! Anyone interested? :)

Here is the recipe for the cake.
Here are the recipes for the coffee and chocolate ice creams I used.  
Note: For the chocolate ice cream, I used half-n-half instead of milk for a creamier consistency.

 Mmmmmmmmmm!

Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Buttercream

I did complete the DB challenge this month, but I have been too lazy to take it out of the freezer for photos. I will try to do it tomorrow.

Anyway, here are some cupcakes I made while my mom was here. I normally stick to my go-to recipe for chocolate cake, which is a doctored up version of Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake. However, once I saw these cupcakes from Cook's Illustrated on Gonna Want Seconds, I decided to try out another recipe.

This chocolate cake recipe is a bit more involved and more expensive because of the chopped chocolate, ganache, refrigeration time, and bread flour, if you don't bake bread often (I suppose you could use AP flour instead, but I haven't tried that). The flavor and texture were amazing, though. I can't say that it was necessarily better than my go-to recipe; I can only say they are two fantastic variations of basically the same thing.

Not surprisingly, the Cook's Illustrated recipe is a bit richer and more sophisticated than the go-to recipe. The go-to recipe is easier to do and is not as decadent. So, I would definitely use the go-to recipe for a "just-because" day, a child's birthday, or around the time "Aunt Flo" comes by (if she ever stops by your place hehe). It tastes like the prototypical chocolate cake but better. The more sophisticated recipe, however, would be perfect for special occasions or whenever you want to indulge a bit more.

I rarely like chocolate on chocolate because it can be so rich, so instead of using chocolate frosting, I used vanilla bean frosting.The frosting was so good and flavorful. If you look closely, you can see a few specks of the vanilla bean. [Speaking of vanilla beans, I bought a 1/4th pound of the stuff over a year ago for only 4-7 dollars on eBay, and I still have a bunch left. I suggest searching on eBay for some good deals on vanilla beans.]

Chocolate Cupcakes with Ganache Filling

adapted from Gonna Want Seconds, which came from Cook's Illustrated

Ganache Filling:
2 oz. bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate, chopped fine
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 Tbsp confectioner’s or powdered sugar

Chocolate Cupcakes:
3 oz. bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate, chopped fine
1/3 cup cocoa (regular or Dutch-processed)
3/4 cup hot coffee (I used espresso and boiling water)
3/4 cup bread flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp table salt (I used kosher)
1/2 tsp baking soda
6 tbsp vegetable oil
2 large eggs, room temperature
2 tsp white vinegar
1 tsp vanilla extract

FOR GANACHE FILLING: 

Place chocolate, cream, and confectioners’ sugar in medium microwave-safe bowl. Heat in microwave on high power until mixture is warm to touch, 20 to 30 seconds. 

Whisk until smooth; transfer bowl to refrigerator and let stand until just chilled, no longer than 30 minutes. 

FOR CUPCAKES: 

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard-size muffin pan with baking-cup liners. 

Place chocolate and cocoa in medium bowl. Pour hot coffee over mixture and whisk until smooth. Set in refrigerator to cool completely, about 20 minutes. 

Whisk flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda together in medium bowl; set aside.

Whisk oil, eggs, vinegar, and vanilla into cooled chocolate-cocoa mixture until smooth. Add flour mixture and whisk until smooth. 

Divide batter evenly among muffin pan cups. Place one slightly rounded teaspoon ganache filling on top of each cupcake. Bake until cupcakes are set and just firm to touch, 17 to 19 minutes. 

Cool cupcakes in muffin pan on wire rack until cool enough to handle, about 10 minutes. Carefully lift each cupcake from muffin pan and set on wire rack. Cool to room temperature before frosting, about 1 hour.

Vanilla Bean Frosting

1 stick of unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup of shortening, room temperature (you could also use another stick of butter instead)
1 vanilla bean pod
4-6 cups of powdered sugar (based on how sweet you like your frosting)
2-5 Tbsp of whole milk or half-n-half (based on desired consistency)

Place the butter and shortening in the mixing bowl, and mix for 2-3 minutes. While the butter is mixing, remove the seeds from the vanilla bean pod. Add the seeds to the butter mixture. Next, add 4 cups of the sugar. If you feel it needs more sugar, add more 1/2 cup-1 cup at a time until you reach desired level of sweetness. Lastly, add the milk 1 Tbsp at a time until it reaches a creamy enough consistency to be piped or frosted.

Look! I saved one just for you!

Chocolate Sybil Cake

I don't know who Sybil is, but she gave Paula Deen a fantastic recipe for Texas Sheet Cake. It is easier to make than another version I've made, yet tastes the same, if not better. I halved this recipe, and baked it in an 8x8 square pan, but I have posted the full recipe below. It is rare that I take a bite of something and have a food orgasm, and this cake definitely did that for me. I gobbled one of these slices so fast that I didn't realize I had eaten it all. It is so rich that I paired it with (skim) milk instead of vanilla ice cream, but if you have the stomach for it, go for the gold!

Since I didn't have any chocolate syrup at home, I made it myself using Alton Brown's recipe (posted below). It was easy to put together and gives you more than enough to make at least half of this cake. I have so much syrup left now that I can use the rest either for another one of these cakes or for chocolate shakes, ice cream, or chocolate milk.

Because my mom is in town, I won't be as active on my blog or visiting other blogs as much I usually do. I hope you all are enjoying your summer and that all the Canadians and USicans :) enjoyed their national holidays!

 I will be posting the winner of the giveaway soon. 

Cocoa Syrup

Adapted from Alton Brown

1 1/2 cups water
3 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups Dutch-processed cocoa (I used Guittard's Cocoa Rouge Dutch-Process Powder)
1/4 tsp kosher salt
2 Tbsp light corn syrup
1 Tbsp vanilla extract


In a medium pot, bring water and sugar to a boil and whisk in cocoa, salt, and corn syrup.

Whisk until all of the solids have dissolved. Reduce sauce until slightly thickened. Remove from heat, and add the vanilla extract. Strain and cool to room temperature. Pour into squeeze bottles or an easy-access container.

Other Uses: Squeeze into cold milk and stir for delicious chocolate milk, or serve on your favorite ice cream.

Chocolate Sybil Cake

Halved and adapted from Paula Deen's friend

Cake:
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
16 oz (2 cups) of chocolate syrup (recipe above)

Frosting:
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup evaporated milk
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (I omitted)


Prepare cocoa syrup first, and allow it to cool while making cake.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 13 by 9 by 2-inch pan.

Cake: Using an electric or stand mixer, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Sift or whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together in another bowl. Add to creamed mixture while continuing to beat. Add vanilla and chocolate syrup to batter and mix well.

Pour into prepared pan, and bake for 25-30 minutes. Just before cake is done, prepare frosting.

Frosting:

Put butter, chocolate chips, sugar and evaporated milk in a saucepan over medium heat, and bring to a boil. Stirring ingredients together, boil for 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from heat, and stir in vanilla and nuts (if using). Pour over warm/hot cake.

The Search for the Perfect Yellow Cake: Part 6

Don't forget to sign up for the GIVEAWAY! The deadline is Monday, July 5th!

I think we found THE cake so far. The recipe comes from the baker at Cake Love, Warren Brown.You may have seen him a long time ago on Food Network's Sugar Rush.

This cake was easy to put together. I made three modifications based on previous cakes: 1) I used 1 egg yolk plus 3 eggs instead of 4 whole eggs; and 2) I used 6 oz of all-purpose flour with 3 oz of cake flour (9oz total) instead of 7oz of AP with 2 oz of potato starch (9oz total).

We plan to try out more yellow cake recipes, but so far, this one is my favorite. Lydia thought I had put oil in it, but it doesn't have a lick of oil in it. The batter is AMAZING. I would give the batter a 10 because I kept licking the beater and ended up licking the bowl and spoon once everything was in the oven, and I have never done that with any of these yellow cakes.

THE GOOD:
The texture of the cake is soft, light and fluffy, yet it is sturdy enough to be used in a strawberry shortcake cake or something requiring a wet or moist filling. It tastes close to, but better than a cake-mix cake in my opinion. It isn't spongy or oily. I would not call it moist; however, I wouldn't call it dry either. It just has a perfect texture. You could easily eat it without frosting (like Warren Brown did in his video that I posted below). In fact, that is what I did with the fallen pieces of cake that didn't get frosted.

I would pair the chocolate frosting with a quick type of buttercream instead of the "gourmet" one that requires melted chocolate and 3 sticks of butter. I used the latter, and my friend, my mother (SHE'S IN TOWN!), and I agreed that the frosting was overwhelming and distracted you from the cake too much.

THE BAD:
I can't think of anything bad about the cake. My mom couldn't either. That doesn't mean it was perfect, though; it was just really good.

THE UGLY (aka ratings): (ratings in bold because they were not present in the original post)
Memoria: 9/10 (C1: 6.5/C2: 5/C3: 0/Cake-Mix(C4): 8/C5: 7.5)
Lydia: 9/10 (C1: 5/C2: 5/C3: 0/Cake-Mix(C4): 9.5/C5: 7.5)
Memoria's Mom (new rater!): 8/10
Lydia's Husband: 10/10 (C1: 8.5/C2: 9/C3: 4/Cake-Mix(C4): 9/C5: 7)
My Neighbor: 9.5/10 (C1: 8.5/C2: 9/C3: N/A/Cake-Mix(C4): 9/C5: 7.5) He said the cake was moist and fluffy. He loved it.

Like I said, we will be looking at other recipes to see if there is something better out there, but so far, this is my favorite and is the winner . . . for now.

Yellow Butter Cake

adapted from Cake Love (linked to a great video of him making this cake)

6 oz (3/4 cup or 1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
14 oz (1 3/4 cup) superfine or regular granulated sugar (I used regular)
3 large, whole eggs (room temperature)
1 egg yolk (room temperature)
6 oz AP flour
3 oz cake flour
1 tsp salt (I used kosher)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup half-n-half
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
(Warren Brown also used 2 Tbsp of brandy)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (335 degrees if using a convection oven). Prepare your 8" or 9" cake pans (I used Baker's Joy).

Cream the butter and sugar for about 3-4 minutes. Add in the eggs one at time, making sure the batter is well-blended before adding another egg.

I love how yellow this batter is after adding the eggs!

In a separate bowl, whisk or sieve the flours, salt, and baking powder. In a (2-cup/16oz) liquid measuring cup, mix the half-n-half and extract. Pour in a 1/3rd of the dry and a 1/3rd of the wet ingredients and continue to alternate, ending with the flour mixture. The batter should be thick (and tasty).

No longer yellow but still very delicious!

Pour batter into cake pans, and bounce them on the counter to remove air bubbles and to make the batter even. Bake the batter for 30-35 minutes, or based on your own oven, which I'm sure functions better than my oven.

For the "gourmet" chocolate buttercream I used, go here. For the simple chocolate buttercream I recommend for this cake, look below.

"Cheaper" & "Simpler", Yet Still Tasty Chocolate Buttercream

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
3-4 cups powdered sugar, to taste
3/4-1 cup cocoa powder, to taste
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
4-5 Tbsp milk, to desired consistency

Blend the butter on high for about 1-2 minutes. On LOW, add the powdered sugar one cup at a time. Add the cocoa powder. Once mixed well, add the vanilla extract and milk until desired consistency.

Happy 4th of July to all who observe this holiday!

UPDATE:

One of the readers of this blog asked about my reasons behind my changes to the recipe. I actually addressed them on previous posts about the yellow cake, but for sake of simplicity, I answered her questions in the comments section, but I thought it'd be helpful to post my reasons here.

1. 1 yolk + 3 eggs instead of 4 whole eggs: To make the batter/cake more yellow and less eggy-tasting. It didn't make the batter look more yellow but before adding the flour and half-n-half, it looked yellow (look at the next to last photo above). Also, we had another cake that called for 4 eggs, and it tasted eggy.

2. Cake flour instead of Potato Starch: I didn't have potato starch and felt it unnecessary to purchase it for a cake. I also wanted a recipe where most ingredients are accessible and usually found in most homes. Even though not everyone has cake flour, I believe it is more present in homes than potato starch. Since Warren Brown of Cake Love said that the protein amount for the cake flour was different from that of potato starch, I adjusted the ratio of AP vs. cake flour. The cake flour makes the cake lighter, and the all-purpose makes it a bit more dense.

Daring Bakers: Pavlovas, Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse, and Crème Anglaise

The June 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Dawn of Doable and Delicious. Dawn challenged the Daring Bakers’ to make Chocolate Pavlovas and Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse. The challenge recipe is based on a recipe from the book Chocolate Epiphany by Francois Payard.

I did it! Even in the midst of the yellow cake experiment, two upcoming giveaways (yes, you read right!), and a frustrating, DB experience last month, I was able to pop out this lovely dessert for the DB Challenge! Woohoo! Go me!

Okay, with the exception of my favorite white cake, I abhor, detest, can't stand, don't like anything made of primarily egg whites.That includes macarons, meringues on top of pies, angel cake, and ...pavlovas. Needless to say, I didn't make that part of the dessert, but I did make everything else, including the mascarpone.

 This mascarpone was so smooth. Can you tell?

Unlike last month's challenge, everything progressed quite smoothly for this challenge. I made the mascarpone last night, and then I made all of the other components today. The only things that went wrong were the piping of the mousse and whipping of the heavy cream for the crème anglaise mixture.

For some reason, the mousse would not come out completely out of my (new) #1M piping tip. It kept clogging up the nozzle. So, I just spooned out the mousses into the goblets. In regard to the heavy cream, it wouldn't whip up completely for some reason. I've never had that problem before so I ended up making three batches of the stuff until it finally whipped up right.

 Egg Yolks and Sugar: The Beginning of the Crème Anglaise

Clockwise: Mascarpone added to crème; whipped together; whipped cream added; done...I guess.

 

ADJUSTMENTS TO THE RECIPE: I never post the recipe to DB challenges on here because they are so long, and are available everywhere by this time of the month haha. I only post adjustments or additional recipes I used not included on the challenge. Anyway, I added some powdered sugar to the whipped cream that was added to the crème anglaise. Also, after seeing what Barbara did to her mousse, I added some mint extract to my mousse, but I accidentally added too much, which leads me to my impressions of this dessert...

Clockwise: cream, milk and lemon zest; chopped chocolate courtesy of Guittard; chocolate added to milk mixture; chocolate base done

TASTE: This dessert is EXTREMELY rich as you would expect with all the heavy cream in it. I completely understand why this is more of a topping for pavlovas - to contrast with the lightness of it. I think it still tastes good the way I did it; I just won't be able to eat all of one goblet in one sitting, though. I'm not typically a fan of chocolate with fruit, so I just put the blueberries on top for decoration and moved the fruit aside hehe. 

Folding process of the mousse

Thanks for a great challenge, Dawn. To see what the others have done and the recipe, go here.

The Search for the Perfect Yellow Cake: Part 5

This cake was my favorite so far, but it still has a long way to go. It comes from Martha Stewart. I baked it in my oven, so it wasn't fully done in the middle, but it still had the prettiest, external color out of the five cakes we've made :(.

I picked this recipe because it had oil in it just like what is required in cake-mix cakes. The batter came out so runny that I added a little more flour to make it thicker. It was still not very thick, but I didn't want to change the recipe too much so that I could have a fair judgment of the cake. I forged on with this batter because it reminded me of the batter of my favorite chocolate cake recipe, which is also very runny.

For the frosting, I made the cheap variety like I did in the second cake; however, I also added some leftover frosting I made for another cake (I will blog about this later). So, the texture of the frosting was gritty but tasty.

Let's proceed to the ratings, shall we?

THE GOOD: I liked how moist it was. I liked the flavor. It didn't taste "eggy" like the second one did, and it was pretty yellow for not having dye. Lydia liked it and said it would be a good rum cake. I just took her word for it because I don't drink :).

THE BAD: It was also too moist. Some oil even sort of leaked out of the cake as my fork sank through a piece. That could be because it was not fully done, but I really think there's too much liquid in the batter. My neighbor said this cake was spongy. I think that is a good quality, but he felt it was a bad one, and its spongy state contributed to his lower rating.

THE UGLY:
Memoria: 7.5/10 (C1: 6.5/C2: 5/C3: 0/Cake-Mix(C4): 8)
Lydia: 7.5/10 (C1: 5/C2: 5/C3: 0/Cake-Mix(C4): 9.5)
Lydia's Husband: 7/10 (C1: 8.5/C2: 9/C3: 4/Cake-Mix(C4): 9)
The Neighbor: 7.5/10 (C1: 8.5/C2: 9/C3: N/A/Cake-Mix(C4): 9)

As you can see, Lydia and I feel more differently about most of these cakes than the two other raters with the exception of this one and the Duncan Hines cake. Case in point, this cake received the highest rating Lydia and I have given one of the from-scratch cakes and the lowest rating from one of the other two judges. I hope that when we find THE cake, we will all be in consensus or at least close enough.

Because Lydia and I think highly of this cake, we plan to work on this recipe to reach the quintessential cake. I will post only the final result. In the meantime, I will have something special for you all on Monday that has absolutely NADA to do with yellow cake.

Martha Stewart's Basic Yellow Cake

slightly adapted and found on Slice of Feist

4 1/4 cups flour (I added an extra 1/4 cup, so I used 4 1/2. I also used half cake flour & AP flour.)
3 1/3 cups sugar
3 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 3/4 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
3 large eggs plus 1 yolk
1 3/4 cups warm water (warm up cold water for 1 minute)
2 cups buttermilk
3/4 cups vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 360 degrees, and prepare cake pans.

In a mixing bowl, sift all dry ingredients together.

I use the whisk to sieve the dry ingredients.

Slowly beat in all of your other ingredients.

I think the the eggs and vanilla should be mixed in a bit before adding the other liquids to avoid small, drier clumps of batter. I also think the amount of liquids should be reduced.

Bake cake at 360 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until slightly brown on top and firm to the touch.

You would think the cake was done at this point, right?

[It was hard to strictly follow these steps above. I really think you should add the wet ingredients in more moderation than is described here. When I revamp this recipe, I will give more detailed instructions.]