Chocolate Peanut Butter Microwave Cake

I decided to have the kids help me make this week's cake,  a very simple microwave cake that we made after a weeknight dinner.  We chose a chocolate cake with a peanut butter drizzle. The cake started out by plopping a tablespoon of creamy peanut butter in the cup, I prefer Skippy Creamy.  The batter is made using Reddiwhip, Egg Beaters and Brownie Mix! 

I know that you are thinking this is a pretty sad cake this week... but I have kids -- and maybe you have kids. If you do have kids they will love it.  This cake can be made entirely by a five year old and that's pretty awesome in our house.

The recipe called for a tablespoon of peanut butter to start.  I'd switch to 1 1/2 tsp. peanut butter added to the bottom of the mug.

Then whisk together:
1/2 cup Reddi Whip
1/4 cup EggBeaters
1/2 cup dry brownie mix

Pour batter of the peanut butter and microwave for 1.5 minutes.

The mug though, is what will make the difference in a good lookin' cake and this:

 

Next go-around I will use a short mug and it will look much better, I promise.  What mattered though was that my two kiddos thought it was super fun!

Chocolate almond cake

Pinterest was again the inspiration for this cake.  I found the recipe for this Chocolate Almond Cake and knew it would be a good pair with the blueberry ice cream I wanted to make.  I had a pint of blueberries in the freezer waiting for me and I had been wanting to bring out the ice cream maker all summer so now was the time!

I asked for an ice cream maker from my dad for Christmas a couple years ago and used it frequently the first summer and since then it's been hanging out in my kitchen collecting dust... well that was no good! We love ice cream around here and there is NOTHING better than homemade ice cream.

This chocolate cake used almond butter which I am not familiar with and while the almond butter alone set me back almost $8, this recipe was worth every penny.  The cake was delicious, not too sweet but perfect accompanied with blueberry ice cream. The recipe calls for toasted almonds on top, but I never have luck toasting nuts... I burn them almost every time so I skipped that step and dusted with cocoa powder instead.

Ladybug Cake

This cake was all about the decorating and since I was putting on a party complete with little ladybug appetizers made with cherry tomatoes, olives and chives and other little time-intensive snacks, baking a cake from scratch was not in the cards. So this is from a yellow cake box mix but every spot of frosting was decorated with these tired, very sore hands!

To my three year old ladybug girl! Happy Birthday!

Baking in the summer is hard!

My husband usually works on Saturdays which means that it's baking day for me. I make the kids a big breakfast and set to work on making a cake and other goodies for the week. But in the summer my husband has been off on Saturdays and so we've been setting off on summer adventures! Trips to the zoo, going out for runs, camping outings, days at the beach or days spent on our boat. These have been more important than baking, rightfully so!

But that means that I've been disappointing you and failing to meet my goal of a cake a week! I'm so sorry... but I will make up for it with some extra-special cakes this fall! Maybe I'll even sneak in a few extra cakes to make up for those that I missed this summer!

Look for a cake coming soon!

Banana Cake with Chocolate Frosting

I've come to a decision; I don't like frosting that contains more than a little confectioner's sugar. Confectioner's sugar is not a good taste. It takes a bit like fake sugar and doesn't seem to disovle and make the creamy frostings that I like. I will no longer make a cake with a confectioner's sugar frosting. There done. I've had enough bad frostings to finally come to the decision.

Now the cake part... yum! It's like banana bread with a cake like texture! I did add the chopped walnuts that the recipe said was optional. The recipe you ask. I can't share it because it isn't mine but it is published. You can find the banana cake and the chocolate frosting (if you like confectioner's sugar frosting) in Melissa Gray's All Cakes Considered.

Bonus Cake: Orange Guinness Cake

A lonely bottle of Guinness has been staring at my from my fridge for the last couple of weeks. I do have a Guinness recipe that I'm excited to try from my new favorite restaurant in Uptown, Muddy Waters. The chef there is an old high school chum and he shared their recipe for Guinness Ginger Cake so this cake will be coming soon!

But for this week's cake I wanted to use my orange extract so I decided to combine orange and beer. I know, right?

Cake:
1 stick butter (softened)
1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar
2 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 tsp orange extract
4 eggs
1/2 cup Guinness

Frosting:
3/4 cup butter (softened)
2 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar
1/2 cup orange juice

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350. Prepare two 8 inch round cake pans ( I line the bottom with parchment for a perfect top).

2. Cream together butter, orange extract and brown sugar.

3. Sift together flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa. Set aside.

4. Beat in eggs one at a time, alternating with 1/2 cup flour mixture. Beat well after each addition.

5. Gently mix in Guinness slowly, alternating with a bit of the flour mixture. 

6. Divide mixture evenly between pans. Bake for 40 minutes. This is it for the use of the Guinness, you should now drink the rest of the bottle while you wait for the cake to bake!

7. Allow cake to cool out of pan on a wire rack for 20 minutes before frosting.

8. To make frosting: Combine butter and sugar until fluffy, blend in orange juice to make the right consistency for frosting. Frost the top of one cake and add the other cake to top. Top the cake with the other half of the frosting.

This cake was tasty, though a little more of a spice cake that I had expected. I could have throw in a few shredded carrots, raisins and nuts and this would have made a great carrot cake base... hmm. I actually will try that next go around! I will also consider upping the butter content in the frosting, I had a little too much of the confectioner's sugar taste.

Mini Chocolate Bundt with Peanut Butter Drizzle

So, I owe you all an extra cake this week, and I will make good. The new job took a bit out of me but I'm back on a roll.

This week I decided to listen to the hubby and combine chocolate and peanut butter, his favorite.  I looked to Christie Matheson's Cake Simple for help.  I've had this book sitting on my kitchen counter and I'm absolutely taken with the cover photo. 

This recipe of hers for mini chocolate bundts was going to be the perfect end to our rainy day.  The kids loved licking the spoon from melting the chocolate and being my taste-testers for the peanut butter glaze.

The cake was easy enough to make and I was more than happy to be able to use my Wilton mini-bundt pan that I found a few months back at a thrift shop for a only a few dollars!

Next week I will try my best and being creative so that I can share a recipe with you folks.!

A Little Help?!

I need a little inspiration this week. With the new job this week, I need a cake that won't take me too much time fussing. It would be even better if the ingredients were all found in a well-stocked pantry so a trip to the grocery store wouldn't be needed. So please, please share with me the perfect recipe or cake idea for such a time.

Cream Cheese Pound Cake

This week's cake comes to you a few days late.  See, I'm starting a new job and all... so my baking energy is being taken up by consuming loads of information.  I'm just about overloaded but I hope to be back in the kitchen one night this week as a form of stress-relief.

This cake was from a relatively new favorite of mine, Joy the Baker. Check out her blog if for some crazy reason you are not already one of her biggest fans. I made Joy's Cream Cheese Pound Cake from her newly published book, Joy the Baker Cookbook. I topped her pound cake with strawberries and a homemade whipped cream (heavy whipping cream, powdered sugar and a bit of vanilla). The results were fantastic and a great dessert for a picnic function. This one was eaten at our Memorial Day barbeque. The picture was taken with my phone, since I forgot to snap it before I wrapped it for transport.

Apple Upside-Down Cake

I am honored to get the first look at my friend Kris Holechek Peters' recipes for her upcoming cookbook, The I Love Trader Joe's Vegetarian Cookbook.  I've been testing some recipes before they are published in her upcoming book.  You can't get your hands on the book just yet but you can pre-order the book, and I suggest you do.  This is only one of the very delicious recipes that will show up in the book. (I've pre-ordered mine already!)

I've been given permission to post this one recipe here for you all to enjoy.  I made this cake over the last weekend and it was gone in just one day.  We ate it for breakfast and happily ate it again for an afternoon snack.  If there were some left I would have served it up with ice cream for an late evening snack. 


Apple Upside-Down Cake

4 cups peeled, sliced tart apples (1/2 inch thick), about 3-4 apples
1 tbsp. butter
1/4 cup Trader Joe’s Organic Brown Sugar
1/2 teas. fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 cups Trader Joe’s Unbleached All-purpose Flour
1 1/2 teas. baking powder
1 teas. Trader Joe’s Ground Cinnamon
1/2 teas. salt
1/3 cup mild vegetable oil
3/4 cup Trader Joe’s Organic Evaporated Cane Sugar
1/4 cup applesauce
3/4 cup milk
1 teas. Trader Joe’s Bourbon Vanilla Extract

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease and flour an 8 inch cake round and line the bottom with parchment.
Because this cake is inverted, it works best with parchment on the bottom, to ensure a clean release.

Prepare the apples. Using a variety of apples will give a more complex flavor than just one variety. In a skillet, melt the butter. Add the brown sugar and lemon juice, then add the apples. Simmer until apples are coated with the sugar mixture and slightly softened, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.

In a small bowl combine the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. In a large bowl, cream together the oil and sugar. Add the applesauce, milk and vanilla. In two batches, incorporate the dry mix into the wet.

Arrange the apple slices in the bottom of the pan and drizzle any additional juices from the pan over the apples. Spread the cake batter over the top of the apples. Bake from 50-55 minutes, until a toothpick from the center comes out clean of batter, but with a couple of moist crumbs on it. Remove pan from oven and let cool on a rack for 10 minutes. Run a knife along the edge of the pan and carefully invert cake onto serving dish. Let the cake sit for a minute or two before carefully lifting the pan off. Peel the parchment off of the cake and let it continue cooling for at least 20 additional minutes before serving.

Makes: 10-12 slices of cake

Tres Leches

My boy got a little Spanish lesson while shopping for this week's cake ingredients.  He knew three with ease but learned how to say milk in Spanish.  This ultra-moist, dense cake has been a favorite of mine for some time.  It was also the perfect fit for getting out of my chocolate, bundt or chocolate bundt rut.

Because this cake was very new to me I knew this would not be one to experiment with so I had someone else supply the recipe.  I went to the trusted Pioneer Woman for help.  Her recipe for Tres Leches cake can be found here: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/09/tres-leches-cake/.

I didn't think my boys would be very excited about this cake, now if it were called Tres Chocolate, applause would be heard coming from my kitchen.  But surprisingly both the boys and not so surprisingly the girl, loved this weeks cake.  I myself thought the sweet milkiness of the cake was divine and topped with homemade whipped cream, this cake was out of this world delicious.

Dar's Rhubarb Bundt

I was lucky enough to spend 7 years working near a most lovable woman: Twyla.  She shared many words of wisdom and hilarious anecdotes with me over the years.  This woman has taught me so many things about life and love and now she taught me what to do with rhubarb, what a woman!

I have heard many wonderful and quirky stories about Twyla and her family over the years.  The stories she would tell would make anyone want to spend a holiday with this family in their small South Dakota town.  Twyla also shared with me, her sister Dar's Rhubarb Bundt.

This cake is a winner and now that rhubarb season is here, get in the kitchen!




Dar's Rhubarb Bundt

1. Cream together: 1/2 c shortening, 1 c white sugar, 1/2 c brown sugar and 1 egg

2. Sift together: 2 1/2 c flour, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp baking soda

3. Combine dry and wet ingredients while mixing in 1 c buttermilk

4. Add: 2 c rhubarb, cut into 1/2 inch pieces, 1/2 c chopped pecans, 1 tsp vanilla

5. Make Topping Mix: 1/2 c white sugar, 1tsp cinnamon

6. Grease Bundt Pan (preferably with Hope Butter) and sprinkle 1/2 of topping mix in bottom of pan.

7. Pour batter into Bundt Pan and sprinkle other 1/2 of topping mix on the top of the batter.

8. Bake 45-50 minutes at 350 degrees or until that good 'ol toothpick comes out clean.

***Serve with cinnamon ice cream and hot coffee for breakfast on a lazy Saturday morning***

Turtle Cake = Fail

How disappointing that the first recipe that I failed at was for my dear mother's birthday cake.  Thankfully, she has been able to taste many of the cakes that I have made so all isn't lost... but still, it was the woman's BIRTHDAY for Pete's sake!

I tried to make a turtle cake.  I used my basic chocolate cake recipe and filled the pan with half of the batter and baked for 20 mins.  Then I took it out and layered with caramel and pecans.  I poured in the rest of the batter and baked for another 25 minutes.  The cake was not bad... but it was not great either.  What needed to happen was the layer of caramel and pecan's needed to be doubled.  Also I used jar caramel because I was in a pinch.... next time I melt down caramels with heavy cream.  Then the top needed a second layer of caramel and pecans.

I will try this one again as it was the perfect selection for my turtle sundae-loving mother.

I won't post the recipe here because well, it was kind of sucky.  And of all the cakes posted here on this blog, this is not the one you should make.  Look for a revamped Turtle Cake soon.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Flourless Chocolate Torte

I've been getting a lot of my inspiration from Pinterest again.  A while back I pinned a flourless chocolate cake that I decided I needed to try.  I have some anti-gluten friends and loved the idea of having this recipe in my back pocket for them.

Flourless Chocolate Torte

4oz. Semisweet chocolate, chopped (I used Ghiradelli)
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup organic sugar
3 eggs
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tablespoon confectioner's sugar


1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Prepare a 9 inch round pan, I grease and then dust with cocoa powder.

2. Using a double broiler pan or some concoction of the sort, melt chocolate with butter.
Then allow someone to lick the spatula clean:

2. Remove from chocolate from heat and mix in sugar, cocoa powder, eggs, salt and vanilla extract. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 40 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

3. Cool pan on wire rack for 10 minutes before using a knife to loosen the sides of the cake and turning over onto your cake platter.  Dust with confectioner's sugar.  

I served this cake warm with lime sorbet.  The husband and the boy said that this was their favorite cake now (this is starting to sound familiar).  The inside texture was the perfect combination of fudge and brownie-like.  The nicest thing about this recipe that was that it was quick and easy and produced well above average results. 

Let me know what you think! 

Double Broiler

What you don't have a double broiler?  Guess what?  Me neither.  I suppose if I were making a lot of candy or melting wax or something a perfectly fitted double broiler would make sense.  But really, who has room for all of these things in their kitchen.

So if you don't have a double broiler, don't worry there are options!

See! This is my double broiler:

Lemon Bundt

I'm on the fence.  For Easter I made four cakes.  Does that mean I am off for four weeks?  My goal was to bake one cake per week and blog about it but I did work extra hard on Easter so I'm going to use one more Easter cake for this week's blog post.

In addition to "lamby" I made a lemon bundt for our Easter dessert.  But because I had my hands super full I didn't take pictures of the process just the end result.

I heard good things about the lemon bundt from family members. I did try a slice but I've decided that I'm not a real lemon fan. I need lemon combined with something else... maybe a couple handfuls of blueberries would have been a good addition.



Lemon Bundt:

1 cup butter
1/2 cups sugar
2 tsp. lemon extract
1/3 cup fresh squeezed lemon
3 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
2/3 cup milk

Glaze:

1 cup confectioners sugar
1 tsp. lemon extract
2 tablespoons milk

Garnish:

lemon rinds

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350. Prepare bundt pan with grease. In a medium mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt.

2. Cream together butter and sugar. 

3. Add eggs one at a time beating well after each one is added. Add extract, lemon juice and milk.

4. Once liquids are combined add your mixture of dry ingredients and mix on medium speed for 2 minutes.  Pour batter into prepared bundt pan.

5. Bake at 350 for about 1 hour until cake tester or toothpick comes out clean.

6.  Cool on wire baking rack for 10 minutes.  Use a knife to loosen edges of cake from pan and invert onto wire rack.  Let cake cool.

7. Make glaze by combining confectioners sugar, lemon extract and milk.  Drizzle over cake.  I then garnished with lemon peels.

Stay tuned this weekend for the flourless chocolate cake.  Also if you have a cake you think I should make, leave me a note in the comments!  I'd love to hear from you.

Easter Lamb Cake

When I started this cake experiment my mother-in-law brought over her grandmother's cast-iron lamb cake mold. She told me the story about her grandmother making this cake for every Easter table, an Easter tradition that even my husband remembered.  The lamb always looked nice and was surrounded by fake grass and jellybeans the problem was the the cake was inedible -- much too dry for anyone to enjoy.  My guess would be that great-grandma baked the cake on Thursday and frosted over the course of the next few days and then because it was too large to fit in the fridge with all of the other Easter food it was left out over multiple nights.  By the time Easter Sunday came the cake had dried out.

The tradition sounded so ideal and being a sentimental gal I was happy to recreate it.  However in the months that the cake mold sat high atop my kitchen cupboards it looked down at me almost as if it were laughing at me.  The cake mold knew that I would struggle to figure out how best to make it, what cake to use and the frosting and then there was the decorating!  Ugh.  I looked many times at Google's images of Easter lamb cakes.  Lamb cakes laughed at me in my sleep. To be perfectly honest the lamb cakes flat-out creeped me out!

After much research I decided that I would bake the cake in two separate halves.  Our cake mold did not have a tester hole as some of the other vintage ones did but it did have the loops to tie the mold together to bake as one.  However, without the cake tester hole how would I know that the cake was done.

I also decided on carrot cake.  Carrot cake had less of a chance of drying out and was dense enough to stand up to the frosting.  Then because I had no idea how much frosting I would need and knew that it needed to have the perfect consistency I opted for Duncan Hines cream cheese frosting.  For canned frosting cream cheese is the way to go.  Chocolate and vanilla frosting always takes too sugary and fake for me but cream cheese seems to stand up to homemade cream cheese frosting rather well, in my opinion.

When I took the baked cake out of the mold I had to make a cut on each side so that they were flat and could be "glued" together with frosting.  The neck was a little jostled so I added a toothpick for support.  I laid down a bit of frosting on my platter so that the cake would be better equipped to stand.  And the frosting began.

I was almost done when the neck of lamby started to topple!  Holy moly!  I used my two fingers to hold poor lamby together as my husband opened the fridge for me.  I propped lamby up with a container of alfredo and hoped for the best!

I thought for sure that when I opened the fridge the next morning lamby would be lamby-mess in my refrigerator but he did survive the night.

The family all talked about the tradition they remembered and while lamby still creeped me out, he tasted good!

Baking and Updating

Don't worry I baked this weekend, I just haven't found time to upload pictures or blog about them yet.  Here is a sneak peek:

Lemon Poppyseed Chiffon Cake

The last time I was at the store picking up cake supplies I tossed poppy seed pie filling and lemon extract into my cart.  I figured I could cook up a tasting cake using them.
When cake time came I checked out some recipes online to see what I could come up with and read about chiffon cakes. The combination of batter and foam makes for a spongy and airy cake.  I figured with the dense poppy seed filling this  would be a better direction to go. Because the cake was very dependent on the mixture of fats I decided I was better off following a recipe so I depended on Taste of Home's Lemon Poppy Seed Chiffon Cake with a Lemon Butter Frosting.

I really like whipping egg whites; I love the texture that it makes and the peaks that it forms. this is what my batter looked like after folding in the meringue.

I'm not great at frosting and hope that my technique improves with practice, but here is my amateur job:

I served the cake to my mom and my kids for breakfast and then again in the afternoon for friends.  Everyone liked the cake, even my favorite chocolate lovers.  I would have used about half of the poppy seed filling that it called for... the poppy seeds were just a bit too much.  I would also beef up the amount of lemon flavor in the cake.  But really, the recipe as is was very good, the foam gave the cake a texture closer to an angel food cake, which made for a lighter taste.  Most lemon poppy seed cakes or muffins that I've had were very dense but this was not the case.





Root Beer Float Cake

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cup flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup root beer (I used A&W)
1/4 cup canola oil
2 tsp. root beer extract
2 eggs

Topping:
2 cups heavy cream
2 tsp. root beer extract
4 Tablespoons confectioners sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a medium mixing bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, salt.

3. In another medium mixing bowl (I used my KitchenAid) cream together sugar and eggs.  Add root beer, canola oil and root beer extract.

4. Add half of the dry ingredients to mixing bowl and mix until combined, add second half of dry ingredients and continue to mix until well combined.

5. Pour batter into a 9x13 pan.

6. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

7. Let cake cool completely on a cooling rack before covering.

8. To make whipped cream, whisk together at medium speed, heavy cream, 2 tsp. root beer extract and confectioner's sugar until a stiff consistency.

9. Top with a dollop of whipped cream before serving.

This cake couldn't taste more like a root beer float.  The whipped cream tasted just like the last of the root beer float when the ice cream has melted and melded perfectly with the last sips of root beer.  This cake will be a winner with any root beer float lover.  Happy Spring!

Thrift store find

Nordic ware, $4.99

St. Patrick's Day Cake

I have been most addicted to Pinterest lately.  I've been pinning projects to do with kids, decorating tips and a ton of cakes!  When I found a pistachio cake pinned I knew it would be the perfect cake to make this week!

I didn't get creative and used this recipe instead for Pistachio Bundt Cake.  Because I had my cousin's boy and two of my own kids joining me for this cake, it made sense to beef up the amount of food coloring to really celebrate the holiday, so I added 7 drops of green.  And because I wanted a little extra goodness in my glaze I added a 1/2 tsp. of almond extract.

This was not a difficult cake, perfect to make with kids and it was delicious!  I don't like to use box mixes for cakes, but I did make an exception in this case.

Apple Cake

Chocolate and bundt have been causing a bit of a rut for me.  So it was time to mix things up a bit.  Enter, fruit.  It was time to mix things up a bit here in the oven but I don't know anything about baking with fruit so I consulted Melissa Gray again.  Her cookbook, All Cakes Considered is now one of my favorites.

I tried out her Fresh Apple Cake recipe, but I didn't have the Granny Smith apples that she used, so I substituted Pink Ladies.  I also didn't like that the recipe called for 1 1/2 cup of vegetable oil.  I decided to risk it and I only added 1 cup of Canola Oil. (I almost always use canola instead of vegetable since it's a healthier choice for the hearts in our house.)

The batter was still quite oily:

In my oven this cake should have baked for 70 mins.  The recipe called for 60 and the boy who was waiting for cake before bed convinced me to take it out after 58.  This meant that the center of the cake was not baked enough, however the cake was still plenty tasty.  The cinnamon and nutmeg flavors came through and the apples and walnuts made for wonderful texture.  The best part about this cake was the top of it had the texture of a giant cookie.  We will make this cake again in the fall during apple picking season.  I wonder how it will taste with my very favorite apples, SweeTangoes!



Booze, Coffee and Chocolate = Joel's Bundt

This week's cake is a tribute to my late father-in-law.  I broke out his bottle of whiskey from our liquor cabinet and thought of Joel while I baked.  I thought about taking a shot to honor him but thought better of it.

The cake is incredibly moist and only has a small hint of the coffee and whiskey flavor.  I was hoping that the flavor would be more intense but the chocolate flavor is super.  The cake is airy, moist and has such a clean flavor.

Ingredients:
Cooking Spray
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Ghirardelli); plus 1 tablespoon for dusting
1 cup medium roast brewed coffee
1 cup Whiskey (I used Windsor Canadian)
2 sticks unsalted butter
2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
1 1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
2 tbls. confectioners sugar

Preheat oven to 325°F. Spray pan to coat and then dust with cocoa powder.

Heat coffee, whiskey, butter, and 1 cup cocoa powder in a saucepan over medium heat, whisking until butter is melted. Remove from heat and add sugar, continue to whisk until sugar dissolves. Transfer chocolate mix to a large mixing bowl.

In another bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, and salt. And in a third smaller mixing bowl, whisk together eggs and vanilla. Incorporate egg mix into chocolate mix. Add flour mixture slowly and whisk to mix, the batter ends up being pretty thin. Pour batter into bundt pan and bake 1 hour. 

Cool cake completely in pan on a cooling rack.  Use a knife to loosen the edges before turning over.  Dust with confectioners sugar.

Angel Food

 I've heard from many people that they have never made a homemade Angel Food Cake.  Why is that?, I wondered.  So I set out to find out why and compare the two.

I started with the boxed cake by Better Crocker.  It was a cinch to add a bit of water to the box ingredients and mix.  But what was in the box mix? Sugar, Wheat Flour Bleached, Egg White, Corn Starch, Leavening (Baking Soda, Citric Acid), Modified Corn Starch, Calcium Chloride, Modified Soy Protein, Salt, Cellulose Gum, Dextrose, Maltodextrin, Artificial Flavor, Sodium Lauryl Flavor (A Whipping Aid), Nonfat Milk. And the box cake was just 2.79 at my grocery store.

We ate the cake served with strawberries and cool whip, Angel Food is always one of my favorites and I enjoyed every bite.  The texture was airy and spongy, if a bit on the sticky/sugary side.  The outside was a touch crunchy making a great contrast in texture.

 Next up, I separated 12 egg whites from their yolks.  I decided this was the reason that most prefer the boxed method.  Now, I knew I would have 12 yolks that I would have to make.  I solved that issue with a Greek Avgolemono recipe I had on hand, but still only used 8 of those yolks.

Whipping the egg whites was my favorite part of making the cake from scratch.  Check out these peaks:

The homemade version turned out beautifully.  The advantage was that I was able to easily adjust the flavor by adding orange extract and vanilla extract.  The texture was a bit more dense than the boxed version, the flavor better, but it was missing the crunchy outside.

My version of the Angel Food was more expensive but I was also able to control the quality of the ingredients.  I prefer to use organic sugar and cage-free, organic eggs ... I'm just guessing these aren't Betty Crocker's choice.

I can't tell you that I prefer one method over the other, they both have their purpose.  If I were to frost, the homemade cake would hold frosting better.  If I wanted strawberry shortcake I would choose homemade because the denser cake would hold more of the strawberry's juices.  If I were to eat plan, I'd prefer the boxed version and also if I needed a cake in a hurry.

Each cake has a purpose and I won't ever feel like I'm cheating if I break out Betty's box now and then. Stay tuned for my Angel Food cake recipe, coming soon.