Cake

hmm. maybe i should ask liz if she'll teach me how to make a cake...are there any cakes that are easy enough for cooking retards to do? chocolate something, ideally...

I'm still contemplating the technicalities of making a chocolate cake with a layer of gooey melted After Eights in the middle. I think it could be very good. Am I weird?

I can make cornflake cake. Is that impressive?

does cheesecake count as cake on this thread? just got a massive craving...

although last night my mood was lifted by good chinese food and the silly film 'dodgeball'.

Last night I had homemade banana/fruit cake which I probably would have enjoyed even more had I not unwarily stuffed myself with barbecue already.

Mmmm JBR ricotta cheesecake. Phwoar.

I WANT THIS!!! ON SO MANY LEVELS!!!

::drools::

::drones::

::drools some more::

Velvet Underground Cake

4 oz unsweetened chocolate
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup strong coffee or 5 tsp instant coffee dissolved in 1 cup hot water
1/2 cup sour cream, room temperature
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs, lightly beaten, room temperature

Preheat oven to 345. Lightly grease two 8-in. layer cake pans with
oil or butter, or line them with parchment circles. Melt chocolate
in top of double boiler placed over simmering water, then turn off
the heat. Sift sugar, flour, baking soda and salt together into
a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, blend the hot coffee,
sour cream, and vegetable oil with whisk.

With the mixer on low speed, add the coffee mixture in a stream to
the dry ingredients and mix until blended, about 35 seconds. Stop
mixer to scrape the bowl several times with spatula. Add eggs one
at a time and mix on medium-low speed after each addition until
smooth, about 15 seconds. Scrape bowl each time. Add chocolate
and mix until batter is uniform in color, about 10 seconds.

Divide batter evenly between pans and place on center rack in
oven. Bake until cake springs back to touch and tester comes out
dry (do not wait for crust to form), 35 to 38 minutes. Cool layers
in the pans on a rack.

Fudge Filling

2 oz. unsweetened chocolate
2 T. unsalted butter
5 T. plus 1 1/2 tsp. sugar
6 T. hot water
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Place all ingredients except vanilla in top of double boiler over
simmering water and cook uncovered, stirring occasionally, until
the chocolate is melted and sugar dissolved, about 30 minutes.
Mixture will be smooth and velvety. Pour fudge into small bowl,
stir in vanilla and refrigerate until the mixture is thick and of
spreading consistency, 2 hours.

Mocha Buttercream

1/4 cup instant coffee powder
4 1/2 tsp. water
8 T. (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/4 C. confectioner's sugar
3/4 C. plus 2 T. heavy (whipping) cream, chilled

Dissolve the coffee in the water and place all ingredients in a food processor and process until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Stop mixer several times to scrape
down sides of bowl. Transfer buttercream to medium-size mixing
bowl and, using the paddle attachment of an electric mixer, continue
to beat on medium-high speed, until buttercream is white and fluffy,
15 to 20 minutes. Stop mixer to scrape bowl several times. (If
you don't have a paddle attachment, use whisk.) Use buttercream
within an hour or it will need rewhipping.

Spread all interior layers of cake with fudge filling and outside
of cake with about 1 1/2 C. of buttercream. Shave 1 oz. dark
chocolate over surface of cake with a fine grater, then use the
knife method of shaving to make darker accents on the top of the
cake. Makes 12 to 16 servings.

xpost: Pineapple upside-down cake, now you're talkin'. Any stone-fruit upside-down cake is also great, maybe even grebt.

kitty litter cake!!

the VU cake looks a little too heavy on the fannydangle for my tastes - even icing a cake is above and beyond the call of duty, in my opinion. Much more fun when they're loaf-tin plain.

I lost a day reading Elizabeth David on the weekend and ended up making this dark gingercake with raisins, chopped stem ginger, and about a tin of black treacle - very traditional and dark and nowhere near enough ginger in it. I've not come across a gingercake recipe yet where I didn't have to at least double the amount of ginger asked for. So wrong.

(though all Elizabeth David is best in the book, surrounded by her burbling on and quoting random 17th-century recipts she just happened to find somewhere. So much more charm than the glossy-photos and didactic 'now get a machine to do half the work for you' formulae modern cookbooks, though the recipes in modern ones tend to work better.)

(so I can make it with Turkish sour cherry nectar maybe)

Apricot Nectar Cake

1 pkg. Lemon Supreme cake mix
1 cup apricot nectar
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs

Mix all that, bake it in a greased and floured bundt or tube pan at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until the toothpick comes out clean. Let the cake cool for a few minutes, then poke a bunch of tiny holes in it and pour a little more apricot nectar over it and let the cake soak it up. Then turn the cake out onto a plate, poke more holes onto the top side, repeat with more apricot nectar. Let it cool. You can eat it as is, or make a glaze of confectioners sugar, a little more apricot nectar and a good squeeze of fresh lemon juice.

I've also made it with peach nectar, which is so mild I almost couldn't taste it. Sour cherry nectar sounds really good.