Notes about Recipes in this book

• Black chocolate zinger

  • rionafaith on August 28, 2016

    p. 110 -- I used a 10-cup crysanthemum bundt pan instead of the 12-cup tube called for and just made a few cupcakes with the extra batter -- it only took about 55 mins to bake through and about 15 min for the cupcakes. I used the smaller amount of black pepper but it probably could have used more... it was a great subtle spice. I also subbed bittersweet choc for the unsweetened and used regular sugar instead of superfine as that's all I had. I brought this to a BBQ and it disappeared quickly.

• Absolutely the best yellow cake

  • stef on January 26, 2016

    Great recipe made it into cupcakes with cooked flour icing in this book also. Great hit

• Sour cream cake

  • stef on September 20, 2015

    This is a very good moist coffeecake with just the right amount of sweetness and cinnamon. Perfect for heritage bundt pan. This book has wonderful step by step instructions

  • stef on January 12, 2019

    Made this sour cream cake again but this time added zest of 2 lemons, 1/3 cup poppy seeds and lemon extract. After baking I brushed it with lemon syrup

  • ashallen on August 23, 2022

    I really liked the texture of this cake - tender, lighter than pound cake, and no gumminess at all. The flavor of the plain base version of this cake is very simple and buttery. We used the cake for a dessert with vanilla ice cream and black raspberry sauce and it worked great for that. I used unbleached vs. bleached cake flour and "superfine sugar" I made by processing regular granulated sugar in a food processor for 30 seconds - both seemed to work fine. I baked the cake in a large, 15-cup capacity bundt pan and it was done (perhaps a bit overdone at 208-210F in center) in only 45 minutes - next time I'll check it at 40 minutes. Cake developed a brown crust during baking but it wasn't bitter and softened thoroughly after storage overnight.

• Sour cream chocolate cake

  • jenmacgregor18 on September 02, 2023

    This isn't intensely chocolatey. It has less than 1 ounce of chocolate in the cake. But with the coffee, it comes across more like mocha. The texture is beautiful--moist and very tender. I would definitely suggest adding the sour cream chocolate frosting, for a bigger hit of chocolate. It's nothing fancy, but a very good snacking cake.

• Yogurt spice cake

  • ashallen on March 13, 2022

    Very good version of a classic, homey spice cake. I enjoyed both the spice mix and the crumb which was tender, lightly springy, and moist without gumminess. Used 7 oz unbleached cake flour and whole milk yogurt - worked well. Keep an eye on the baking time - recipe suggests 50-55 minutes, but my cake started to pull from the pan edges and reached 208-210F in center after only 40-45 minutes (even with a light-colored 8-inch tube pan). I think it would've been drier than I prefer if I'd left it in longer.

• Carrot pineapple cake

  • giacmcc on May 08, 2019

    My favorite recipe so far,

• Powdered sugar angel food cake

  • ashallen on July 09, 2021

    Very nice angel food cake - light and high-rising but still moist and flavorful. Recipe instructions are detailed with lots of pointers for getting a good result. I'll confess to cutting a couple corners (e.g., sifting dry ingredients twice instead of four times, using a regular vs. balloon whisk to fold flour mixture into egg whites), so perhaps I didn't obtain maximum fluffiness, but it was still really great! Worked really well in the "Cool Lime Angel Cake" recipe from the same book.

• Cool lime angel cake

  • ashallen on July 09, 2021

    As the recipe headnote says, a wonderful summertime cake - angel food cake filled with tangy, creamy, chilled lime mousse that's very similar to chiffon pie filling. It had multiple components, however, so making it dirtied multiple dishes. Making the cake the night before making the mousse worked well to break things up. Take care with the milk-gelatin mixture - it boils over fast (ask me how I know!). Recipe calls for cooking egg yolk mixture to "almost boiling" - 185F worked well. Recipe calls for raw egg whites in the mousse - I used home-pasteurized egg whites which took a while to whip up but eventually formed a stable meringue. There was lots of leftover mousse that wouldn't fit inside the cake - maybe half? Fortunately it was really delicious, so it was great on its own or spooned over the extra cake chunks from hollowing out the cake. It was also nice frozen - kind of like ice cream. Once chilled, cake sliced impressively cleanly given that squishy mousse filling.

• Double trouble fudge cake

  • mamacrumbcake on April 09, 2015

    My all-time favorite chocolate layer cake-- used for every birthday when chocolate cake is wanted. The chocolate custard frosting (separate recipe in this book) is so good and goof-proof.

• Chocolate custard frosting

  • mamacrumbcake on June 05, 2016

    Our family's favorite chocolate frosting--foolproof, beautiful texture (soft and creamy), rich and chocolatey, liked by kids and adults alike. We love this with Double Trouble Fudge Cake from the same book.