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A Piece of Cake
June 2003: Third Slice
Newsletter written by Anne Byrn June 10, 2003
A Word from Anne
I'll admit it. I'm a big fan of butter pecan ice cream, and pretty much any food with pecans added. But I had never tried a butter pecan cake mix until a reader request made me curious. Searching for a long lost cake recipe containing such a mix, I drove to my local grocer to find if one existed in Nashville. And it did, made by Betty Crocker. Then I began testing this mix, combined with butterscotch pudding to arrive at a recipe resembling the one Carolyn Dunbar desired. Many thanks to all of you who sent in suggestions and recipes after our initial newsletter plea. What this baking episode proves is that you don't necessarily arrive where you think you're heading. Instead, you take twists and turns, backtrack, retest, and finally arrive at recipes worth savoring. Or at least, that's the way it works in my kitchen. Many more of you probably get it right the first time! In fact, in the last newsletter I asked if any of you had ever made baking mistakes that panned out, so to speak. And if you had, would you share them. After only a handful of responses, I figured you either don't make mistakes or you have better things to do than rehash your mishaps via e-mail. (I think the latter!)
I will share with you two candid e-mails, the first from Mary Cast. "I was making the Earthquake Cake from book one. My oven is old, and the cake didn't bake as it should have. But I was in a hurry. So I took about a quarter of the cooled cake and made a layer in the bottom of a very large crystal bowl. Then I added chocolate syrup and whipped topping." Mary repeated the layers, using all of the cake, and declared to her guests that the cake was called "The Earthquake." The good news is that the cake was a huge success. The bad news is that she must now build The Earthquake each time these folks get together for dessert!
And Ruth Wack divulged that she was in a hurry making the usual Buttermilk Spice Cake and reached for a box of lemon cake mix instead of spice. "It turned out just beautifully, was so moist, and our Meals on Wheels clients just loved it. From now on I shall only make my Accidental Lemon Spice Cake."
What do you plan on baking this summer? What delicious mistakes will you create? How about dabbling with a new recipe or flavor of cake? How about experimenting with chocolate cake and entering our second annual contest (see details)? Or how about doctoring up one of my cakes? The butter pecan cake in Recipe Swap is a good place to start, as is the other recipe, a long requested Lemon Curd Icebox Cake. Bake, relax, and have a great summer.
Happy Baking,
Anne
Make Mine Chocolate
Second Annual All-America Cake Mix Doctor Bake-for-Charity Contest
How could I ever forget the memorable Apple Spice Cake, prepared by Diana Crawford of Martinsburg, WV, grand prize winner of last summer's first All-America Cake Mix Doctor Bake-for-Charity recipe contest. That moist and maple-flavored cake won Diana Crawford top honors plus $1,000 to submit to the charity of her choice, the Berkeley County Humane Society in Martinsburg. They have since used the money to put a new roof on the building. This year the theme is chocolate, and I am looking for your favorite chocolate cake or other dessert that begins with a mix. If you are the lucky winner, your favorite charity will receive $1,000. But there is no time to waste, as the deadline for e-mail entries is midnight July 11, 2003. For more information and complete details, click here.
Recipe Swap
Adapted from a recipe sent in by reader Debra Grizzle of Royston, GA, this cake is best baked in a Bundt pan. Yes, it contains a lot of pudding, both in the cake mix and instant pudding mix, so it is moist. The batter clings to the Bundt pan, and the cake will sink less this way while cooling. It is rich and delicious, especially with a tall glass of milk. We loved the flavor of butterscotch chips in the glaze, but they are a little tricky to melt. If you cannot get them all to melt, pour the glaze through a fine mesh sieve so that any stubborn chips that won't melt stay in the sieve. No time to make a glaze? Just dust the top of the cake with confectioners' sugar.
Butter Pecan Cake with Butterscotch Glaze
Makes 12 servings
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Baking time: 60 to 65 minutes
1 package (18 ounces) butter pecan cake mix with pudding
1 package (3.4 ounces) instant butterscotch pudding mix
4 large eggs
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans
Butterscotch Glaze:
4 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
1 cup butterscotch chips
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and place a rack in the center of the oven. Generously grease a 12-cup Bundt pan with solid vegetable shortening, and dust the pan with flour. Shake out the excess flour. Set the pan aside.
2. Place the cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, sour cream, oil, water and pecans in a large mixing bowl. Blend on low speed for 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Increase the mixer speed to medium, and continue blending until the batter is thick and well combined, 2 minutes more. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and place the pan in the oven.
3. Bake the cake until the batter begins to pull away from the sides of the pan, and the top is deep brown, 60 to 65 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven, and let it cool on a wire rack for 20 minutes. Run a sharp knife around the edges of the cake, shake the pan to loosen the cake, then invert it onto a plate to complete cooling.
4. For the glaze, place the milk and butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil, stirring. Remove the pan from the heat and whisk in the sugar. Add the butterscotch chips. Stir with a wooden spoon until the chips have melted. If all the chips do not melt, pour the glaze through a fine sieve before spooning it over the cooled cake. Spoon the glaze over the cake, let the glaze set 15 minutes, then slice and serve.
Lemon Curd Icebox Cake
Many issues ago a reader was looking for a lemon cake recipe that contained lemon curd. She saw the recipe in a Smucker's gift shop in Orrville, OH. Thanks to the myriad readers who tracked down this recipe, especially Ann Doerzaph. She says she clipped her version from a Desperation Dinners newspaper column. I tested it with the lemon cake mix and a 10-ounce jar of lemon curd, just shy of 1 cup. Lemon curd is found on the jam and jelly aisle of the supermarket. This was a delightful dessert, easy, light on the palate, just right for serving on summer nights with a spoonful of fresh berries alongside. And it needs to be stored in the refrigerator, or what my grandmother Dee called the "icebox," thus the name. (Special thanks to Beverly Mills & Alicia Ross, co-authors of the cookbooks Desperation Dinners and Desperation Entertaining for permission to use this recipe.)
Makes 16 to 20 servings
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Baking time: 30 to 33 minutes
Chilling time: 1 hour
1 package (18.25 ounces) plain lemon or yellow cake mix
1 1/3 cups water
1/3 cup lemon curd
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
Topping:
1 cup heavy whipping cream, chilled
1 tablespoon confectioners' sugar
2/3 cup, about, lemon curd, or the remainder of the 10-ounce jar
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and place a rack in the center of the oven. Lightly mist a 13- by 9-inch pan with vegetable oil spray, and dust the pan with flour. Shake out the excess flour, and set the pan aside.
2. Place the cake mix, water, lemon curd, oil, and eggs in a large mixing bowl. Blend on low speed for 30 seconds. Increase the speed to medium and blend until the batter is thick and well combined, 1 1/2 minutes more. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and place the pan in the oven.
3. Bake the cake until the top has turned golden brown, and the cake tests done, 30 to 33 minutes. Remove the cake to a wire rack to cool, 25 minutes.
4. Place a clean large mixing bowl and electric mixer beaters in the refrigerator to chill.
5. When the cake has cooled, remove the bowl and beaters from the refrigerator. Beat the cream on high speed for 2 minutes, or until it is stiff. Fold in the sugar and the lemon curd. Turn this mixture on top of the cooled cake, and spread it out evenly with a rubber spatula. Cover the pan with plastic wrap and chill at least an hour before serving.
Next Issue: September 2003
As I'll be in the kitchen baking up your contest entries, please note the next newsletter will be in September. October will see us returning to our usual newsletter schedule. In September, winning recipes from the All-America Cake Mix Doctor Bake-For-Charity Contest, and fall baking ideas.
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