The recipe in #34 would probably work for vegans, if you used an egg substitute, and if you merely topped it with confectioner’s sugar instead of using whipped cream. When I made it, as cupcakes, I didn’t put any topping on at all and the cupcakes were nevertheless delectable.
That ginger cake sounds delicious.
My DDs and I recently made this one. It’s from Cook’s Country. It has a made from scratch cake and includes fruit. You can adjust the sweetness with less sugar in the topping.
STRAWBERRY POKE CAKE
From the episode: Forgotten Cakes
The top of the cake will look slightly overbaked—this keeps the crumb from becoming too soggy after the gelatin is poured on top.
Serves 12.
INGREDIENTS
Cake
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter , softened, plus extra for preparing pan
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour , plus extra for preparing pan
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup whole milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
6 large egg whites
1 3/4 cups sugar
Syrup and Topping
4 cups frozen strawberries
6 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons orange juice
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons strawberry-flavored gelatin
2 cups heavy cream
INSTRUCTIONS
-
- For the cake: Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 9 by 13-inch baking pan. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in bowl. Whisk milk, vanilla, and egg whites in large measuring cup.
-
- With electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter and sugar until fluffy, about 3 minutes, scraping down bowl as necessary. Add flour mixture and milk mixture alternately, in two batches, beating after each addition until combined, about 30 seconds each time. Using rubber spatula, give batter final stir. Scrape into prepared pan and bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Cool cake completely in pan, at least 1 hour. Once cool, cake can be wrapped in plastic and kept at room temperature for up to 2 days.
-
- For the syrup and topping: Heat 3 cups strawberries, 2 tablespoons sugar, juice, and water in medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Cover and cook until liquid is deep red and strawberries are softened, about 10 minutes. Strain liquid into bowl, reserving solids, then whisk gelatin into liquid. Let cool to room temperature, at least 30 minutes.
-
- Meanwhile, poke about 50 holes in top of cooled cake (see photos). Slowly pour cooled liquid evenly over top of cake. Wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate until gelatin is set, at least 3 hours or up to 2 days.
-
- Pulse reserved strained strawberries, 2 tablespoons sugar, and remaining strawberries in food processor until mixture resembles strawberry jam. Spread strawberry mixture evenly over cake. With electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat cream with remaining sugar to soft peaks. Spread cream over strawberries. Cut cake into squares and serve.
Perfecting the Poke Finding the right poking device wasn’t as simple as you might think. Toothpicks were too small, while straws, handles of wooden spoons, pencils, and fingers were too big. A wooden skewer finally did the trick
@rosered55 on the very plain end of the spectrum, King Arthur has a nice chocolate cake recipe that’s been a very successful no-brainer for me: https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/king-arthur-flours-original-cake-pan-cake-recipe Ditto the edit from @“Cardinal Fang” to dust with XXX sugar instead of using any dairy, or maybe drizzle with plain melted chocolate. Or oooh, sliced strawberries . . .
If someone tries the Ginger Cake, please report back.
@HouseChatte I attempted the lemon cake recipe you posted and it was not successful. I did use a low-fat plain yogurt - do you think that would have made a difference?
My batter was not pourable - I’d say it reminded me more of a wet bread dough. I baked it for 35 minutes and the tester came out clean, but when cut into it was dense (it also fell quite a bit).
On a positive note, we loved the flavor. I’m willing to try again if you have any pointers!
@MaryBarbara58 I’m guilty of using the highest-fat ingredients possible, so that might be what happened. It’s a thick batter and does settle down to a pretty high specific gravity. I think you probably did everything right and may be happier tweaking the recipe for a lighter texture. Perhaps incorporate some beaten egg whites?
@HouseChatte Thanks for replying. I was wondering if eggs would help. I wasn’t trying to avoid fats - I was being cheap! My grocery store only had Fage brand full fat yogurt so I went with the low-fat store brand. Lesson learned!
Store brand yogurts have some stabilizers and other ingredients that might not work in baking.
(I too am guilty of using the highest fat ingredients possible.)
The lemon cake recipe is more like a sweet biscuit: it has flour, butter, leavener, sugar and a liquid. If you use lower-fat ingredients, you’ll have less fat and more water, which is probably bad for a biscuit-like baked good.
And the other thing about that lemon cake is, it would probably work better with cake flour, or if not cake flour, a very light hand when stirring in the flour.
@allyphoe I am totally making that brown butter cake for Easter this year 
BTW if anyone has a good simple basic yellow cake and basic chocolate cake recipe that you really like, can you post? I am planning to try the Pave D’amour Cake featured there, but it looks like it only rises 1" (is that true?) VERY excited to try making that cake. Will do at some point in the next 6 months or so (hopefully) and will post back when I do!
But I don’t have strong base cakes that rise a bit higher.
PS - I do make Ina’s Beatty’s chocolate cake from time to time…I guess I could leave off the coffee for a basic chocolate cake.
IMO, a basic chocolate cake should have a little coffee in it. You can’t taste it, but it punches up the chocolate flavor.
@cakeisgreat It’s been a while since I made a Pave D’amour, but the sponge cake layer is a few inches thick when it comes out of the oven. I don’t know how much it actually rises, but IIRC I’d end up with about 3 layers each about 1-1.25” thick after slicing it horizontally in thirds. In a standard 8x8” pan, the cake would rise slightly above the top of the pan.
@cakeisgreat The best chocolate, yellow, and white layer cake type recipes I’ve ever found are in Rose Levy Beranbaum’s aptly-named book The Cake Bible.
@consolation Thank you! I found them online and just put in my recipe book. Also found a lemon poppy seed recipe and banana cream pie recipe from her I’m going to try
I made Southern Living Cookbook’s three tier carrot cake this weekend, and I think it was close to the best made at home cake I’ve ever had. I laughed at the prep time estimate vs how long it really took me to make it, but it tasted very good. Carrot cake is my favorite, and I had never made it before.
I think I’ve liked just about everything I’ve ever tried from Southern Living.
I love carrot cake too. But the frosting needs to be not too sweet.
Did it take you much more or much less time to make it, according to the directions?
I think said 23 minutes prep. I was WAY over that. But I’ve found that to be true for most of their recipes.
It had a cream cheese frosting, which is what I prefer. It could have been a little less sweet, but it was very good.