Baking the perfect cake isn’t just cooking. It’s a mix of art and science – and some experience in knowing the best cake tips!
You know that expression “have your cake and eat it, too?”
Unfortunately when it comes to making them, most of us just skip to picking one up at the grocery store so we can take it home to eat it. And if we do make one, well, it probably came from a box and lovely icing from a rounded container.
Face it: cake making isn’t easy, but with a little patience and few of these best cake tips, you can make your own little piece of sweet art a lot better than you ever thought possible. And when you’re done, you don’t even have to share. But I will share a few tips that will take you for basic to Betty Crocker in just one cake.
However, cake making isn’t just cooking; it’s art, it’s a science and actually a little lesson in history.
I love to read cookbooks and actually I own probably about 100+ of them and sometimes just love reading the ingredients, recipe names and my favorite, the descriptions, especially on old cookbooks (like those made from local women’s groups!) One of my favorites growing up were the red-gingham covered (affiliate link included) Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook.
Filled with tips to setting your table, to how to make Sunday dinner for your inlaws, this cookbook was the gold standard cooking staple for most women in the 50s as they either practiced for marriage or worked to “create a home” after the wedding. I love the tips they include as well as all the handy conversions. Just for cakes the section there’s a nifty tip sheet for all the things you did wrong with your cake and how to fix them next time. While looking for a little something to make for Easter, I actually ran across a recipe called “Easter Dinner Cake.” Since it was found in the sponge/pound cake section and made with orange juice, the recipe sounded perfect for Easter dinner. And with 11 egg whites, I had to know how this was going to turn out.
RECIPE: Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook Easter Dinner Cake
As I started to think about Easter cakes, I remembered the one my mom made when I was young that had coconut, lime, lemons, oranges and all the other good stuff that still had me licking my lips for just one more bite 20+ years later. Luckily she knew exactly what recipe it was from her McCall’s Cooking School Cook Book binder, a mail-subscription service that sent you a few recipes every month to add to your binder until you had a full cookbook.
Of course, this was BW (before the web), so it was fun to wait to see what recipes you’d receive each shipment. I tried to find my own copy of the once mail-order binder cookbook, but from others looking for the same thing, it doesn’t appear you can find a copy unless you find one on Amazon from others willing to sell theirs. However, I’m reprinting it here for you (or until they realize it might be worth it to put these online!)
RECIPE: McCall’s Cooking School Coconut-Cream Cake with Lemon-Lime Filling
And it wouldn’t be Easter without Carrot Cake, right? I love this recipe ot just because it’s covered in Cream Cheese frosting, but because it is made with applesauce! You know I’m always about using applesauce in your recipes, especially baking, since it makes things lower in fat, higher in healthy ingredients and definitely much more moist! While you could use any applesauce, I like the cinnamon version from GoGo squeeZ to give it that little kick of sweetness. And then throw in a little 1/2 teaspoon of chile or chipotle powder and you’ve got a cake that won’t stop – at least not until you’ve finished every.single. bite.
RECIPE: Best Carrot Cake Ever
What’s your favorite cake?
Those cakes look amazing, especially the coconut one! My family really likes coconut, and any tropical fruit. Would replacing the citrus in that recipe with a fruit like pineapple still taste good? I think my family would enjoy that better.
You just made me crave just about every type of cake. LOL They look so good! And carrot cake… YUM.
Wow all those cakes look so good. I need to brush up on my cake making skills.
I will admit that I usually doctor a box cake when I am baking at home. But, I am getting to the point of experimenting with recipes to make it from scratch.
However, for my son’s upcoming Eagle Scout Court of Honor we are ordering a sheet cake from Costco. I just can’t make that big of a cake in my home at the moment.