Homemade chocolate cake mix

This makes one of the moistest, most delicious chocolate cakes I've tasted, doesn't use ingredients too expensive or fancy, and is pretty simple to whip up. Best of all, the dry ingredients can be mixed up apart from the wet and stored (I suppose indefinitely), thus enabling you to stockpile your own convenience cake mix. The recipe makes about 4 cups of dry ingredients, so what I've done is store it in a quart jar in the cupboard. You could also store in ziploc bags or tupperware. You can make up the whole recipe at once (in a 9x13 pan or two layer cakes) or use half the mix (about 2 cups), half the wet ingredients, and bake a small cake in an 8x8 or 9x9.

Dark, Rich Chocolate Cake Mix
1-2/3 cup flour
1-1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/4 cup dry buttermilk powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon instant coffee crystals

To Prepare
1 package of Dark Rich Chocolate Cake Mix
2 cups water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 medium eggs
Empty the cake mix into a big bowl. Add the water, oil and eggs. Beat with a whisk or electric beaters for about 2 minutes, or until the mixture is smooth and any lumps are gone. Turn the batter into a well oiled 9" x 13" rectangular pan. Bake at 350° for about 35 to 40 minutes. The sides should be pulled away from the sides of the pan, and a toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean. Be careful not to overbake. Cool and frost as desired. Makes about 24 pieces.

This recipe I found on Miss Maggie's wonderful site The Hillbilly Housewife. There are SO many recipes and resources there - if you haven't discovered it yet, you must pay it a visit!

Orange White-Chocolate Cheesecake

Can you tell I was suffering from Lent-imposed baking deprivation? Here's the other Easter treat I made. I probably won't make desserts this fiddly until next Easter.

Formatting note: Notice all the italics in the last post? How nice it looks? Since my browser doesn't let me do that automatically, so I have to type in all the <'s and /'s. So formatted posts are almost as rare a treat as orange white-chocolate cheesecake. And less enjoyable to make.

1 1/2 cups chocolate graham cracker crumbs
1/3 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup orange juice
1 envelope (7 grams) unflavored gelatin
2 cups (12-oz pkg) white-chocolate morsels
2 pkgs (8 oz each) cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons finely grated orange peel

PREHEAT oven to 350 degrees.

COMBINE crumbs and butter in medium bowl. Press crumb mixture onton bottome of ungreased 9-inch springform pan. Bake for 10 min., cool in pan on wire rack.

COMBINE orange juice and gelatin in small saucepan. Heat over medium heat, stirring occasionally, till gelatin dissolves.

MELT morsels in medium, uncovered, microwave-safe bowl on MEDIUM-HIGH (70%) power for 1 minute; STIR.

BEAT cream cheese and sugar in large mixing bowl until combined. Gradually stir in gelatin mixture and morsels.

BEAT whipping cream in small bowl until soft peaks form. Gently fold whipped cream and orange peel into cheese mixture. Pour filling over crust. Cover; refrigerate for 6 to 24 hours or until firm.

Allow to stand at room temperature for a few minutes before removing side of pan.

Yummy!

-- SJ

Gumdrop Cake

This is a recipe of Darren's grandmother's, and one of Darren's favorites. Always a risky undertaking for a wife, to attempt to reproduce a matriarchal specialty; but I tried it anyway. Success!

Gumdrop Cake

1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine
2 eggs
1 cup milk
2 3/4 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp lemon extract
1/2 tsp almond extract

1 lb. gumdrops (cut in half or third -- do not use purple or black, as they discolor the cake)

1 cup golden raisins (which I forgot to put in)

1/2 cup red & green cherries (which we couldn't find, as they're seasonal, so we used dried cherries instead)

2 dried pineapple rings or fruit of your choice (we couldn't find rings, so used a package of dried chunks. It was a small package; can't remember the exact size.)


Cream butter and sugar well. Add eggs, one at a time, and beat after each addition. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to creamed mixture, alternating with milk (flour first, then milk, in small amounts, mixing after each addition. End with flour.) Add extracts. Flour fruit (in small amounts, so it doesn't fall to bottom of cake) and add to batter. Add gumdrops.

Bake in a greased square or tube pan at 325 degrees for 1 1/4 hours, till done.

Note from Darren's grandmother: She -- and so I did, too -- bakes it at 300 for about an hour to see how it's coming along, then raises the temperature if it's not getting done. I baked it longer than I expected, but it came out nicely done. Take it out of the pan once it's cool enough, or it'll stick horribly.

-- SJ

A Cake for All Seasons

The following chocolate cake recipe has many virtues. 1) It's delicious: rich, moist, very chocolatey. 2) It's super easy and fast. It's as easy and fast as making a mix; easier if you factor in how hard it is to get those stupid plastic bags open. 3) It's cheap: it doesn't use butter or eggs or expensive chocolate. It's perfect for "oh, let's have something chocolate" or "we need to plan a cake for the party."

Mrs. C's Cake
3 c. flour
2 c. sugar
1 t. salt
2 t. soda
6 T. cocoa

Mix dry ingredients. Add:
3/4 c. oil
2 t. vanilla
2 T. vinegar
2 cups water

Mix well; bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.

It handles well and tastes good with buttercream icing, which is handy if you need to do fancy decorations for some purpose. (I'm making one for my brother-in-law's graduation tomorrow.) But for the ultimate chocolate cake experience, you leave the cake in the pan and make

Chocolate Skillet Icing
2 c. sugar
1/2 c. butter
1/2 c. cocoa
1/2 c. milk

Mix in a skillet and bring to a boil. Boil for one minute; remove from heat. Add 2 t. vanilla. Stir until lukewarm, then pour on cake.

Leftover Oatmeal becomes Spice Cake

Some breakfast foods are good leftover: muffins, for instance. Or pancakes (rolled up with butter and sugar--mmmmm.)

Some are not. Scrambled eggs. Oatmeal. When I was growing up, we had a lot of leftover oatmeal because it was never as popular as my mom thought it ought to be.

When leftovers occurred, I made this spice cake variant, which was always received with great enthusiasm:

Lazy Daisy Oatmeal Cake
2 c. cooked oats
1/2 c. butter
1 c. sugar
1 c. brown sugar
1 t. vanilla
2 eggs
1 1/2c. flour
1 t. soda
1/2 t. salt
3/4 t. cinnamon
1/4 t. nutmeg
Bake in a 9" pan at 350 degrees for 50-55 minutes.
Frosting: mix 1/4 c. melted butter, 1/2 c. brown sugar, 3 T half and half (I always used evaporated milk), 1/3 c. nuts, 3/4 c. coconut. IIRC, you then broiled this briefly until it looked nice and toasty.

Now I have leftover oatmeal from time to time, not because I misjudge appetites, but because DOB sometimes runs out of time and doesn't eat his breakfast. So I fix this variant, updated for our household expenditure and nutrition standards. It tastes a lot like gingerbread:

Slightly Cheaper and Healthier Lazy Daisy Oatmeal Cake
2 c. cooked oats (with raisins)
1/2 c. vegetable oil
1/2 c. honey
1/4 c. molasses
1 t. vanilla
2 eggs
1 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1 t. soda
1/2 t. salt
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. nutmeg
1/2 t. cloves
1/2 t. allspice (or however many spices I feel like dumping in until I get bored)

Bake as above. I skip the frosting and either serve it with applesauce for dessert or plain for breakfast.