Baked A Cake From Scratch!

Yes, I did!

This was the first time in decades (I don't really want to say how long but think really long term) that I did this.

I grew up thinking that cake mixes came out of a box, which they do, but since I'm on a Quest for cooking/baking, thought it would be fun to do it the 'hard' way.

So's, I got my recipe books down to pore over and do you know, not one had a simple, every day yellow cake recipe?? Everything was uber fancy and looked something like you'd see in an engineering class book. I mean, tartar in a yellow cake mix?? What IS that stuff?? Will have to look it up later...

Thank goodness I have the 'net! I hopped on here, dial-up and all, looked around for a simple recipe, found one and proceeded. I had everything the recipe called for, even the electric mixer.

I started in with my mixing bowl and drug out the flour...which brings me to a question...what is 'cake flour'? As opposed to regular white flour? At any rate, that didn't stop me, regular white flour will just have to do. I decreased the sugar just a smidge because, for some reason, it seems that modern recipes are waaayyyy too sweet for me. As an aside, a friend gave me a rhubarb pie and although I appreciate her doing so (the rhubarb is out of my teeny garden), I can't eat it due to all the sugar.

Mixed up the salt and baking powder, Crisco and the other stuff and I was in business!! Got the mixer out and mixed away. I read somewhere yesterday that you can overmix a recipe and get too dense, grainy cake and so I watched the clock like a hawk so not to overdo.

Then, of course, there had to be a hitch. I forgot to grease and flour the pan. At least I'd remembered to turn on the oven at the right temp. Remember, this is a new oven and I'm only sorta-sure of the temps. But it was on anyway.

So, while the mix sat there, I grabbed a pan, greased and floured away, all the time mindful of my home-ec teacher saying those decades ago that if a mix sits too long, for some obscure reason, it won't rise and will be flatter than Kansas.

Got the thing greased/floured and poured the mix in. Kind of did this gyration thing with my hands and body that evened the mix out and popped the thing in the oven. Waited the appropriate amount of time and pulled it out.

Perfection!! I stuck a knife in and it came out clean. Oh, yeah... So proud of myself! Then I set it on the oven-top to cool.

That's when it dawned on me that I didn't have any icing. I mean, what is cake without icing?? Bland, very bland, I'm sure. I looked around the net and in my books (lotta good they are!) and couldn't find a plain icing. Then I remembered a pot of chocolate icing I had left over from my last box cake. Had to let it sit out for a while to come to room temp and the cake needed to cool anyway.

Finally, it all came together. The cake cooled and the icing warmed up and the t'wain did meet!

Hubs later said I did good. He really liked it! I was/am so proud. I tried a hunk and thought it very good too but still a little too sweet for me again so I'll adjust that the next time. Also, and I never would have thought of this had I not baked this, but like so many other things I'm cooking from scratch, this cake is WAY lighter and fluffier than any boxed cake mix I've ever tried. Actually, it was almost as easy as to make the scratch as to break out boxed cake mix to make. So unless I just HAVE to use a box mix, I think I'll stick with the scratch.

I found all sorts of things I can add to tweak the scratch mix to make, say, Red Velvet and Lemon Somethingorother.

Another mark on the 'Dun Good' line for me!