Recent content by woebegone

Well, there was no Play-Dough in the cake this time! While it wasn't the light & fluffy boxed bake I'm used to, it was entirely fine. And that was after leaving out a quarter cup of butter. A chef friend suggested using cake flower, unsalted butter (with a separate 1/8 tsp of salt), and a...

Which one? It does not rise as expected. These are 8" pans, one and a half inches deep; the batter never rises above the tops of the pans. I'm not the first to notice that the cake ends up unusually dense; there's a host of comments on the site questioning the directions for the very same...

Well, here we are, trying a third time. I allowed the cold ingredients to warm for 2-3 hours. Using a hand mixer on low speed, I creamed the butter with the sugar first. I added the eggs slowly. Mixing by hand with a wooden spoon, I alternated sour cream, milk and flour. I added the...

This is the first time I've ever tried to make the whole cake from scratch. It's an art form requiring real experience. I should not have expected to simply read the instructions and succeed. I found a description of cake mixing methods. Which one works best for this type of cake? It's a...

I appreciate the responses. I can only hope the last one is a joke.... I bought new baking powder for this cake. When I say it didn't rise, it really didn't rise. It only appeared to rise when hot, but collapsed as soon as the heat was turned off. Cutting into the "cake," parts had the look...

I opened the oven enough to check if the cakes were rising, a few minutes before turning it off. They rose a little, but not like a store-bought mix. Maybe I forgot the milk. I did not whip the cream, because I didn't read that in the instructions. With the measurements listed, the frosting...

I tried to make this cake for my daughter's birthday. Twice, now. Both times I had a cake that would not rise and icing that was too dry and hard to spread. I know nothing about baking a cake. I've always used the retail mixes. But she wanted this really bad. If someone could take a look at...