All-New Cake Mix Doctor - Anne Byrn [118]
While testing the recipes—both old and new—for this chapter I found that what you bake in that pan is full of endless possibilities. There are cakes you poke holes in, pour a glaze over, and serve warm right from the pan, such as the Hot Lemon Poke Cake and Hot Prune Cake with Buttermilk Glaze. There are cakes you bake, top with a glaze, and run under the broiler right in the pan, such as the Broiled Peanut Butter Crunch Cake.
There are traditional sheet cakes you bake, let cool, and then frost, such as the Old-Fashioned Chocolate Sheet Cake, Mandarin Orange Cake with Sherry Cream Cheese Frosting, Hummingbird Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting, and Birthday Cake for a Crowd. There are refrigerator cakes—Lemon Curd Icebox Cake, Overnight Chocolate Caramel Cake, Moist and Creamy Coconut Sheet Cake, and the lovely Caramel Tres Leches Cake.
And there are unexpected treats in this chapter—peach and pineapple upside-down cakes, cheesecakes, and a Warm Chocolate
Pudding Cake. In addition, there are coffee cakes for toting and serving to friends. I especially love the Orange Cranberry Coffee Cake and Nancy’s Cinnamon Swirl Coffee Cake.
Have I made you sufficiently hungry? I hope so because I’m about to dash to the kitchen and have another square of coffee cake. I’ll cut a piece from the pan on the counter. Did I mention that sheet cakes are easy on clean-up because it’s just one pan? And did I tell you that all of these recipes can be baked in two 9-inch square pans instead of the 13 by 9–inch pan? The smaller pans take less time to bake—seven to eight minutes less—but what makes them nice is that your family can eat one cake and share the second cake with friends or freeze it for a future meal.
Little prep, little assembly, little cleanup, but big flavor—just what I love about sheet cakes.
HOT LEMON POKE CAKE
THIS CAKE IS SO GOOD, so basic, so appealing to all ages, it needs to be in your “bring-to-a-potluck” recipe file—that is if you want to serve the cake at room temperature. It’s even more delicious when served warm after glazing, accompanied by a scoop of vanilla ice cream. We’re partial to lemon cake around our house. And this one is even more special because it’s a little bit lemon and, with the addition of orange juice, a little bit orange. No orange juice? Just add water.
serves:
16 to 20
prep:
15 minutes
bake:
32 to 37 minutes
For the cake
Vegetable oil spray, for misting the pan
Flour, for dusting the pan
1 package (18.25 ounces) plain yellow cake mix
1 package (3 ounces) lemon gelatin
1 cup orange juice or water
½ cup vegetable oil
4 large eggs
For the glaze
1 large lemon
1 heaping cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1. Make the cake: Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly mist a 13 by 9–inch metal cake pan with vegetable oil spray, then dust it with flour. Shake out the excess flour and set the pan aside.
Want an Orange Poke Cake?
Substitute 1 package (3 ounces) of orange gelatin for the lemon gelatin in the cake and use fresh orange juice and orange zest instead of the lemon in the glaze.
Recipe Reminders
MADE FOR
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PREP NOTES
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DON’T FORGET
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SPECIAL TOUCHES
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How to Bake for a Crowd
Sheet cakes can handle feeding a lot of people since you can get as many as twenty servings from each 13 by 9–inch