All-New Cake Mix Doctor - Anne Byrn [19]
Keep It Fresh! Store this cake, in a cake saver or loosely covered with plastic wrap, at room temperature for up to three days. Freeze the cake, wrapped in aluminum foil, for up to six months. Let the cake thaw overnight on the counter before serving.
Same Great Cake, Different Wonderful Frosting
Want another way to serve the banana cake? Bake it in layers but frost it with Cream Cheese Frosting (page 471). You will have one of my favorite combinations—spicy cinnamon banana cake and the classic creamy frosting. Yum. Garnish the cake with chopped toasted walnuts or crushed pineapple.
FRESH STRAWBERRY CAKE WITH STRAWBERRY CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
IF THERE EVER WAS a classic cake mix recipe, it is this strawberry cake. Countless birthdays, weddings, and anniversaries have been celebrated with this signature cake. There were two triple-layer strawberry cakes in the first Cake Mix Doctor—a cake with a buttercream frosting and one with a cream cheese frosting that contained chopped pecans and coconut. Over the years I began combining the two, featuring the cream cheese frosting, usually without the pecans and coconut. And lately I had wanted to tone down the flavor of the strawberry gelatin, a key ingredient in both cakes. So I tested a strawberry cake without the gelatin and with more fresh strawberries. And I made it in three layers with a simple strawberry cream cheese frosting. It’s just as moist as the original strawberry cake but lighter and fresher tasting.
serves:
12 to 16
prep:
30 minutes
bake:
20 to 25 minutes
cool:
25 minutes
For the cake
Vegetable oil spray, for misting the pans
Flour, for dusting the pans
1 package (18.25 ounces) plain white cake mix
1½ cups mashed ripe strawberries, with their juice (about 3 heaping cups of berries rinsed and dried)
½ cup vegetable oil
¼ cup milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs
Behind Every Successful Cake Are Good Pans
Good pans do help bake great cakes. As I have said before, invest in shiny aluminum pans for baking cake layers. Buy at least three of the same size, preferably nine-inch rounds. You need three pans because many of my recipes call for triple layers. It is a look I like very much for parties and special occasions, although for day-to-day baking you can’t beat the casual coziness of the two-layer cake.
Prepping those cake pans is important, and you will get a slight difference in the texture of a cake depending on how you grease and flour the pans. If you only mist and flour the bottom of the pans—not the side—the cake batter will creep up the side and climb to a greater height than if you prep the side of the pans. Take care to run a small, sharp knife around the edge of the cake pan as soon as you remove it from the oven just to release the cake from the pan and make turning it out simpler. This type of pan preparation gives you taller cake layers but also makes for a crumbly exterior. This is fine for light-colored cakes or cakes that will have a dense frosting to cover up the crumbs.
On some layer cakes a crumbly exterior makes frosting a chore. The red velvet cake, for example, needs a smooth side, so you don’t drag those red crumbs into your white icing and turn it pink! Frosting all cakes is easier if you prep the bottom and side of the pan with a misting of vegetable oil spray or a light brushing of solid vegetable shortening, then dust it with flour and shake out the excess. When baking chocolate cakes, substitute cocoa for the flour for a more intense flavor.
For the