chocolate and yellow cakes

Since it is a bit slow at work I'd like to test out some chocolate and yellow cake recipes. I'm looking for really dark chocolate(kinda like a black out cake), moist and tender, yet not too crumbly. Same for the yellow/white cake. More on the American butter cake style rather than genoise. I'm actually going to try out some cake mixes just to see why people love them(I only bake scratch cakes), but ideally I do not want to work with a mix. If anyone has a tried true recipe they would like to share, please post. I will try out and report back results. Thanks!

I too, am wanting to try new recipes for white cake. I asked on another thread to post their fav white cake recipe. Yeah, mixes just have that mix taste. Hard to mask. I have found some chocolate recipes from Godiva.com. But of course we want to know from this board everyones tried and true favorite. Testing a white cake today, from Diner Desserts by Tish Boyle.Let ya know how that turns out.

[momoreg]

Please check volcano cake thread. I have posted my choc. cake recipe there.

thanks momoreg, will try soon.
I tried Colette Peter's white cake recipe that I had written down a long time ago. Pretty good considering I'm not a fan of white cake. Here it is:
Cake flour 9 oz.
baking powder .25 oz.
salt 1/2 t.
sugar 10 oz.
vanilla 1 t.
eggwhites 4 oz.
butter 4 oz.
milk 6 oz.

I always use the hi-ratio method for all my butter cakes(RLB from The Cake Bible, god bless her!), I think it is so much easier than creaming method. I was surprised that this recipe with low proportions of butter would be dry. But no, it was tender but not crumbly.

Angry,

Just curious - do you remember which Colette bok that recipe came from? I do not have the wedding cake book - was it that one?

Thanks Momoreg for the recipe.
Thanks Angry--Yeah, which book did that recipe come from? I have Wedding Cakes, Birthday Cakes. Wasn't in those.

Speaking of: I just came back from taking a class from Colette at Notters School. She was great.

I've tried one of her white cakes, don't remember which, but didn't care for it.Tried Tish Boyle's yesterday, kinda dry.I discovered a topic on Cook's Illustrated, Christopher Kimball somewhere here in Cheftalk, and he had major recipes, he also had some chocolate ones, yellow, and whites. Angry, I'll direct you in that direction> www.townonline.com
Hope that Helps

Better yet try:
http://www.townonline.com/cambridge/...nment/cooking/

What a great find that site was ! Thanks! too bad my printer doesn't work right now ... have you tried any of Kimbal's recipes?

LoriB
Oh Yum! Just baked his Heavenly White Cake today. I gotta admit,it was truly tasty.Not dry, and texture was not dense, but fluffy.How I like it. I'm also not too fond of white cake. But this one eaten alone is wonderful. Can't wait to try it out w/ some fillings. Next,I'm gonna try his devil's food. Just in the mood to trying different recipes from what I've been using.
Back to baking.

Originally posted by Spoons:
LoriB
Oh Yum! Just baked his Heavenly White Cake today. I gotta admit,it was truly tasty.Not dry, and texture was not dense, but fluffy.How I like it. I'm also not too fond of white cake. But this one eaten alone is wonderful. Can't wait to try it out w/ some fillings. Next,I'm gonna try his devil's food. Just in the mood to trying different recipes from what I've been using.
Back to baking.

Hi, I would love to try these recipes as well but the link doesn't work for me and through townonline.com I don't find them.Would someone post them, please?Thanks so much in advance!!!

For many years I have used the recipe for White Trillium Cake in The Heritage of Southern Cooking by Camille Glenn. Fabulous dense, close texture without being heavy. Depth of flavor often missing in white cakes.
I often substitute almond flavoring for the vanilla. You can use different fillings -- pineapple is particularly good. My family likes it with cream cheese frosting. Hard to get classic buttercreams to be really white enough to look good.
For yellow cake, try the the Southern Heirloom Cake from the same cookbook. Excellent!
The Chocolate Finale Cake from the same cookbook.
That's why this book is one of the dirtiest in my kichen! I use it all the time. Guess all those church socials and bake sales gave the South lots of opportunities to practice.

When I have to cheat with a mix, the French Vanilla mixes made by several companies are very good and don't have that strange chemical backflavor that many mixes have.
I find that white cakes are often best refrigerated.

thanks Spoons, great site. I've tried looking in Cook's Illustrated website for recipes but it's not free. I did try once Kimbals devil's food cake and remember it being horrible. More like a pudding than an actual cake.
I pulled the white cake recipe from Chocolatier, I think. The cake was a bit dry on the second day, so I would suggest moistening it with simple syrup before assembly of cake. It is a good recipe but not what I am looking for. Maybe if I played with the type of fat involved...
Problem is that butter cakes upon
refrigeration become dense and more firm. We use a hi-ratio shortening at work that is superb, cakes are soft, fluffy and light even if chilled. Kind of like a chiffon, but more tender. I am playing around with using butter and oil(as long as volume of the cake does not suffer).

Hi Angrychef,
The white cake from Chocolatier is the one I have been using. Kimball's was good yesterday. Do you mind sharing your recipe for white cake that you use at work? Sounds like the kind of cake I'm looking for. Butter cake, sorta chiffony, fluffy, and tender. I got a 50 lb. cube of hi-ratio shortening here. Like to try them all.Except contemplating the Devil's Food now that you mentioned how bad it was. Any good chocolate ones you've come across yet in your experimenting? Yeah you're right starch retrogradation happens when you refrigerate cakes.Gotta wrap them well, or eat um.

Have you tried the latter post:http://www.townonline.com/cambridge/entertainment/cooking/

Originally posted by Spoons:
Have you tried the latter post:http://www.townonline.com/cambridge/entertainment/cooking/

Just tried it, doesn't work...:-(