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You can put this in your cake and eat it, too
Published November 4, 2009
Hi Gin,
I once read a tip to add specific ingredients to store-bought cake mix to make it taste better, (homemade). Can you share this info with me?
Thanks.
Hi to you! One hint I personally can give you is to add orange juice to a chocolate cake mix in place of the called for water — same amount of orange juice, of course. Orange and chocolate go together.
You could even ice the cake with my favorite icing, White Mountain Icing, and grate a little orange zest in it.
Or even easier, use a bought vanilla icing and add a little orange zest to that. As they say, “Make it your own!”
If anyone else has any ideas on this “let’s fool them into thinkin’ this is homemade” thing, please let us in on it. Don’t think of this as trying to fool the ones you serve it to. If I take it out of a box and I mix it up, and I bake it in my oven, it is homemade!
There is made from scratch homemade and then there is homemade.
Now if you have something like pizza delivered and you hide the box before the guests arrive and are seen taking it out of the oven, well … let your conscience be your guide.
• • •
Millionaire Pound Cake
1 pound butter or margarine at room temperature
3 cups sugar
3/4 cups milk
6 eggs
4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 teaspoon butter flavored extract.
Cream butter or margarine until consistency of mayonnaise. Add sugar a little at a time and cream well after each addition.
Add the 6 eggs one at a time and beat well. Add milk and flour alternately, starting and ending with addition of flour. Add all the extract.
Pour into greased and floured tube pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 11/2 hours.
Topping:
Mix 11/2 cups confectioner’s sugar and 1/4 cup lemon juice. Mix and pour over cake while it is still warm.
• • •
Hi Gin,
The best thing about moving to the San Bernard River years ago was your delightful column (other than fishing and Friends of the River San Bernard). It’s better than just recipes.
Being diabetic and loving sweets, I’ve collected several good sugar-free recipes over the years. The pecan pie is for Pauline! Of course, I cheat and use real eggs and real butter. My family is a firm believer of buying the current year pecans. Thank you for many wonderful recipes, tips and just plain fun.
Pat “J” Jankowiak
Sugar-Free Pecan Pie
3 eggs
5 tablespoons sugar substitute, or Splenda (for BAKING)
1 cup sugar-free breakfast syrup
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 cup pecan halves
pie dough for single 9-inch crust.
Mix eggs and sugar substitute. Stir in syrup and melted butter. Add pecan halves. Line a 9-inch pan with pie dough. Pour in pecan mixture. Bake in a preheated oven with edges covered with foil for 25 minutes. Remove foil from edges and bake for another 25 minutes, or until you can insert a knife and it comes out clean.
Cool and serve.
Pat,
I love you! How could I not when you said such nice things about me! I will print the pumpkin pie and the millionaire pie later for folks who have to make it for the holidays. The papers this column runs in could give me a whole page, but for some reason they won’t … go figure. I think they think they have other things to print that are more important. Anyway, thanks a bunch!
The other day I went bouncing into Randall’s to pick up some of our ever-lovin’ prescriptions and Ms. Cathy Swindell gave me a piece (for me, a very minute piece) of the recipe you are about to read about.
I tell ya’, while I was enjoying that cake a bulldozer could not have moved me out of that spot. I thought when she saw how much I enjoyed it she would have sprung for more, but I think she brought it to share with fellow employees and maybe other special customers. I love my pharmacist!
If you could not be there to get a bite of this piece of heaven I did the next best thing and got the recipe for you. Yeah, I’m good!
Hi Gin,
Here is the recipe for Triple Chocolate Cherry Bars. It is listed on the back of the Betty Crocker SuperMoist chocolate fudge cake mix. It is very quick and easy with just a few ingredients. Here is the link to the Betty Crocker web site: www.bettycrocker.com/recipes. aspx/triple-chocolate-cherry-bars.
The secret is the cherry pie filling and I used Comstock. You never know what you might get when you come into Randall’s Pharmacy!
Triple-Chocolate Cherry Bars
1 box Betty Crocker SuperMoist chocolate fudge cake mix
1 21-ounce can cherry pie filling
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 bag (12-ounce size) miniature semisweet chocolate chips (1 cup)
1 container Betty Crocker Whipped Chocolate Frosting.
Heat oven to 350 degrees, (325 for dark/nonstick pans). Grease and flour, or spray with baking spray with flour, a 13- by 9-inch pan.
In a large bowl, gently mix dry cake mix, pie filling, eggs and chocolate chips with rubber scraper; break up any undissolved cake mix by pressing with scraper. Carefully spread in pan.
Bake 35 to 40 minutes. Cool for 1 hour. Frost with frosting. For garnish, you can put a maraschino cherry on top of each piece. Glad you enjoyed the cake.
Sincerely,
Cathy Swindell
Cathy,
Thank you so much for that mouth-watering dessert! I’m fixin’ (good Texas word) to go pick up some more “scripts” and on such short notice I’m sure she hasn’t had time to prepare a treat for me.
Bless her heart, she didn’t know it only took one time to spoil me. Now I expect something tasty every time I go in. Personal note: Dr. Nguyen and Dr. Bui, take notes — cake, candy or some kind of goodie when I come in there would also be greatly appreciated!
If you have recipes or tips to share, or a request, send to Conversations with Gin, P.O. Box 334, Clute, TX 77531, or e-mail ginscolumn(at)hotmail.com.
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