How to Make Cakes Like Grandma Made - Chocolate Potato Cake and Dark Spice Cake

How to Make Cakes Like Grandma Made - Chocolate Potato Cake and Dark Spice Cake

Sometimes it seems like no one baked like my grandmas. Trips to their houses were all the time special and the cakes they would set out were something to remember. I lived next door to my maternal grandmother and never missed a day of visiting her house, especially her kitchen! My paternal grandmother lived a few miles on past us. I loved going there. First of all, I had an aunt only fourteen months older than myself. We enjoyed spending time together and were more like sisters than aunt and niece. But the best part was grandma's kitchen. She cooked on a big old cast iron wood fired stove. And there was all the time something over the warming oven that seemed to call to a young girl. And in the winter time, Southern Indiana winters were very cold and we did not have central heat, there was no place warmer than grandma's kitchen. In the summertime, while those hot humid Indiana summers, we would place on the steps to the food cellar where it was cooler. Since grandma would have the windows raised, we were often enticed into the kitchen by the smells wafting out the back windows. I loved my grandmothers and I love revisiting my memories of them. Here are some recipes from my grandmothers kitchens. Chocolate Potato Cake has a surprising ingredient of 1 cup of mashed potatoes in the batter. The Dark Spice Cake is made without eggs or milk manufacture it a unique recipe. These are not my primary recipes but these recipes are older than me (in my 60s) and most of my readers. I hope we will be allowed to release them as I know many of you would enjoying having them.

Chocolate Potato Cake

Chocolate Cake Recipe

2 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup shortening
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 cup mashed potatoes
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup milk
1 cup chopped nuts

Stir together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. In a large mixing bowl, mix shortening and sugar beating until light; add eggs and beat until mixture is light and fluffy. Add the potatoes and vanilla mixing until well blended. Stir the flour mixture into the creamy mixture, alternating with the milk. Stir in the nuts. Pour into a greased 13 x 9x 2-inch pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes. Frost with your beloved chocolate frosting or dust top with powdered sugar.

Dark Spice Cake

1 cup white sugar
1 cup raisins
1 cup water
1/3 cup lard
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup cold water
1 tsp baking powder
2 cups flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Boil together sugar, raisins, 1 cup of water, lard, nutmeg, cloves, and cinnamon until the raisins soften, about 5 to 10 minutes. Allow the mixture to cool. Mix the soda in the 1/2 cup cold water and add to the raisin mixture. Add the baking powder and flour. Stir all ingredients together and pour into a well greased and floured 8 x 11-inch pan. Bake until done. This is not a typing mistake; no eggs or milk are used in this recipe.

Enjoy!

How to Make Cakes Like Grandma Made - Chocolate Potato Cake and Dark Spice Cake

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cake

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cake

If you are like me, Chocolate and Peanut Butter are two of my popular pig out foods. It came to me while having a underground meeting with my popular candy Reese's Peanut Butter cups, I go thought why not create a dessert that combines my two favorites. My birthday is on Halloween and I decided to treat myself to a decadent cake combining my two popular ease treats

Here are the final results, Enjoy.

Chocolate Cake Recipe

Take any Chocolate Cake mixes that you prefer. I propose one with the pudding already in the mix.

Follow the cake recipe on the box but add 12 frosty limited Reese's Peanut Butter cups chopped to the mix... Two 8 inch cake pans ready as cake box recommends. ( I am sure any size Reese's Peanut Butter cups will do, the prominent factor is to have them frozen)

Bake the cake as propose and set aside to cool

Peanut Butter cream cheese filling

1/2 cup Powder Sugar

4-6 oz of cream cheese soften to room temp

1/4 cup of honey

1/2-3/4 cup of Peanut Butter

Whip till nice and creamy

Put this filling in in the middle of the two cakes

Cake icing

6 oz cream cheese room temp

1/2 cup Powder Sugar

1/2 cup chocolate syrup

3/4 cup semi sweet chocolate chips melted

Blend the powdered sugar, cream cheese, syrup and chocolate till creamy, I propose taste test to adjust to your level of sweetness.

Note: you can also use the already ready cream cheese icing, just half the other ingredients and add to you get the consistency and sweetness desired.  

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cake

Cake Decorating Ideas for fantastic seeing Cakes

Cake Decorating Ideas for fantastic seeing Cakes

You don't have to be an devotee cake decorator in order to make amazing looking birthday cakes. Here are some cake decorating ideas to help you to make your cakes extra extra that do not require exceptional cake decorating skills.

First, decide a theme for your cake. If the cake is for an adult, what are the likes, hobbies or interests of the birthday person? For example, if the person likes to fish, make a fishing theme cake. If the person likes to golf, make a golf theme cake. If they like to play the guitar, make a guitar cake.

Cake Ideas

You could also make the cake theme match their profession as well. For example, for a mail carrier make a mail theme cake or for a carpenter, make a carpenter theme cake.

If you are making a cake for a child, have it match the theme of the party or the child's beloved character, interest or even sport.

You get the idea, just try to make the cake extra extra for the birthday person by making it match their hobbies or interests.

A honestly easy cake decorating idea for making these theme cakes is to buy cake toppers that match your theme to place on top of your cake. These come in many dissimilar varieties. However, if you happen to want to make a definite theme cake for which you cannot find a cake topper to match, try the itsybitsy section of any hobby or craft store.

For the examples above, you can buy things such as a itsybitsy fishing rod and net for the fishing cake, a itsybitsy golf bag and golf clubs for the golf theme cake and a itsybitsy guitar for the guitar cake. You can then place them on top of your cake. For a mail theme cake, buy itsybitsy mail boxes and make itsybitsy letters out of card stock that you laminate and place them on the top and sides of your cake. For the carpenter theme cake, put itsybitsy saws and other tools on the top of or on the sides of the cake.

These are just a few examples. The ideas honestly are endless, but hopefully this has helped to get you started mental of dissimilar and unique cake decorating ideas that will make the next cake that you make extra special.

Cake Decorating Ideas for fantastic seeing Cakes

Local Cakes - Yam Cake formula

Local Cakes - Yam Cake formula

In many local homes, gelatin is often served as a sweet dish at the end of a meal, but more often it is served as a cake for special occasions. It is made very explain and is used as the town piece to adorn an elaborately laid table, just a decorated cake is used in Western countries.

Gelatin is a sea weed found in fullness off the shores of Japan. It is beneficial in the diet because of its mineral content, being rich in calcium and iodine and is prescribed by the habitancy of the East for preventing goitre. Gelatin is available in two forms, as long strands of transparent weed or as a powder. Either form can be boiled to make jelly. Gelatin does not have a very certain flavor of its own, so it is greatly improved by the increasing of fruit or other flavorings.

Cake Recipes

Other local cakes made from sweet potatoes, yams, peas and beans, rice flour, tapioca, etc. Are often eaten as breakfast foods or for snacks and supper. They are all rich in carbohydrates, though some may consist of a limited protein as well.

Yam Cake Recipe

Ingredients:

6 oz. Damp rice flour
2 oz. Tapioca flour
600 gram yam
2 tablespoon dried prawns
1 piece preserved radish
½ teaspoon mixed spice
3 tablespoons fired peanuts
2 teaspoons fired gingelly seeds
2 leaves spring onions
1 chili
3 onions
1 teaspoon alkali water
oil, salt and pepper

Method:

1. Pound the fried peanuts. Wash and pound dried prawns.
2. Scrub, peel, dice and wash yam.
3. Wash and dice spring onion and chili for garnishing.
4. Wash and dice preserved radish and chop up the onions.
5. Heat up 2 to 3 tablespoonfuls of oil, brown the onions and fry the dried prawns.
6. Add the preserved radish, yam, salt and mixed spice and toss all together for 5 minutes. Dish it up.
7. Knead tapioca flour and rice flour together and mix with water to make 1¼ pints batter.
8. Add the fried ingredients and alkali water to the batter. Add enough salt to taste.
9. Heat up a steaming tray in a pan of water, pour the aggregate into it and stir till the aggregate begins to thicken.
10. Cover with a fitting lid and steam for ½ hour.
11. When cooked, sprinkle pounded peanuts, gingelly seeds, spring onions and chili on top.
12. Cool, cut into neat pieces and serve it with chili sauce.

Local Cakes - Yam Cake formula

Cake Recipes - Scrumptious Easy Layer Cake

Cake Recipes - Scrumptious Easy Layer Cake

The best thing about this cake, other than it being so easy, is that you can make it to please your taste buds! You unquestionably can choose any ingredients that you would like, but these are the ones that I have used in the past:

Cake

Banana Cake

Pudding

Fruit

Cool Whip

Here are some other ideas of things that you may wish to choose from:

Cake: yellow, angel food, chocolate, strawberry, white

Pudding: vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, lemon, pistachio

Fruit: pineapple, cherry pie filling, bananas, peaches, pears (you can use as many fruits as you would like)

Chocolate chips, cinnamon candy, coconut, walnuts (or any other kind of nuts), are also great options.

Now to "build" your new layer cake, all you need to do is, layer the ingredients into a clear glass bowl. The presentation is so gorgeous because you can see all the colors & ingredients straight through the glass! You may want to choose ingredients & colors to match anything holiday that you are making ready the cake for.

Start with the cake as the first layer - (break into pieces or cut into squares), add fruit, then some pudding, then cool whip. Cake - fruit - pudding - cool whip, etc - until the bowl is practically filled.
You can then top with items like: coconut, nuts, or cherries if you wish.

If you'd like to have colored coconut, just place coconut in a ziplock bag with a few drops of food coloring, and mix until desired color is reached.

An example of a nice holiday display; a large platter with the glass bowl in the center. Add green coconut "grass" nearby the platter. Then, add a few nicely placed Easter eggs (candy, or the real ones =) nearby the green grass.

Cake Recipes - Scrumptious Easy Layer Cake