Confessions of a Secret Recipe

After ten years of making wedding cakes from scratch, I have something to confess.  I used a box cake as the foundation for all of my cakes!!!!

In other words, if a bride wanted yellow, lemon (especially lemon), chocolate or almond, just to name a few, I used the Secret Recipe.   I know it by heart.

ingredients

• 1 18 1/2-ounce package yellow cake mix
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature
• 6 large eggs
• 1/2 cup whipping cream
• 1/2 cup water

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter two 9-inch-diameter pans with 2 3/4-inch-high sides. Combine first 6 ingredients in large bowl. Beat until smooth, about 2 minutes. Divide batter between prepared pans. Bake cakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 28 minutes. Cool cakes completely in pans on racks.

It is definitely rewarding to make an almond cake from real almond meal, a lemon cake from lemon oil and zest and a chocolate cake with espresso and 70% cacoa but, honestly, it all depends on the audience.  If the almond meal texture is pleasureable, the lemon zing strong enough and the chocolate sweet enough, then I've got a happy audience.  But truly homemade cakes are often too subtle for the general public.

I could offer a person two cakes, one made entirely from scratch and the other made with the Secret Recipe, and 90%  would choose the latter.  I have actually done it.  I launched my career making everything from scratch but found that the extra time and expense was not worth the overall satisfaction.

To this day I will still consider my audience before choosing a recipe.  If my fellow diners are foodies, I'll temper the chocolate, zest the lemon, grind the almonds and  separate my whites from my yolks.  If my fellow diners love a sweet cake that reminds them of their childhood,  I'll hit the Secret Recipe.

For sure, if the cake is for children.... Secret Recipe.

Try this recipe the next time you committed to baking a cake but have limited baking skills or time.  You can substitute any flavor or brand box cake for the yellow cake.  You can also fill or frost the cake with anything you like.