Cake Week -- Golden Cake with Fudge Frosting

I made a few cakes over the weekend. I brought them to the BBQ's we attended on Saturday and Sunday. I made this cake yesterday. It was good but the almond flavoring was pretty strong. I like almond flavor but some of the kids said it tasted "weird". The adults all seemed to like it, though. I will try making this cake again and leave out or reduce the almond flavoring. I also made this cake in a 9 x 13 inch pan and baked it for 45-50 minutes. It was really good. I will tell you that I didn't make the fudge frosting. I didn't have enough butter in my fridge to make it so I used a container of Duncan Hines Chocolate Fudge frosting. No one seemed to mind. I will definitely try to find a pourable fudge frosting recipe like the one on the Entenmann's Golden Cake with Fudge Frosting. There was a review on a website that talked about a recipe for this frosting. The author said her frosting "sets like fudge." Why, oh why didn't she go ahead and post the recipe in the comment section. I don't think that was very fair or nice. I tried to email her but apparently you have to be a "premium" member of the website to be able to email the other members. I am going to keep looking for that recipe. It would be worth my time if it is really that good!


Chocolate Fudge and Golden Layer Cake
Recipe courtesy Gale Gand
Cook Time: 30 min
Level: Easy
Yield: 12 to 16 servings

Ingredients:
3 cups sifted cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon pure almond extract
1 cup milk (whole, 2 percent fat, or 1 percent fat)

Instant Fudge Frosting

3 sticks butter (12 oz.)
4-1/2 cups confectioners' sugar (no need to sift)
6 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
1 tablespoons vanilla
6 tablespoons milk

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Butter and flour 2 (9-inch) round cake pans and line the bottoms with parchment paper.

Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together 3 times and set aside.

In a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, cream the butter until smooth and fluffy. Add the sugar and mix until blended. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, mixing after each addition until blended. Add the vanilla and almond extracts and mix.

With the mixer running at low speed, and working in alternating batches, add the dry ingredients and the milk to the butter mixture, mixing just to combine after each addition. Mix until just smooth. Pour into 2 cake pans. Bake until risen, golden, and firm to the touch, about 25 to 30 minutes. Let cool in the pans.

For the frosting:  Place all of the ingredients into a food processor and pulse to incorporate, then process until the frosting is smooth.

Once the cakes have cooled, place 1 layer on a serving platter and cover the top with frosting. Place the second layer on top of that but bottom-side up, to create a nice flat top. Press down to secure the layer. Frost the top and sides using a swirling motion. Or if you want it to look more professional, do a crumb layer of frosting, chill, then do a topcoat.


The Creative Cook

Potato Salad Problems

I offered to make potato salad for a cookout at a friend's house. Big mistake.... I followed the recipe for potato salad that I posted on my blog. I increased the amounts by 4 because I didn't want to make enough for just 4 people. I also followed the instructions on how to easily peel the potatoes in the video I posted with Dawn Wells of the Idaho Potato Council.



I had no problem at all mixing the ingredients for the potato salad. It was a combination of mayo, mustard, relish, and garlic. The recipe calls for celery and eggs chopped up along with the potatoes. None of that was a problem for me. I read someone who posted that her potato salad became "watery" on the second day. That is not my problem.



My problem is in the boiling of the potatoes. I followed the instructions to boil the potatoes for 15 minutes. Of course, the potatoes were under cooked. In fact, when I asked my husband to taste-test the potato salad for me he asked if the potatoes in potato salad were supposed to be cooked! "Houston, we have a problem." That was when I knew I was going to have to send him out to the store to buy some potato salad. I was so frustrated. I had spent the entire morning boiling, chopping, mixing and washing pots and pans to no avail! I feel like Julie in the Julie & Julia book not the Julie in the movie, she is way too nice. I didn't drop the "F" bomb quite as many times as Julie in the book but I was upset. I have made potato salad before. I have often overcooked and/or undercooked those "darn" potatoes. I have made Dijon potato salad and had someone make fun of it. He said it tasted "spoiled" so I never made that potato salad again. Even though I really liked it quite a bit myself. I should probably just give up on the potato salad but I really want to be able to make a good potato salad. It really shouldn't be that hard. Why is it that if I boil the potatoes 15 minutes they are too raw and if I cook them 20 minutes they are too over cooked?



Can you help me? Any ideas? Maybe I'm using the wrong type of potatoes. I just bought cheap white potatoes. Could that be the cause of my failure? Maybe I'm just going crazy or it is because, as my son suggested, I'm approaching 50 this year?!



The Frustrated Creative Cook