It was important to me that I could make this cake with a yellow mix, and preferably the organic one I started using for Pumpkin Pie Cake Dessert (which you'll find on this blog), because my husband doesn't like chocolate - strange - I know - and it was for his birthday. I had decided that I was going to invent a Caramel Macchiato Cake, as that is his favorite drink. It would require a yellow or white cake mix, and you already know I like to use organics whenever possible. Finally figured out what the problem was...
Original recipe (one that many of you may already have something similar to):
1 (18.25oz) pkg dark chocolate cake mix
1 (3.9 oz) pkg instant chocolate pudding mix
1 (16oz) container sour cream
3 eggs
1/3 c vegetable oil
1/2 c coffee liquer
2 c semisweet chocolate chips
The reviews were off the chart, so I was puzzled as to why my version simply didn't work. These were the only changes I made:
1 pkg organic vanilla cake mix instead of chocolate
1 pkg instant vanilla pudding mix instead of chocolate
1/2 c Gran Marnier instead of Kahlua
left out chips
My first attempt simply didn't get done. The alcohol didn't even cook out - I needed a chaser after each bite! So I decided to make one with a regular cake mix, since I couldn't find a dark chocolate organic mix. Here was my second attempt:
BLACK FOREST BUNDT CAKE
1 pkg devil's food cake mix
1 sm pkg instant chocolate pudding mix
8oz sour cream (not 16oz)
3 large eggs
1/3 c sunflower oil
1/4 c Hershey's chocolate syrup
1/2 c juice reserved from cherries, below
1 720ml jar pitted sour cherries in light syrup, drained well & chopped
Preheat oven to 350F (175C). Grease and flour a 10in bundt pan. Combine all except last ingredient in large mixer bowl, beating until well blended. Fold in cherries. Batter will be thick. Spoon into prepared pan. Bake for 1 hour or until cake springs back when lightly tapped. Cool 10min in pan, then turn out and cool completely on wire rack. Place on cake plate, garnish with whipped cream around base and fresh cherries w/ stems or marachinos out of season.
YUM! That one worked. NOTE: next time I make this one, I'm going to either try using cherry liquer or kirsch, or, using a small pkg cherry jello instead of the chocolate pudding mix.
Why did the chocolate work, but not the vanilla? Was there some chemical in the non-organic mix that made it rise and cook properly? Did not using a liquer make the difference? And if so, why? The original recipe called for liquer and many people who'd written reviews on the recipe had tried it with several different ones including Gran Marnier. I looked at the boxes of cake mix again. There were four on the counter, as the first attempt had yielded a small cake and I'd invited, potentially, a lot of people by saying "spread the word - cake and decaf from 7pm on". Smart. No idea how many to expect. Hence 5 cakes... And since I was going to experiment with the Caramel Macchiato flavor, I decided to a grouping of 5 bundt cakes, each a different flavor. (Crud - I forgot to take a picture for you! They were lovely - a whole collection, on different hight stands, some glazed, some decorated with whipped cream... I'm so mad at myself. I may just have to do it all again.)
Anyway, I'm staring at these boxes of cake mix, when it suddenly occurs to me that the boxes of chocolate mix are bigger than the organic vanilla mix boxes. I pick them up. The chocolate box feels heavier. I check the labels...
Yep. I had to go buy another organic vanilla mix. It took four of those mixes to make three cakes.
Here are the other cakes I made:
CHOCOLATE MINT BUNDT CAKE - this one was AMAZING!
1 pkg devil's food cake mix
1 sm pkg instant chocolate pudding mix
8oz sour cream
3 large eggs
1/3 c sunflower oil
1/2 c chocolate almond milk
1.5 t peppermint flavouring
1 c broken chocolate mint flats (like Andes mints - my grocer didn't have Andes mint chips, but you can probably find them right beside the chocolate chips)
Preheat oven to 350F (175C). Grease and flour a 10in bundt pan. Combine all except last ingredient in large mixer bowl, beating until well blended. Fold in candy pieces. Batter will be thick. Spoon into prepared pan. Bake for 1 hour or until cake springs back when lightly tapped. Cool 10min in pan, then turn out and cool completely on wire rack.
ORANGE VANILLA BUNDT CAKE - everyone liked this one - EVERYONE!
1 pkg yellow cake mix
1 sm pkg instant vanilla pudding mix
8oz sour cream
3 large eggs
1/3 c sunflower oil
1/2 c top quality orange juice
Preheat oven to 350F (175C). Grease and flour a 10in bundt pan. Combine all ingredients in large mixer bowl, beating until well blended. Batter will be thick. Spoon into prepared pan. Bake for 1 hour or until cake springs back when lightly tapped. Cool 10min in pan, then turn out and cool completely on wire rack. You may use about 1/2 c powdered sugar and 1-2T OJ to make a glaze if you like. It's a good idea to poke small holes all over the top of the cake before glazing so that some of the glaze soaks in. Or for a harder glaze, there are many versions online, but most require cooking.
STRAWBERRY BUNDT CAKE - this one was just ok - I do have a really fabulous strawberry cake that I will share with you at some point, but this one is much easier. It would have been greatly improved by a thick glaze, I think, both in flavor and appearance. I might go back to the vanilla pudding mix on this one, or half & half jelly powder & pudding mix, and use the full 16oz sour cream.
1 sm pkg instant vanilla pudding mix
8oz sour cream
3 large eggs
1/3 c sunflower oil
1/2 c top quality orange juice
Preheat oven to 350F (175C). Grease and flour a 10in bundt pan. Combine all ingredients in large mixer bowl, beating until well blended. Batter will be thick. Spoon into prepared pan. Bake for 1 hour or until cake springs back when lightly tapped. Cool 10min in pan, then turn out and cool completely on wire rack. You may use about 1/2 c powdered sugar and 1-2T OJ to make a glaze if you like. It's a good idea to poke small holes all over the top of the cake before glazing so that some of the glaze soaks in. Or for a harder glaze, there are many versions online, but most require cooking.
STRAWBERRY BUNDT CAKE - this one was just ok - I do have a really fabulous strawberry cake that I will share with you at some point, but this one is much easier. It would have been greatly improved by a thick glaze, I think, both in flavor and appearance. I might go back to the vanilla pudding mix on this one, or half & half jelly powder & pudding mix, and use the full 16oz sour cream.
1 pkg yellow cake mix
1 sm pkg strawberry jelly powder
8oz sour cream
3 large eggs
1/3 c sunflower oil
1/2 qt fresh or frozen strawberries, sugared and pureed in blender or food processor - reserve enough to
make glaze
1/2 qt fresh or frozen strawberries, sugared and mashed
1 sm pkg strawberry jelly powder
8oz sour cream
3 large eggs
1/3 c sunflower oil
1/2 qt fresh or frozen strawberries, sugared and pureed in blender or food processor - reserve enough to
make glaze
1/2 qt fresh or frozen strawberries, sugared and mashed
Preheat oven to 350F (175C). Grease and flour a 10in bundt pan. Combine all ingredients in large mixer bowl, beating until well blended. Batter will be thick. Spoon into prepared pan. Bake for 1 hour or until cake springs back when lightly tapped. Cool 10min in pan, then turn out and cool completely on wire rack.
CARAMEL MACCHIATO CAKE - My husband loved it, so it was a great success, as that was the whole intention. I'm going to go out on a limb here, and recommend a couple of changes even though I haven't made it this way yet: the addition of some instant espresso powder, as I think it needed just a touch more coffee flavor, the full amount of sour cream and chips as on the original recipe, and using a white cake mix to allow the coffee flavor to shine through more. This is what I'll do next time.
1 pkg white cake mix
1 sm pkg instant butterscotch pudding mix
16oz sour cream
3 large eggs
1/3 c sunflower oil
1/2c brewed espresso
2 t instant espresso powder, if you can find it. If not, try dissolving a T of instant coffee in the brewed
espresso while it's still hot
1 sm pkg instant butterscotch pudding mix
16oz sour cream
3 large eggs
1/3 c sunflower oil
1/2c brewed espresso
2 t instant espresso powder, if you can find it. If not, try dissolving a T of instant coffee in the brewed
espresso while it's still hot
2 c butterscotch chips
Preheat oven to 350F (175C). Grease and flour a 10in bundt pan. Combine all ingredients in large mixer bowl, beating until well blended. Batter will be thick. Spoon into prepared pan. Bake for 1 hour or until cake springs back when lightly tapped. Cool 10min in pan, then turn out and cool completely on wire rack.
These cakes were so very easy to make, it's obviously a very forgiving recipe, they're incredibly moist so I have every reason to think they'll freeze beautifully, and can be made days ahead. They were so easy, in fact, that if you had the ingredients on hand, you could whip one up while friends were sitting at your breakfast bar talking to you.
I will try making some with liquer again - no reason to think it won't work now that I know about the cake mix mix-up. Also, I'm thinking this might be a good cake to freeze individual slices of, so when unexpected guests arrive, just take out the number of slices you need and let them thaw during dinner. It would be worth a try. Slices, though - not great big chunks - if you want them to thaw in an hour.
Another flavour I thought of to try: Butter Rum. I'm thinking it might work to substitute melted butter for the oil, use dark or amber rum as the 1/2 c liquid, and possibly butterscotch pudding instead of vanilla, or add butterscotch chips.
I will try making some with liquer again - no reason to think it won't work now that I know about the cake mix mix-up. Also, I'm thinking this might be a good cake to freeze individual slices of, so when unexpected guests arrive, just take out the number of slices you need and let them thaw during dinner. It would be worth a try. Slices, though - not great big chunks - if you want them to thaw in an hour.
Another flavour I thought of to try: Butter Rum. I'm thinking it might work to substitute melted butter for the oil, use dark or amber rum as the 1/2 c liquid, and possibly butterscotch pudding instead of vanilla, or add butterscotch chips.
Tonight was fun - a cake flavour to suit everyone and a great experiment. I'm going to have to give these cakes away to have an excuse to make more!
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