Secrets to making cakes light and moist?

[Darth_Kitten]

Trying to perfect a family recipe.

help me, please!

1/2 cup cocoa
3 eggs
2 cups brown sugar
2 cups (1 3/4? cups) sifted flour
1 tsp baking soda diluted in cold water

1/4 lb butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup milk

take cocoa, 1 egg, 1/2 cup milk, 1 cup b.sugar and cook until thick.
take off sotve, add butter immediately and remaining brown sugar, milk, and all flour and yolk of 2 eggs. Dissolve baking soda and add to mixture. Beat egg whites and stir in gently.
Bake in medium oven (350) for 25 to 30 minutes.

Should I use less flour? Make sure the eggs are really beaten? I don't know!

This is my Grandma's recipe and it always turned out perfect. Any suggestions? :)

[grasswire]

1. I've never seen a recipe like that.

Brown sugar and cocoa? Did she create this? Sounds very interesting.

What kind of pan do you bake this in?

[Arkansas Granny]

2. Maybe you should let the cooked mixture cool after adding the butter, sugar

and milk and then add the flour and eggs.

[Darth_Kitten]

11. Thanks!

I'm taking in all of these suggestions. :)

[housewolf]

3. First of all, what kind of pan did you use?

And was it the same type that your grandma used?

Also, can you describe the results you got - did the cake not rise or if it did rise, how much did it rise? Was it too dense and heavy? Too dry? Some combination? How was the taste?

If you can answer those for me, I'll have some ideas for you.

[housewolf]

4. Also, what kind of milk did you use?

also what kind of flour - a/p or cake flour?

[Darth_Kitten]

9. cake flour and regular milk.

:)

[Darth_Kitten]

7. It was a bit dense and heavy.

taste wise, it was delicious.

She made this cake for me when I was little, it was the best chocolate cake I've ever had. And this is the recipe my aunt gave me, and she's a great baker. :)

[Darth_Kitten]

10. I didn't have a cake pan so I just bought one of those disposable ones.

:)

[Warpy]

5. To make it lighter, separate all 3 eggs and beat the whites together

You can try reducing the flour by 1/8 cup (2 tablespoons) and see if that makes any sort of difference. Also try substituting 1/4 cup of cornstarch per 3/4 cup of flour for each cup of flour, simulating cake flour. Also try sifting the flour before you measure it instead of after. I suspect that's the change you need to make first because the baking soda isn't sifted in with the flour.

This is a recipe you're just going to have to fiddle with until you find out just what your grandmother did that you're not doing yet.

[Darth_Kitten]

12. Some great suggestions, thanks.

:D

[trud]

6. egg whites

Are you beating the egg whites until they form a meringue and then carefully folding them into the mixture? as opposed to just beating them a bit.

[Darth_Kitten]

8. i'll try that next time....

maybe I didn't beat them enough. :(

[Sentath]

13. Wild! ( :

Is that somewhere between a Chiffon cake made with butter and a pate a choux with foamed egg whites?

Have you considered subbing in a little vegetable oil for some of the butter? Making it even more a chiffon?

Where it says 'and cook until thick', what is the procedure exactly? Is that a stirred custard?

Oh, How much water on the 1tsp baking soda? It says diluted, does that mean dissolved?

[Darth_Kitten]

14. When my grandma made it, it was delicious.

That was the way my Grandma made it, my aunt gave me the recipe as related to her by Grandma. :)

You must be a baker, I don't even know what a pate a choux is :evilgrin:

And yes, the baking soda is dissolved in a little water.

[mntleo2]

15. Soda Mixture

...I have some old recipes that want you to mix soda w/ water (often HOT water). I always wondered why you did that ~ wouldn't it just deactivate the "fizz" properties?

I have an old Civil War recipe for gingerbread handed down for generations that calls for dissolving the soda in hot water. The recipe is actually older than that, but they told me during the Civil War sugar was scarce and expensive and so they made it as a substitute for cake.

But the last time I made it, (years ago) it came out flat as a pancake! It didn't used to do that. BTW this recipe has no sugar in it ~ just molasses and my mother, my grandmother, and I myself, we all made it and it came out fine before. I did not do anything different than usual. After that I stopped making it because molasses in those days was considered a "cheap and plentiful" substitute for sugar but nowadays is EXPENSIVE and I am not wanting to waste it again like that.

I wondered if the gingerbread came out flat because somehow modern day soda was "different" in some way and dissolving the soda in hot water was taking away the rising quality somehow.

Inquiring minds want to know because I MISS that gingerbread, it was SO delicious warm with some whippy cream on it! And the next day when it was a little dryer, it was a delicious and nutritious breakfast.

They used to make it because they said it was rich in iron ~ which was WHY the women in the family made it, especially after a debilitating sickness like measles when you got "anemic" they said, "to make your blood red".

It certainly tasted better than the "Xylomixer" medicine they would make us take when we were anemic after being sick ~ yeeeeeech! I survived the hard measles, a bad case of chicken pox, whooping cough and then had to survive that black, thick, bad tasting liquid Xylomixer every time, lol.

Cat in Seattle