Cream butter and sugar and mix until well blended. Add eggs one at a time. Add flavoring and beat at high speed for 3 minutes. Add flour.
To prepare as layer cake, pour batter into three (presumably buttered and floured, presumably standard 8 or 9 inch round pans) and bake at 358 degrees (?? 360? or 350?) for 1/2 hour.
To prepare as pound cake, add 1 tablespoon butter flavoring (extract, not oil) and 1 tablespoon lemon extract. (may add a teaspoon more vanilla as well)
Chocolate Icing
Layer Pound
3 oz 2 oz (baking) chocolate 3 c 2 c sugar 3/4 1/2 stick butter (1/4 lb per stick) 1 1/2 1 T vanilla 1 1/8 3/4 cup milk pinch pinch poot?? poox? roox? Rocket? What is that? Salt? Has to be salt!
Cook until mixture forms soft balls, then beat well.
Which, to me, sounds like you add all the ingredients together, cook on low heat to melt them together, then increase the heat and simmer until soft-ball stage, then beat with a whisk or hand blender.
How do you keep the chocolate from breaking when you add the milk?
This is actually a yellow cake with chocolate frosting, and it sounds lovely.
Mom's got an interesting way with the icing. She tests it by taking a drop and placing it into ice water. Don't quite get it but how quickly it hardens and the state it's in determines when the icing is ready for spreading. Well, almost, she doesn't add the vanilla to it until just after.
It is a yellow cake but not as much as it used to be. Used to be wholly yellow, nowadays it's more white.
Not sure on the milk addition. It's pretty much melted at that point so breaking may not be an issue.
I've really gotta keep from going into a trance the next time she does does this. Nose plugs might help.
The frosting seems to be the complicated bit here. Does she melt the chocolate before adding butter and sugar? Or does she melt it and the butter together and then add sugar, then let it melt and caramelize a bit?
You're describing the standard "soft ball" technique for testing a melted sugar/caramel for doneness, and it appears she's adding just enough milk to extend it out once she gets to a soft ball stage..
The order of ingredients and how long and how hot you cook them is probably important here.
Chocolate is melted first, other things are added to it as she stirs. It's hard to say for sure because she loves to experiment. The recipe is a rough guideline, not an exact map.
She knows where she's going but she doesn't always walk the same path.
OK, I found a caramel frosting recipe which looks similar, and may be the basic technique she uses (except she adds chocolate initially):
Caramel Frosting: 2 cups brown sugar, firmly packed 1/2 cup heavy cream 1/2 cup butter 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
Stir the sugar, cream, and butter over low heat until sugar is dissolved. Cook without stirring to a soft ball stage (I use a cup of cold water and put a drop of frosting in the cup, if it becomes a soft ball it's done) or use a candy thermometer, it should read 238° F.
Remove from heat and cool to lukewarm. Add vanilla ex and beat until proper consistency to spread.
That sounds about right...although she doesn't really ever "beat". Eventually she moves the heated pan into a larger one filled with water and ice to cool just before she spreads it.
She judges it ready when it gets so thick she can barely stir it anymore.
Mrs. Clay's Chocolate Cake
2 sticks butter (1/2 lb)
2 cups sugar
6 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 cups flour
Cream butter and sugar and mix until well blended. Add eggs one at a time. Add flavoring and beat at high speed for 3 minutes. Add flour.
To prepare as layer cake, pour batter into three (presumably buttered and floured, presumably standard 8 or 9 inch round pans) and bake at 358 degrees (?? 360? or 350?) for 1/2 hour.
To prepare as pound cake, add 1 tablespoon butter flavoring (extract, not oil) and 1 tablespoon lemon extract. (may add a teaspoon more vanilla as well)
Chocolate Icing
Layer Pound
3 oz 2 oz (baking) chocolate
3 c 2 c sugar
3/4 1/2 stick butter (1/4 lb per stick)
1 1/2 1 T vanilla
1 1/8 3/4 cup milk
pinch pinch poot?? poox? roox? Rocket? What is that? Salt? Has to be salt!
Cook until mixture forms soft balls, then beat well.
Which, to me, sounds like you add all the ingredients together, cook on low heat to melt them together, then increase the heat and simmer until soft-ball stage, then beat with a whisk or hand blender.
How do you keep the chocolate from breaking when you add the milk?
This is actually a yellow cake with chocolate frosting, and it sounds lovely.
Reply
Mom's got an interesting way with the icing. She tests it by taking a drop and placing it into ice water. Don't quite get it but how quickly it hardens and the state it's in determines when the icing is ready for spreading. Well, almost, she doesn't add the vanilla to it until just after.
It is a yellow cake but not as much as it used to be. Used to be wholly yellow, nowadays it's more white.
Not sure on the milk addition. It's pretty much melted at that point so breaking may not be an issue.
I've really gotta keep from going into a trance the next time she does does this. Nose plugs might help.
Reply
Does she melt the chocolate before adding butter and sugar? Or does she melt it and the butter together and then add sugar, then let it melt and caramelize a bit?
You're describing the standard "soft ball" technique for testing a melted sugar/caramel for doneness, and it appears she's adding just enough milk to extend it out once she gets to a soft ball stage..
The order of ingredients and how long and how hot you cook them is probably important here.
Reply
Chocolate is melted first, other things are added to it as she stirs. It's hard to say for sure because she loves to experiment. The recipe is a rough guideline, not an exact map.
She knows where she's going but she doesn't always walk the same path.
Reply
Caramel Frosting:
2 cups brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup butter
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
Stir the sugar, cream, and butter over low heat until sugar is dissolved. Cook without stirring to a soft ball stage (I use a cup of cold water and put a drop of frosting in the cup, if it becomes a soft ball it's done) or use a candy thermometer, it should read 238° F.
Remove from heat and cool to lukewarm. Add vanilla ex and beat until proper consistency to spread.
Reply
That sounds about right...although she doesn't really ever "beat". Eventually she moves the heated pan into a larger one filled with water and ice to cool just before she spreads it.
She judges it ready when it gets so thick she can barely stir it anymore.
Reply
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