Jun 9 2012

The “Real Best” Yellow Cake

Posted on June 9, 2012 by thepoli3

Two peanuts were walking down the street. One was asalted.

….I had to open with a really corny joke, in order to make the following one-liner funnier by comparison: Get ready to find out which yellow cake “took the cake”!

HA! I’ve been waiting to say that all week.

The contenders:

Joy of Baking’s “Yellow Butter Cake”

Smitten Kitchen’s “Best Birthday Cake”

Allrecipes: “David’s Yellow Cake”

The nitty-gritty:

Each cake was scored on a scale of 1-10 (where 1= that’s food? and 10= the best yellow cake that has ever entered my mouth) for overall score, the boyfriend/husband test, and the leftover test. We also provide other comments.

Joy of Baking’s “Yellow Butter Cake“

Overall score (cake): 1

Overall score (frosting): 4

The boyfriend/husband test (cake): 1

The boyfriend/husband test (frosting): 1

The leftover test (cake): 1

The leftover test (frosting): 3

Comments on the cake: I kid you not… cake is my FAVORITE food. In fact, yellow butter cake with chocolate frosting is literally my favorite. You could not imagine how excited I was to have an excuse to make an entire cake of my favorite flavor… even while on a diet. I figured if I had 1 piece a day I could still semi diet the rest of the day. I had it all planned out. Then all my brilliant plans went to you-know-what. Why? THE CAKE SUCKED. Not even “eh.. it’s okay…” sucked. More like, “did I really just waste 3 hours on a Friday night making this disaster?” sucked. I am not even a little bit exaggerating when I say this was the absolute worst cake I have ever had. Even worse than those cakes you have at weddings when people pick horrible flavors because they think it’s fancy. I have no clue how anyone could have said this was the best cake ever… my only conclusion is because maybe its an old recipe… and people didn’t have good cake back then. Who knows? This cake was WAY too sweet- not buttery at all. It reminded me more of white cake than yellow cake… but I could have probably had a better white cake any day then this concoction. Note to self: if you are ever on a diet again and crave cake… make this exact recipe for guaranteed weight loss results.

Comments on the frosting: The frosting was much better than the cake itself… but that is only in comparison to the cake. I have had way better frostings from the jar in the baking aisle. Sad face.

Smitten Kitchen’s “Best Birthday Cake”

Overall score (cake): 8.5

Overall score (frosting): 7

The boyfriend/husband test (cake): 6

The boyfriend/husband test (frosting): 3

The leftover test (cake): 7

The leftover test (frosting): 7

Comments on the cake: Smitten Kitchen was on a mission to create a delicious homemade yellow cake, and I think she did it. This was the best yellow cake I’ve ever made from scratch (granted, I haven’t made that many). Mike, however, thought the cake was just an average yellow cake– not bad, but not the most amazing yellow cake ever. Sighhh. Boys just don’t understand how hard it is to make a good yellow cake that doesn’t involve a box mix! On that note, while this cake was really good, it wasn’t over-the-moon-amazing.

I was nervous about using buttermilk because I’ve used it in another famous yellow cake recipe I’ve made before, and the cake ended up tasting like a mix between cornbread and buttermilk biscuits… Both delicious food items, but not what you want to taste when you bite into a chocolate-frosted slice of cake! Luckily, that did not happen with this cake!

The cake didn’t hold up amazing in the fridge, hence the lower leftover score. Even after just one day it was slightly hard. Have you ever had a homemade cupcake that was like, 5 days old? It was similar to that texture, but after only one day. But somehow, still yummy!

Comments on the frosting: I used the chocolate sour cream frosting that Smitten Kitten suggests. I thought it was fine; a pretty average chocolate frosting. However, Mike was NOT a fan. He did not like the sour-creaminess at. all. He did say it wasn’t as bad the next day, but he still wasn’t a fan. Next time I will look for a really fudgy chocolate frosting recipe instead.(Side note: Has anyone ever tried Publix Bakery’s chocolate fudge frosting?! Seriously so so delicious, and if I ever find a copycat recipe of it my life may be complete!)

Allrecipes: “David’s Yellow Cake“

Overall score: 10

The boyfriend/husband test: 8.5

The leftover test: 9

Comments: Some of the reviews on Allrecipes said that this cake was dry, but it wasn’t! I thought it was really moist (side note: I hate that word!). This really was the best yellow cake I’ve ever had! I would definitely make this again! Since the recipe didn’t provide a frosting recipe, I just used a whipped chocolate frosting.

The winner:

Allrecipe’s David’s Yellow Cake!

Special Diets:

While we can’t guarantee the results, here are some ideas you can use to customize the winning yellow cake to your dietary needs:

Gluten-free: Use a gluten-free flour (and don’t forget to check that all your other ingredients are, in fact, gluten free!)
Vegan: Use a vegan butter substitute, and a vegan egg substitute. Double check that the rest of your ingredients are, in fact, vegan! I’m not sure how this would turn out, since eggs seem to be integral to yellow cake, but if you try it, or have another suggestion, leave a comment and let us know!
Lower fat: Try substituting some of the butter (about half) with sugar free applesauce. Use skim milk.
Lower sugar/calories: Substitute some or all of the sugar for Splenda® (see conversion info here), Stevia (see conversion info here), or xylitol (measures 1:1 for sugar). Some people do not like how these taste, though, so proceed with caution!

May 25 2012

The “Real Best” Brownies

Posted on May 25, 2012 by thepoli3

The most delicious way to eat chocolate is by baking BROWNIES.

Or maybe it’s chocolate cake, or chocolate chip cookies, or chocolate pie, or a chocolate bar, or chocolate milk. I just can’t choose.

I guess this means we must keep testing chocolate recipes. It’s really unfortunate, I know.

The contenders:

Allrecipes: “Best Brownies”

Brown Eyed Baker’s Brownies, adapted from America’s Test Kitchen, and an Oprah favorite.

Ina Garten’s Outrageous Brownies

The nitty-gritty:

Each brownie was scored on a scale of 1-10 (where 1= that’s food? and 10= the best brownie that has ever entered my mouth) for overall score, the boyfriend/husband test, and the leftover test. We also provide other comments.

Allrecipes “Best Brownies”

Overall score: 9

The boyfriend/husband test: 7

The leftover test: 7

Comments: These were really good! Especially right out of the oven! The only problem was it was hard to frost them because the frosting was really thick. It took me about 5-7 minutes of mixing the frosting to get it to look like frosting. And you really need to frost the brownies while they’re a little bit warm, as the directions say, otherwise it is really hard to get the frosting on them. The only thing I would do differently next time would be to omit the baking powder in the brownies (because it makes them cakey, and I am more of a fudgy brownie fan!)

Brown Eyed Baker Brownies

Overall score: 8

The boyfriend/husband test: 8.5

The leftover test: 8

Comments: These were pretty darn good. Especially the batter! They were yummy, and had amazing texture (fudgy, but not too fudgy). However, the flavor does not beat my “go to” brownie recipe and for that, they do not receive a 10.

Ina Garten’s Outrageous Brownies

Overall score: 9.5

The boyfriend/husband test: 9

The leftover test: 9

Comments: I could have killed my sister when I realized these brownies had a POUND (yes, an entire BOX) of butter in them! In case you weren’t aware, my sister Megan picks the recipes and I swear she gives me the craziest sounding ones on purpose. Anyway, the true Paula Deen fan I am, I thought “well, butter usually makes things taste pretty darn good”, so I trudged through this extensive recipe and prayed they were worth all the ~~money~~ effort I put into them. Did I mention the almost 2 pounds of chocolate chips that go into this? Luckily for me, these were AH-MAZ-ING! I cannot stop eating them, even the leftovers are to die for. Josh (husband) even loved them- and he is not a sweet eater. He did jokingly ask me “are you sure you made enough?” – the tupperware I am keeping them in literally weighs at least 3 pounds… and theres only 2 of us here to enjoy them. Anyway, these are not my absolute favorite brownies, only because they don’t have frosting, but they are a VERY CLOSE second. I definitely recommend making these, but perhaps unlike me, maybe not the week before you go on vacation (not diet friendly!). Thanks Ina!

The winner:

It was a close race this time, but congrats to…

Ina Garten’s Outrageous Brownies!

Special Diets:

While we can’t guarantee the results, here are some ideas you can use to customize the winning brownies to your dietary needs:

Gluten free: Use a gluten free flour (and don’t forget to check that all your other ingredients are, in fact, gluten free!)
Vegan: Use a vegan butter substitute, a vegan egg substitute, vegan chocolate chips, and vegan unsweetened chocolate. Double check that the rest of your ingredients are, in fact, vegan!
Lower fat: Substitute 1/3 of the butter with no-sugar-added applesauce.
Lower sugar/calories: Substitute some or all of the sugar for Splenda® (see conversion info here), Stevia (see conversion info here), or xylitol (measures 1:1 for sugar). Some people do not like how these taste, though, so proceed with caution! Also consider using sugar free chocolate chips.

The Big Brownie Debates: Cakey brownies or fudgy brownies? Nuts or no nuts? Is Jen being dramatic? Let us know in the comments!

May 11 2012

The dough test: Should you really refrigerate cookie dough first?

Posted on May 11, 2012 by thepoli3

I know I’m not the only person who always disregards that second to last step in most cookie recipes.

You know… the “refrigerate for 24 hours” step. Who has the self-control, and the foresight to plan that far ahead!? That step can’t possibly be necessary.

So… in true “Real Best” fashion, I had to test it.

Clockwise from top: immediate, 24 hr, 48 hr, 72 hr, 96 hr.

Immediately (in picture, top and center): The cookies were alright. At this point, I had nothing to compare them to. However, this batch was noticeably flatter than the other 4 cookies.

24 hours in the fridge: Much to my dismay, the batch that sat for 24 hours tasted noticeably better than the immediate batch. My boyfriend agreed. In fact, he didn’t even like the immediate batch, and figured he just didn’t like this particular cookie recipe. With this batch, he happily ate two in a row.

SIGH. It’s looking like all those recipes are right.

48 hours in the fridge: There didn’t seem to be much of a difference between 24 and 48 hours. In fact, I think I liked the 24 hour cookies *slightly* better.

72 hours in the fridge: This is when the cookies got really good. They even look darker. They had a noticeably more complex and delicious flavor.

96 hours in the fridge: These were the BEST out of the five. Not a huge improvement over 72 hours, but they were slightly better.

Conclusion:

Refrigerate for at least a day. 3 or 4 days is even better (and if you have the patience for that, I seriously commend you!)

Let us know.. are any of you strong-willed, 24-hour-cookie-dough-refrigerators out there? How do you resist the temptation to immediately shove a batch of cookie dough into the oven? Please share your secrets, because I’m going to need serious help implementing this.

-M