Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Cake - great! Topping - too sugary


Lazy Daisy Cake
Taste of Home The Complete Guide To Country Cooking Copyright 1998

2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1/2 cup milk

Frosting:
1 cup shredded coconut
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 tablespoons half-and-half cream

In a mixing bowl, beat eggs, sugar and vanilla on high until thick and lemon-colored, about 4 minutes. Combine flour, baking powder and salt; add to egg mixture. Beat on low just until combined. Heat milk and butter in small saucepan until butter is melted. Add to batter; beat thoroughly (batter will be thin). Pour into a greased 9-inch square baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool slightly. Combine frosting ingredients; spread over warm cake. Broil about 4 in. from heat for 3-4 minutes or until the top is lightly browned. (Keep an eye on it!) Cool in pan on a wire rack.

Yield: 9 servings
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I had planned on making an Easy Cream Puff Cake for my parent's Labor Day cookout but that would have meant a trip to the grocery store. I had everything I needed to make this Lazy Daisy Cake, including the coconut that had an expiration date of late September so I was happy to find a use for it.

This was my first attempt at a broiled frosting. I don't think anything went wrong but I didn't really care for the topping. The flavor was good, it was just too much brown sugar - it was like putting a spoonful of sugar in your mouth and chewing on it. I think I would try this with less brown sugar if I ever felt inclined to make it again. The cake underneath the topping was fantastic however. The recipe lead-in emphasized the light and airy texture of this cake and so it was.

The base cake would be great to make a Tandy Takes knock-off (or Kandy Kakes for the younger generation). Tandy Takes (now known as Kandy Kakes), are a product from Tastykakes Bakery that I grew up eating. They're little round pieces of cake with peanut butter spread over top and enrobed in chocolate. Knock-off recipes typically just make bars of cake topped with peanut butter and then chocolate. If we weren't a peanut-free household, I would use this cake recipe for Tandy Takes.

This is from one of my newest cookbooks. I can't believe Taste of Home had cookbooks out there and I didn't know about them before now. I love Taste of Home magazine. I love that the recipes are from real people and not from a test kitchen (or sometimes, in some magazines, I think the recipes strictly came out of someone's imagination and have never actually been prepared). I love the pictures. But I resist buying it because it's too hard to find recipes in magazines, once it's filed onto my bookshelf. It's much easier to pull out a book that's been organized well. I should have realized they would have cookbooks out there, I just never looked for them. All of the cooking magazines seem to put out annuals and other cookbooks. I haven't purchased any of the Taste of Home annuals yet but I'm thinking about it.

Question of the Day: When did you last eat cake? What kind of cake was it?

8 comments:

Unknown said...

This cake looks so moist...it looks like a good "breakfast" cake. I've never heard of Tandy Takes (?) but it sounds delicious! I think you're right about the topping...take some of the sugar out and it would be good.

BTW, my lack of black pepper was of GROUND black pepper. We had peppercorns, but I didn't want to grind 1 teaspoon, so I just used cayenne...more heat anyway!

DancesInGarden said...

I don't like cake. At all. I try not to eat it, and it is harder to avoid eating desserts than a person might think. People press them on you like dealers, and it only gets worse when they find out you aren't a fan of sweets. I have people coming out of the woodwork with pastries, pies, tortes - "Just taste it, you will love it!". Ick. LOL!

But when my daughter and husband baked me a birthday cake last January, we all know I had to eat a piece. And it was very good. If you like cake - tee hee! And I will probably eat a piece of the cake they make me next year ;)

Randi said...

One of the "country editor's" from TOH, lives in my small town( Exeter, Ontario). I know her!! I don't buy the magazine, yet I have some issues, I swiped from the hospital waiting room. There are a few things that look really good I want to make for potlucks.

Nic at Bakingsheet.blogspot.com made a tastycake a few months ago. Thats on my list because Robin loves PB.

Anonymous said...

I had cake this past weekend, but I'm embarrassed to admit that it was a cake mix and can of frosting! I wanted to get it out of the pantry and my daughter and granddaughters were here for the weekend so it was an ideal time. Carrot cake and cream cheese frosting. The girls didn't want to wait until it cooled to frost it, so we ended up standing at the counter cutting a piece at a time and scooping the frosting out of the can to smear on. They loved it, and I LOVE any cake and enjoy making homemade ones.

Jan
Jan

Heather said...

The last cake I ate was german chocolate. I bought it from the Farmers Market from my favorite stand "the pie guy". LOVED IT.

Annie said...

The last cake I ate was Pineapple Upside Down Cake that my Mom made.
Btw, I tagged you for the 5 things you should eat before you die. I hope you have the time because it was kind of fun to do. :)

Anonymous said...

This cake is awesome with thickened applesauce on top instead of the coconut. MMMM. Becomes more dense, but very moist & yummy. The last cake I ate was scrumptious Turtle Cheesecake.

Anonymous said...

Oooh fun! The last cake I ate was the Sour Cream Coffee Cake with Brown Sugar-Pecan Streusel from Cook's Illustrated Magazine, November/December 2002 (I subscribe to www.cooksillustrated.com). It was seriously the best coffee cake I've ever eaten. There is probably a limit to how good coffee cake can be, so let me lower your expectations a bit, but it was a very very good cake :)

Today I've just made the Mint Chip Icebox Cake from The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook - it has to set up overnight - and we love that recipe (this is the fourth time I've made it). Love the original and mocha versions too.

And I want to try a new recipe for our lunch and dinner dessert today - the Light Chocolate Bundt Cake from the same cookbook. I doubt it can be as good as the Rich Chocolate Bundt Cake from Cooking for Two 2009, which was REALLY good both times I made it, but I want to try all of my recipes in my cookbooks, so I'm giving the light version a try today :)

Yep, lots of cake on the menu around here this week :)