Midweek Recipe Roundup: The Cake is a Lie.

Confession: I have two cake recipes that I love that use boxed mixes.  For these, I've tried many from-scratch recipes, and I haven't found any that get as fluffy or light.  I've tried cake flour, all-purpose flour, beating less, making sure all ingredients are at room temp, baking at a lower temperature, baking at a higher temperature, but I keep coming back to these recipes.

Coconut Poke Cake
Other than adding a 1/2 teaspoon coconut extract and 3 whole eggs, I followed the instructions on the box for the cake.  In a previous recipe roundup, I linked to a recipe for boiled white icing.  That goes perfectly with this cake, especially when topped with toasted coconut.

Caramel Cake
This recipe is from Anne Byrn's "The Cake Mix Doctor" cookbook.  I use it most frequently, as you can tell by the state of the cookbook:

The frosting can get difficult to work with; I sometimes keep it over the lowest heat on the stovetop while frosting the cake, taking it off only occasionally.  It also greatly helps to sift the powdered sugar beforehand.  Even though it might seem a pain, it's easy to have pure sugar lumps in the frosting otherwise that make it hard to smooth it out over the cake (although I've made it like that many times before, and people still like it!).












DEEMS THESE RECIPES:
Still easier than pie.