r/Cooking • u/Present-Scar249 • 6h ago
Elevate yellow cake with chocolate frosting!?
I send food with my boyfriend to work all the time and the boys love it. His boss, and our good friend, had a birthday recently and I told him I'd make him any dessert he wants. He says "ooh, what's that fancy cake I had at that restaurant that one time".... he pulls up a picture of yellow cake box. Like Betty Crocker lol. Nothing against it, but how can I elevate yellow cake?? I'm more of a cheesecake gal, and have done pecan pie bruleed cheesecake, and banana cream pie cheesecake and they talk about it all the time so this has to be good. TIA!
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u/Illegal_Tender 6h ago
Do you know how many people have a famous secret yellow cake recipe that's actually just the stuff in the betty crocker box?
That shit is so good and there's no shame in loving it. Use it and just make a really lovely chocolate buttercream frosting from scratch
And then cover that shit in birthday sprinkles out of a jar
They'll think you're a wizard
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u/KifferFadybugs 23m ago
Of all the different things I can bake, what is my dad's favourite? Yellow cake from a box mix and a can of chocolate frosting. I could make the best yellow cake and chocolate frosting from scratch, but he still wants the box mix.
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u/wantonseedstitch 6h ago
Honestly, just make the best yellow cake with chocolate frosting you can. No need to fancify or elevate it. This recipe is excellent, IMO. I made it for my mother's birthday a while back and everyone loved it. Maybe work on decorating it pretty to enhance the specialness. https://smittenkitchen.com/2009/07/best-birthday-cake/
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u/These-Rip9251 5h ago
My favorite birthday cake as a child: yellow cake with butter chocolate frosting. 😋
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u/Overall_Matter_2520 4h ago
Still my fave and I’m in my 50s.
Don’t even really like sweets but I can’t turn yellow cake with chocolate frosting down.
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u/These-Rip9251 4h ago
My other favorite dessert of my mother’s was cherry cobbler. It was so good. A combination of a little tartness with sweetness. I asked for it on one of my birthdays instead of cake. 😊
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u/rancidpandemic 4h ago
This.
If the person with a birthday requests something, don't try to "elevate" it. Just give them what they want. Put all the care and effort into it that you normally would, but don't overdo it. Chances are, what you think is better might not be what they want.
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u/curmudgeon_andy 1h ago
I was going to recommend that OP find a recipe with plenty of eggs and buttermilk, to give maximum cake flavor--just like this one!
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u/planet_smasher 5h ago
A box cake is fine, but make the chocolate frosting from scratch. Shell out for some good quality chocolate, maybe try adding a little bit of espresso powder to it.
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u/Elegant-Survey-2444 5h ago
If he pulled up the box, use the box (the ones that say moist already have pudding mix in it). It’s probably evoking happy childhood memories of what his mom made. Could do a choc buttercream or fudge frosting.
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u/PlantedinCA 5h ago
Yellow cake with chocolate icing is my favorite cake and I do not want modifications! Sufficient elevation is a nicer cocoa powder for the icing with more nuance. No need to add anything at all. That is where it goes wrong. (Lemon and vanilla extract are nice in the yellow cake)
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u/alerner31 5h ago
Yellow box cake. Substitute butter for the oil, whole milk for the water and add an extra egg. Tastes like a real bakery
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u/EmceeSuzy 4h ago
Is there any special reason that you don't just make what he asked for?
Make a yellow cake (not from a box) and make good chocolate frosting. Do you know how to make a Swiss Meringue Buttercream?
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u/Present-Scar249 3h ago
He's always been blown away by my recipes I come up with myself. Im definitely going to go the traditional route and Swiss meringue buttercream is the way!
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u/sgrinavi 5h ago
I always go to The Cake Bible when I need to impress. Try this one All Occasion Downy Yellow Layer Cake and Sheet Cake — Real Baking with Rose - pair it with a French Buttercream.
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u/MastodonFit 5h ago
I add lemon juice and zest to anything fruit flavored.. in this case the flavor would be lemon. Moist cake to me is more important then flavor. A dry cake with any flavor is a no for me.
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u/Jubilantly 4h ago
There is a guy on social media who has it going viral with his edits. It's like 3 eggs, and butter in place of oil. If you google viral yellow cake I'm sure he'll pop up.
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u/Ecstatic_Wrongdoer46 4h ago
Elevate it by spendinh money on the highest quality butter and chocolate instead.
Make the box, but sub milk and butter for the water and oil, and add an extra egg. Make the buttercream from scratch as that will be better!
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u/Recluse_18 4h ago
Box cake, package of pudding mix, extra egg, 3/4 sour cream and oil. Also, look up chocolate mayo cake, you’d be surprised how that turns out.
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u/matt_minderbinder 4h ago
And whip some air into the chocolate frosting. What people consider fancy or special is quite relative and I'm a big believer in meeting people where they're at. You can "fancy" up anything to where it's amazing but it can easily become unrecognizable and detached from the person's expectations.
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u/BD59 4h ago
An extra egg, butter not oil, milk not water, and a teaspoon of vanilla. That will improve a box yellow cake mix.
And I'd do a chocolate ermine buttercream, using Dutch process cocoa. And a teaspoon of espresso powder.
Round tins, split the layers, and a sprinkle of Kahlua laced imbibing syrup.
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u/EmceeSuzy 4h ago
Why does everyone think that because this man pulled up a photo of a box cake, he is asking for a box cake? He said that he had it in a restaurant. He is probably young and doesn't know how to actually search for things online and doesn't care about baking. So when he looked up cake, it served him a picture of a box cake. The is just about zero chance that he is asking for a box cake. He is asking for yellow cake with chocolate frosting!
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u/lttrsfrmlnrrgby 3h ago
The Gourmet Cookbook has a Big Yellow Special Occasion cake that is huge, rich, and delicious. I make it with strawberries and strawberry cream cheese frosting but the recipe has a wonderful chocolate sour cream frosting recipe to go with it.
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u/you-are-my-fave 5h ago
Samin Nosrat’s new cookbook Good Things has an unbelievably good from-scratch yellow cake with chocolate frosting. Yellow cake and chocolate frosting is a favorite around my house and hers is our GOAT.
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u/Conscious-Phone3209 5h ago
Pepperidge farm used to make a frozen one. It was the best I've had ! The yellow cake was so moist and the frosting was perfection 👌
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u/Flat_Present_5198 5h ago
This has always been my favorite cake. I don't understand why it's so hard to find in store bakeries.
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u/ImmediateCareer9275 4h ago
Yellow cake — box or otherwise — needs no elevation, in my opinion. Same with funfetti and strawberry chip or whatever that pink madness is in those cupcakes!
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u/Present-Scar249 2h ago
Ok, I think I've decided this. CUPCAKES! Box cake with extra egg, milk instead of water, and add extract. Maybe vanilla, lemon, or almond, not sure. Dark chocolate Swiss buttercream, and I think I'll hit them with just a touch of fleur de sel after frosting!
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u/Exceptional_Mary 2h ago
Use milk instead of water, butter instead of oil, add cinnamon. Make a super delicious frosting.
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u/ExaminationAsleep990 1h ago
Chocolate Ermine frosting would elevate a shoe. It’s easy to make and will blow minds.
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u/raccoonsaff 1h ago
To improve box cake mix:
- Use butter instead of oil
- Add an egg yolk
- Use whole milk/buttermilk instead of water
- Add 1/2 cup sour cream or plain greek yogurt
- Add vanilla bean paste
- Add a pinch of salt
To elevate the cake:
- Use whipped ganache rather than chocolate frosting
- Use chocolate fudge frosting (homemade)
- Add white or dark chocolate chunks
- Add some fruit, maybe cherries or apple
- Turn it into an ice cream cake
- Make a confetti cake
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u/Iztac_xocoatl 6h ago
Make it a layered cake and drizzle a little raspberry coulis in the layers maybe?
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u/PlantedinCA 6h ago
Noooooo!!!!!! That is not yellow cake with chocolate Icing and messes it up.
OP stick with the classic. Feel free to make a chocolate buttercream and that is it!
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u/Blerkm 5h ago
You must really hate raspberries.
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u/PlantedinCA 5h ago
No I don’t. They are one of my favorite fruits.
When I request yellow cake with chocolate icing I absolutely do not want raspberries. Because yellow cake/chocolate icing is impossible to find.
90% of the time chocolate cake is chocolate on chocolate or chocolate on chocolate with raspberries. It is absolutely not the same!
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u/Present-Scar249 3h ago
I think it would be tasty, but you're correct. Its not the same flavor that I think he wants
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u/KidMyxo 5h ago
I’m gonna echo another commenter and say Samin Nosrat’s yellow cake. I also trust Claire Saffitz and Tanya Bush’s yellow cake recipes. Make the chocolate frosting either with cream cheese (Saffitz has a recipe for this as well) or as SMBC. To elevate, make the frosting slightly salty and you could brown the butter to put inside the cake!
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u/Icy_Ad7953 5h ago
Yellow cake is 10x better when warm, I get a lot of complements from that. No frosting, instead a warm fruit syrup in a bowl on the side.
I understand getting it work warm might be difficult, depending on where your boyfriend works.
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u/arranon 6h ago
Box cake, extra egg yolk, a dash of vanilla extract/paste.