Frosting IN the Cake?

[apronless]

A coworker pointed out this recipe in our local newspaper to me.

Boxed cakes have not made it into my kitchen in about ten years, but is anyone else familiar with the technique of mixing in a can of (or homemade) frosting into cake batter? It calls for oil in addition to the frosting so it seems to me like this would be a pretty oily cake. I don't think it's a typo because the finished cake isn't frosted, but I might end up sending an email to the section editor if no one else can fill me in on this. My curiousity has been piqued.

edited for spelling

Edited August 13, 2008 by apronless (log)

[Lisa Shock]

This was the trick developed by 1966 Pillsbury Bake-Off winner Ella Rita Helfrich when she developed the Tunnel of Fudge Cake. Her original recipe used a boxed icing mix in with the other ingredients. Pillsbury no longer makes the icing mix, so most of the recipes for this cake that you see online are modified to replicate the icing mix.

[Kim Shook]

I think that this is one of those community cookbook type recipes that come back around again and again. The tunnel cake recipe had the frosting intact through the middle of the cake. These recipes have the frosting mixed into the batter. My mom was introduced to it by her new neighbor when she moved to NC. I've tasted a couple of them and I actually liked them very much. Very moist. But then I don't mind a good, doctored up cake mix. So YMMV !

[apronless]

This was the trick developed by 1966 Pillsbury Bake-Off winner Ella Rita Helfrich when she developed the Tunnel of Fudge Cake.

←

That's what my first thought was, but I was under the impression that the Tunnel of Fudge cake was pretty gooey inside. Shows you how much experience I have with the Tunnel of Fudge cake.

[teagal]

Many years ago I would make a yellow cake mix with a can of coconut pecan frosting and it was really good--don't know how I would like it now, don't really eat a lot of boxed cake mixes. It wasn't real oily either, just super moist.

[Lindacakes]

One of my favorite cake recipes comes from the back of the Domino confectioner's sugar box. It's called Cafe Expresso Cake.

You make the frosting first and put one cup of the frosting into the cake batter.

This is all made by hand.

It's one of those 8 x 8 cakes that's so dang handy to have, and it's a good one.

[Lisa Shock]

This was the trick developed by 1966 Pillsbury Bake-Off winner Ella Rita Helfrich when she developed the Tunnel of Fudge Cake.

←

That's what my first thought was, but I was under the impression that the Tunnel of Fudge cake was pretty gooey inside. Shows you how much experience I have with the Tunnel of Fudge cake.

←

TOF cake is goey inside, but it could be tweaked to not be that way very easily.

All of this really just relates to the chemistry of cake making, in particular the ratios of sugar to flour and fats. (plus whatever starches and binders are in the canned icing products) And, I think, the overall quantities are more important to the final cake than what got mixed up first and then added to what. -Thus the modern TOF cake recipe with a seemingly normal mixing procedure, but an extraordinary amount of sugar and fat.

I really don't think there's any magic in making the icing first -if you're baking from scratch. The adding commercial icing to the boxed cake mix started with a ploy to use more product for a contest and then the idea spread after Ms. Helfrich won the Bake-Off. I remember reading about her and her idea in several magazines at the time of her win.

I also wouldn't doubt that makers of the canned icing probably ran tests on it as an additive for their boxed mixes, in order to sell more product. What could be better? People would start using a can of icing in the cake and a second one on top of the cake, thus doubling sales!