Need cake tips/suggestions - Fast!

[AliciaG]

I'm going to bake a birthday cake for my son to have at a party tomorrow. I was originally just gonna make a store bought strawberry cake with cream cheese icing, but then I remembered the FANTABULOUS cake we had for my daughters birthday at WDW last year. I now want to try and recreate that cake in a no fuss way.

Let me tell you about it...

It was the best cake I've ever had. We ordered it from Beach Club dining. It was a very moist chocolate cake topped with butter cream icing. The layers had a wonderful filling of custard with fresh strawberries. YUMMY! :eyelove:

I'd really like to just doctor up a regular chocolate or devils food cake mix to make it more moist. I'm not sure how to best accomplish that though. I also need tips on how to make a pudding/custard filling that I can add strawberries to, and use to ice the layers.

Suggestions? Tips? Thanks! :grin:

OMG! I'm loving this new chocolate temptation smiley! :WILLpower:

[Collette]

This sounds soooo good!!! If you are willing, please share what you use for the filling and icing.

I'm not "at home in the kitchen" you might say, but I did take a cake decorating class a long time ago. The teacher made wedding cakes and I was very surprised to learn that she used Pillsbury white cake mix (the one with pudding I think). To make her layers even and to create a moister, more firm cake, she cut any old towels (thin terry, etc.) to fit the outside of the round cake pan. Then she got the pieces of towel quite wet but not dripping, folded it over to fit the height of the pan, and safety pinned the ends together (overlap them a bit). Even though I thought for sure I would start the oven on fire, I tried it and it worked. Watched that oven every minute though!! I had a thin towel so I cut it to fold over about three times I think. Haven't tried it with chocolate cake. I know that at one time some kitchen stores carried ready made bands like this with velcro. Been a while since I looked.

Good luck with this very special cake!!

Collette

[Bookwood]

I have one of those bands she's talking about, I'm not sure I really ever liked it all that much- I used to do alot of cake decorating (learned by trial and error and with Wilton kits). Now I play more with cookies and decorate them up pretty. Sorry I can't help you on the moistness issue. What flavor of "custard" filling are you looking for? I might just use Jello cooked pudding if you want the devils food (instant doesn't compare IMHO). I'm not much of a pudding person besides the cooked devils food. I do have a custard recipe I use to make eclairs- it's just a plain vanilla custard (probably one my mom got from a cookbook years ago. I'll try to check back later to see if you want it!

Pam :mickeyWalk: "Bookwood"

[AliciaG]

Thank you, ladies! I'd never heard of the moist towel wrap thingy before. :)

I did some poking around online and found a recipe using some advice from the Cake Mix Doctor. The recipe is for a devil's food cake that is layered with sweet cream and has chocolate butter frosting. I decided to modify it and still use the cake and frosting recipes, but use a "custard"/strawberry filling instead of the sweet cream.

Pam, great minds must think alike, because I settled on using some cooked jello pudding. :lol: I'd love to have your mother's custard recipe for future use though.

The actual cake recipe is supposed to be really moist. I'll let y'all know how the whole thing turns out. You use a devil's food cake mix with pudding in the mix. You also add 1 cup of sour cream, water, oil, eggs, and vanilla.

If it's half as good as the Beach Club cake...I'll share the entire recipe here.

:WILLpower: :WILLpower: :WILLpower:

[pixie]

Yummy!!!! Happy Birthday to your special little guy, Alicia!

:tink: Barbara

[Sheryl]

I'm the shopper of our family, my sister is the baker. My attempt to make Blueberry muffins ruined it for my boys as they turned out green. (I forgot to drain and rinse the blueberries) :shock:

Hope your son has a GREAT Birthday!! :birthday:

:mickeyWalk: Sheryl :minnie: