Q: My boyfriend's birthday is coming up, and I want to make it extra special. I asked him what kind of cake he would like, and he said "a moist cake, with strawberry and banana slices in the cream filling." Could you find me a good recipe, but that isn't too complex for a novice like me?
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Editor: I think this is totally doable! All you need to do is find a good vanilla cake recipe (I'm assuming vanilla?), and then just add slices of banana and strawberries between the layers. Here are a few recipes we really like:
Readers, what birthday cake recipes do you recommend?
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I just made a dark chocolate cake with banana and strawberry between layers with a 7 minute frosting.. Strawberries on top to finish was AMAZING! I used the Hershey Dark Chocolate Recipe
Cake: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Dark-Chocolate-Cake-I/
Frosting: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/7-minute-frosting-recipe/index.html
Really load up the banana and strawberries.. I think next time I will use Strawberry preserves (I usually have several jars of homemade around) and more bananas
I know this isn't a cake, but a trifle would be amazing with bananas and strawberries. I think they are really pretty, and actually prefer them to cake.
Hershey's chocolate cake recipe on the back of the unsweetened cocoa container. Perfect moist and delicious cake every time and I don't have to worry about properly creaming butter. 5 minutes to mix and put into the oven.
America's Test Kitchen's Foolproof Chocolate Frosting is the most delicious that I've ever made. For non-choc frosting, an Italian meringue buttercream is my go-to (though not necessarily 'easy').
1-2-3-4 cakes are the easiest (and, in my opinion, tastiest) cakes around. here's a recipe: http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/22/on-not-eating-the-batter/
I don't know what it is but whenever I make a cake mix from scratch they always turn out very dense and I don't really like that when I'm used to boxed cake mixes. Recently I've been using a doctored-up boxed cake mix and it is always extremely moist and delicious. Perfect for a novice! This blog is especially great.
http://www.yourcupofcake.com/2011/11/raspberry-neapolitan-cupcakes.html
If you're really an amateur, I recommend doctoring a box cake. Choose a mix described as "moist" and add one small box of Jello cheesecake flavored pudding mix. Make the frosting from scratch (i love swiss or french buttercream) and put the strawberries and bananas on top of layer 1 then add the frosting filling. This will allow the berries to seep into the cake a bit for extra moisture.
I was also going to suggest a Hershey's chocolate cake, as I think it's more foolproof than white if you're wnating a moist cake.
https://www.hersheys.com/recipes/recipe-details.aspx?utm_source=redirect&utm_medium=redirect&utm_campaign=Redirect-recipes%20(asp)&id=4276&top10=13
My daughter made a yellow cake recipe from Martha Stewart recently and it turned out really well:
http://www.marthastewart.com/342396/yellow-butter-cake
My daughter's birthday is in August so every year she gets a chocolate zucchini bundt cake. Moist, seasonal and it uses up 3 cups of zucchini!
I've found that there are two secrets to a moist layer cake, boxed or otherwise. The first is to not over-bake the cake. Most boxes call for ~22 minutes at 325-350 for a 9" round. I start checking and usually remove the layers at 18 minutes.
The second trick is to get a better ratio of cake to frosting. Get a loooong serrated knife or a One Wire Layered Cake Cutter
and split each layer. Icing or filling between four layers make a cake seem much more moist than just two layers.