Monthly Cooking Thread - June 2021

[Jamestown1630]

This month: Cakes!

If you would like to be on or off of this monthly cooking thread ping-list, please send a private message.

-JT

[Pollard]

This month: Cakes!

and I was going to post about the brisket I smoked on Memorial Day.

[NEMDF]

I almost always use cake mixes, and have found that Duncan Hines mixes are a notch above the others available. I also always use 3 eggs, but will need to remember and try your suggestions of milk and melted butter.

[Jamestown1630]

There are no rules regarding a monthly ‘theme’ here. Post whatever you like to cook and eat and want to share.

[Jamestown1630]

My grandmother always preferred Duncan Hines.

As someone born in 1890 who had to learn everything from the VERY old-fashioned way, she really became enthusiastic about new ‘convenience’ foods as they came along.

[waterhill]

On the first: Yes, it works awesome with the extra egg and milk and butter (real unsalted butter). I am the executive chef in this household (and dishwasher, but I wash as I go instead of letting things pile up unlike someone I know).

On the second: That reads easy-peasy and yummy!

Thanks

[waterhill]

Do it anyway, I am interested!

I like to rub the usual salt/pepper on my brisket + dump a jar of pickled jalapenos (minus the juice, save that for later) on top. I do a 12 hour session on the usual on oak, always get a nice smoke ring. I am getting older now, and I am looking into auto-pellet or electric smokers.

[waterhill]

Have you ever heard of a Tornado Cake? I make the best.

[Pollard]

Kosher salt, coarse ground black pepper, garlic/onion powders and some Tony Chachere's Creole seasoning.

I separated the point cut from the flat which brought the time down to 8 hours. I used mostly hickory with a little oak to keep the heat up and because it doesn't burn up as quick as hickory.

Yes, set it and forget it would be nice but I'm thinning out forest oak/hickory here anyway. My neighbor had a bunch of wild cherry so I got a small truck bed load of that. I like using it on ribs. Gives it a nice sweet flavor. He's got an apple tree that died that he's saving for me as well. I'm thinking that would be good for salmon. He'll get some in exchange for the wood and I do a Boston Butt for him on occasion. He buys them sometimes.

My smoker I made from three water heater tanks.

[momtothree]

PLEASE post the recipe (unless it is a super secret family recipe that cannot be given out by penalty of death sort of situation) :)

[waterhill]

That is an awesome beast you got there! I would say she does it all. I will decline posting pics of mine, lol.

[waterhill]

You can look it up on googly or bing, but mine involves pecans, coconut, choco chips, sweet cream milk, brown sugar, and, *Mexican Vanilla* (that’s the secret).

Fruit cocktail with light syrup works best with a yellow cake mix.

I have tasted Tornado Cake with a choco base, but yellow cake is best IMO.

It is scary rich.

[waterhill]

Also, make sure the fruit cocktail has extra cherries in it.

[Jamestown1630]

Yes, please. I’ve never heard of it.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

*PING* to Spanish Cakes. Got any local bakery favorites? :)

[Jamestown1630]

I wish I could train a certain person in this household to ‘clean up as he goes along’. My husband is a very....exuberant cook...

[Jamestown1630]

Not a ‘bakery’ cake; but the old A&P grocery used to have something called a ‘Spanish Bar Cake’.

It was WONDERFUL. You can’t buy anything like it anymore in a store; but there are lots of ‘copycat’ recipes on the Internet:

http://www.tasteofsouthern.com/spanish-bar-cake/

[Diana in Wisconsin]

My Mom and favorite Auntie made this cake quite often because we ALL loved it. It’s still a favorite of mine to this day. It’s a perfect balance of sweet and tart and the cake is SO moist, it’s surreal. Also, it’s cheap and easy to make and extols the virtues of adding a box of Jell-O pudding mix to your baked goods. ;)

Lemon Poke Cake

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/17573/lemon-poke-cake-ii/

[waterhill]

Exuberance. It fits. She rocks it.