By Request

By Betty Shimabukuro

Wednesday, February 3, 1999

By Ken Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin
Whether made from scratch or a mix, fudgey frosting
and fresh flowers top off a cake with style.

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Classic yellow
cake a winner

Today, we bake. Carol Arthur is looking for a recipe for a yellow cake that comes out moist, as well as a recipe for dark chocolate or fudge frosting.

My own solution would be simple: Duncan Hines mix-in-a-box. Especially good if you substitute applesauce for the oil. But then, that's not really why we're here, is it, so I tried a little harder.

Found the answer close to home, from my buddy Marilyn, over at the desk next door. Her tried-and-true recipe comes from "Our Favorite Recipes," the venerable cookbook of the Maui Extension Homemakers' Council, compiled way back in 1957.

This recipe took first prize at the Maui County Fair one year, so it's a guaranteed winner. Marilyn says it works great as the base for an upside-down cake from the same cookbook, so that recipe is here, too, along with a fudge-frosting formula.

By the way, a yellow cake gets that way because of the egg yolks. White cakes don't have any, and basic butter cakes have fewer. This cake calls for as many as 5 yolks.

Yellow Cake

1 cup shortening
2 cups sugar
4 eggs (or 2 yolks and 3 whole eggs)
3 cups sifted flour
3 teaspoons baking powder (double action)
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon lemon extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cream shortening and sugar; add eggs one at a time and beat well. Sift flour, baking powder and salt together and add to creamed mixture alternately with milk and flavoring.

Bake for 35-40 minutes in two 8-inch square pans or two 9-inch round pans that have been greased and floured or coated with nonstick vegetable oil spray.

Upside-Down Cake

1-1/2 cups brown sugar
6 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 2-1/2 pound can sliced pineapple, peach or apricot halves, drained
1/4 cup chopped nuts or maraschino cherries, optional
Yellow Cake batter (above)

Mix sugar and butter in a 9-by-13-inch pan and spread evenly over bottom of the pan. Arrange fruit over sugar mixture. Add nuts or cherries, if desired. Pour cake batter over fruit, spreading evenly with a spatula.

Bake 40 minutes at 350 degrees, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool and invert pan on serving plate so that when the pan is removed fruits are on top.

Note: 3 bananas, sliced 1/4-inch thick, may be substituted for the canned fruit.

Fudge Frosting

The King Arthur Flour 200th Anniversary
Cookbook," Countryman Press, 1991, $24<

1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon flour
Pinch of salt
2 ounces (2 squares) unsweetened baking chocolate
1/3 cup milk
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Combine first five ingredients in a saucepan and heat until just boiling, stirring to melt and blend the chocolate. Watch closely so chocolate and milk don't burn.

Simmer until a few drops form a "soft ball" when dropped in cold water. Add the butter and cool. When the mixture reaches room temperature, add the vanilla and beat until stiff enough to spread. If it becomes too thick, add cream to make spreadable.

Nutritional information unavailable.

Send queries along with name and phone number to:
By Request, Honolulu Star-Bulletin Food Section,
P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu 96802.
Or send e-mail to features@starbulletin.com

Asterisk (*) after nutritional analyses in the Body & Soul section indicates calculations by Joannie Dobbs of Exploring New Concepts, a nutritional consulting firm.