I try to teach optimism to my kids. I’ve always felt that teaching children the benefits of a positive attitude is a vital lesson which will benefit them the rest of their lives. I tell them, “Each day when you wake up, you have a choice. You can have a good day or you can have a bad day, so you might as well have a good one.” Even at their young ages, they know there is always a brighter side - even if they need help finding it sometimes. They know, above all things, that happiness is a choice. It is not something that comes to you but something you have to reach out and claim each day
But sometimes its just not that easy. Sometimes the stresses of the world seem to bear down on us with concentrated force as our minds fill with to do lists and missed appointments, lost papers or rapidly growing laundry. Sometimes our days just feel overwhelming and all we want to do is press the pause button and sit for five minutes, with a blank mind. I think mothers are especially prone to this, being the emotional thinkers that we are. We love and therefore we do, but we love so much more than we are capable of doing.
Yesterday I had a great idea for a tutorial involving a cake. A chocolate velvet cake, to be exact. Jazzed over bringing this to Southern Plate, I made the cake, taking photos of every step, then set up a little backdrop and put my camera on a tripod so I could get detailed photos of how I was going to decorate it.
My beautiful Katy was so excited about the prospect of cake that she was just about beside herself. My Brady moved his homework operations to the dining room table, where I was decorating, just to be closer and to watch me.
As I began taking photos, Katy watched the back of the camera to see them appear on the digital screen. She saw my hands in the photos and seeing as how she had recently had her fingernails painted, she wanted her hands in the photos, too. Several photos later I finally got through that I really needed photos of the cake and not her hands, so my readers could see what I was doing. She frowned but complied and little hands stopped appearing in front of my lens in every shot.
That was when Brady started needing help with this homework…and while I was working on that the smell of cream cheese icing proved too persuasive for my Katy and little fingers began dipping into the side of the cake. Around about this time, Katy climbed up in a chair to get a better view and as I stopped her from almost falling out of the chair , I dropped a huge glob of icing right on the carpet. To say I was frazzled would be putting it mildly.
Here I was trying to do a tutorial which I felt was very important, but all my kids wanted was my attention - and my cake. I took the rest of the icing and simply iced the cake, paying no mind to the appearance as I had planned. Then I cut two large slices and placed them in bowls which I gave to each of my younguns. The tension in the room dissipated immediately. My kids were absolutely delighted with their bounty and for the duration of their eating each one of them kept singing my praises “Ma, you make the BEST cake!” “This cake is wonderful!” “Mama, I really really like your cake!”
I guess in the end, they kids will likely not remember how the cake looked, but they will remember that you made it for them. And whether its made from scratch or made from a mix, whether its chocolate, vanilla, or strawberry, I think when all kids grow up they will agree, their mama made the BEST cake.
Sometimes we just need to remember to stop fussing so much over how the cake looks and just let the kids have some.
I’ve had a hectic week. I’ve had a crazed week. But you know what? I’ve had a wonderful week.
Thank you all for being a part of what makes me smile every day.
I suppose y’all would like to know a bit about this cake! This is my WOW cake among my girlfriends. They always want it whenever we have a cake eating occasion. It has served as a birthday cake more times than I could possibly count, it was even a baby shower cake once!
You’ll need: Chocolate cake mix, milk, eggs, chocolate chips, vegetable oil, cocoa powder, and butter flavoring.
It doesn’t really matter what type of chocolate cake mix you use. I look for the darkest colored one i can find but I have made this with Milk Chocolate, Devil’s Food, Classic Chocolate, and other flavors of Cake mix. Just get a chocolate one and if you have a type of chocolate cake mix in your pantry, use that, it’ll be fine.
I almost posted an entire weeks worth of cake mix recipes, purely by coincidence! I have one more which is amazing, for some muffins, but I’m going to wait until next week for that one!
This is my secret ingredient in a multitude of baked goods. If I’m making cookies, brownies, cake, icing, even muffins, and I want them to taste extra special, I add a teaspoon of butter flavoring to them. I tend to use this particular type because it is clear and therefore won’t alter the color of my icing if I am making white, but you can use any type you find. Mine comes from the craft department at Wal Mart but they also sell it under different brands on the baking aisle and I’ve used many brands before, always with the same success.
If a recipe calls for vanilla, you can use this in place of it or you can just add a bit of this in addition to it. Your preference. You just can’t go wrong with butter flavoring, seriously!
Note: If you don’t have butter flavoring on hand, it costs around $2 at Wal Mart. Feel free to just use vanilla in its place though, both in this cake and in the icing.
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Grease your pans with shortening. I just take a paper towel and fold it into fourths and dip into my shortening, then use that to spread it into my pans for less mess. Sprinkle about a tablespoon or so of cocoa powder into your pans.
Get little hands out of the chocolate chips….but let them have the ones they already got coz they are so darn cute and they just really wanted chocolate. We understand a girls need for chocolate, after all
In your mixing bowl, combine eggs, milk, oil…
Add cocoa powder.
Add in sour cream
Then pour in your cake mix.
Mix this for about two minutes on medium speed.
Pour in what is left of your chocolate chips :). Eat one yourself, you deserve it.
Spread batter evenly into prepared pans.
Now what I do is take hold of each side of the pan and then kind of hit it on the counter several times.
This helps get air bubbles out of your batter as well as spreads it evenly in your pan.
Cook until done. Notice how mine is still a little …wompy looking. Well folks, welcome to my little trick…
Wet a dish towel and place it on top of your cake while it is still hot.
Press down evenly over the top of the cake.
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And this will make it much more uniform and flat! You won’t always have to do this but some days, when you’re trying to make a cake and kids are just a chat chat chatting away, you’ll find yourself with a wompy cake layer and you’ll thank me for this little tip
The magic number here is 10. You want to let your cake layers cool for ten minutes in the pan and then turn them out onto cooling racks or your countertop, lined with waxed paper or the like. You can also just turn them out onto a large plate if you prefer.
While those are cooling, lets make us some cream cheese icing!
~GRINS~
You’ll need: confectioner’s sugar, vanilla flavoring, margarine, and cream cheese.
Now y’all know it just about killed me to have to buy name brand confectioner’s sugar but Wally World was out of the generic so….desperate times and all…
Those of you who have been reading me a while know by now that I have quantity issues. I almost never make a single recipe of anything. This icing is no different. I made a double batch so I could have plenty to decorate the cake with (which I ended up not doing). Any left over cream cheese icing is used on morning muffins, drizzled over loaves of banana bread, or put to a great number of uses.
Its always nice to have ready made icing in your fridge, especially this time of year.
SO, for the remainder of this tutorial you will see me making a double batch of icing, but the recipe I am giving you at the bottom of the page is for a single batch.
Mix your cream cheese and margarine until well blended.
You want to make sure, sure, sure that your cream cheese AND margarine are softened and at room temperature. Set them out several hours before making this. Don’t try to soften them quickly by using the microwave because that will just melt parts of them and leave others still cold. Trust me, just let them sit on the counter for a bit and they’ll turn out fabulous.
This mixture tends to want to cling to the sides of your bowl, thereby avoiding your beater altogether.
We’re going to outsmart it by scraping down the sides before we add our sugar.
Dump in all of your sugar. Most recipes for something like this will tell you to add it gradually, blending well after each addition. Puleeze, I have kids barking at my heels to lick an icing spoon, we don’t have time to add anything gradually. Just dump it all in there and then turn your mixer to its lowest setting until it gets mixed a bit, then you can turn it up to medium to finish the icing off.
Yummy yummy yummy!
This is almost done but needs to be blended some more. First, lets add our secret ingredient…
Because it smells heavenly..but could smell even better!
Pour in butter flavoring.
Take a moment to breathe in through your nose…and then blend until well combined and icing is nice and creamy smooth.
Like this.
This is where I was going to show you how to easily decorate a cake all fancy like…but you already know how that went so instead I am going to just basically ice my cake. First thing i do is spread a bit of icing on my cake platter to secure my cake.
I place my first layer, top side down, onto the platter and put a big old glob of icing on top.
Good icing should always be served, used, and referred to in “globs”, don’t you think?
~grins~
Spread that around good, being careful not to let your spatula or spreading knife touch the cake because then it will get crumbs in the icing where folks can see it. However, at this point in the game, the cake tastes good and it smells good and i don’t really think anyone will give a hoot if you end up with crumbs in your icing. Remember, YOU bake the BEST cake!
Place your top layer on, top side down, and glob more icing on top of it.
Spread that around on the top…
Then start bringing it down the sides like this.
When I get to where I need more to put on the sides, I just glob it on top of the cake and start spreading it down from there again. I’ve never put icing on the sides of my cake directly but have seen it done and it looked kinda painful.
By this point, I was just ready to cut the cake.
Besides, the kids looked like they might gang up and attack me if they kept having to smell it.
Its not pretty like I had planned, but my babies are happy with it and it really does taste phenomenal.
Chocolate Velvet Cake
1 Box any flavor of chocolate cake mix (I use Duncan Hines)
1 Cup sour cream
1/2 Cup milk
1/4 Cup oil
3 eggs
1-2 tsp butter flavoring (can substitute vanilla)
1 cup chocolate chips
2 heaping T cocoa powder, plus more for dusting pans
Preheat oven to 350.
Grease pans with shortening and dust with cocoa powder. Combine all ingredients into mixing bowl, except chocolate chips. Mix about two minutes, or until well blended. Mix in chocolate chips. Divide evenly among prepared pans and let cook until done, about 25 minutes. Let sit in pans for ten minutes before turning out to cool completely.
Cream Cheese Icing
8 ounces cream cheese
1 stick margarine or butter
3 1/2 to 4 cups confectioner’s sugar
1-2 tsp butter flavoring (can substitute Vanilla)
Soften cream cheese and margarine by leaving out on counter until it reaches room temperature. Combine the two in a mixing bowl and mix until well blended. Add sugar. Mix until smooth. Add flavoring and mix some more until well incorporated and icing is creamy. Ice cooled cake.
I know things are picking up at your house and mine with the excitement and bustle of the holidays. Lets be honest, it gets downright hectic! I have something to ask you, though.
Amid the coming bustle of the holidays, what is something about your life, right now, that makes today a wonderful day?
Tomorrow I’ll post my gift mix for the week!
Oh this looks so good - did you save me a pieces?
I *LOVE* chocolate cake!!
My mama taught me that air bubble trick too, and the sliding the frosting down the side trick too, but I can’t make a layer cake look “pretty” to save my life!
I appreciate learning the “wet towel to make it even” tip though! My layers are always either wop-sided or have a dome in the middle.
This looks awesome!! I will definitly be trying this in the near future. I cannot wait. Too bad I do not have all the ingredients.:( Hope you are having an awesome day.:)
Sharon:)
I can only imagine how beautiful it would have looked if you got to decorate it, because it sure looks absolutely fantastic just the way it is! I like the idea of globbing the side frosting onto the top and then spreading it down. I’ve tried both ways - globbing on top and globbing straight onto the sides. It is definitely easier to do it from the top. And that wet towel trick - I will definitely try that, because it looks way easier than trying to slice the top off to get it even. That isn’t easy at all.
This looks so good! Can I make this into cupcakes instead? Hopefully that isn’t a silly thing to ask!
-Elena
Hey Kings Queen! I guarantee you can make a layer cake look pretty! Honest! i’m going to show you a quick and easy way soon. Wet towel trick is awesome…hehe. Us imperfect cooks need all the help we can get to fake it!
Hey Sharon! I am having a pretty amazing day! So amazing, that all of my good news hasn’t actually sunk in yet! I will likely wake up in the middle of the night, squeal loudly, and then lay there with my eyes wide open til morning. Seriously! Why fate has been so kind to me today is baffling. More news soon!
Stephanie: I am physically incapable of slicing a cake top evenly, I have decided that! I dont know if my brain is slanted or what, but I cannot make it straight or even, even using special guides and everything!I dont even attempt it anymore! LOL You are so sweet! Im always so glad you take the time to read my posts!
Elena: Yup, go for it! I make them into cupcakes a lot. In fact, I have a special family story about cupcakes and a whole presentation on it coming up and this is one of the recipes I’ll be using. Also, if you do make cupcakes, feel free to freeze those you don’t need!
Christy
Who would have no need for cupcakes?!? I think that would be impossible! lol I make a similar chocolate cake that everyone loves. Your cream cheese frosting looks yummy. I will have to try it.
My kids also think I make the “BEST” cake. I love knowing that my kids will always remember the yummy cakes and cookies I bake for them. Thank you for post all the memory making recipes!
~grins~
you know, every now and then I have folks email with little things like “recipe was good, but it wasn’t quite like my mama’s”.
Those emails make me smile. No one should ever cook as good as your mama!
thank you for reading, dora!!! Try a double broiler, the pudding will turn out perfect. Its just tricky with a gas stove…I could never manage it!
I use the dummed down electric version! LOL
Christy
Nummmy! Coming here is always a little like going home… warm and inviting! Thanks for that Christy
This looks sinful! I could use a piece with a tall glass of cold milk right now!
I don’t see a single thing ugly about that cake! It looks absolutely divine - and oh so moist! I don’t think I’d be able to keep my fingers out of that frosting either (Katy’s manicure looks so cute!).
Thanks for the life lesson and all the tricky cake tips… the “wet towel” is a great one! Have an awesome weekend!
Oh whoops, that comment above was from me but I didn’t realize my friend was logged into the computer.
What I was trying to say was….the cake looks good!!!!! Its so moist looking. Now that I found a place to buy all the cake mixes, I’ll definitely have to try this.
Oh my, that cake looks sooooooo good! I could eat that whole thing to myself
Hi! My name is Courtney. I stumbled across your website trying to find a Butterfinger Cake recipe. I absolutely LOVE your website. I love that you photograph every step along the way. And all your recipes are so easy and look so good. I’ve already made the Grilled Chicken Tenderloins and they were amazing! My six year old said “Mama, this is the best chicken ever!” And you know that’s all the compliments I need. I’ve already called my mom and told her about this site and she’s making the Grilled Chicken tonight! I too am a southern girl. I live in Birmingham, AL and I absolutely love Southern “comfort” food. I will definitely be making more of your recipes and ordering your cookbook as soon as I can. Thanks again for making me, my husband and my little boy happy!
I have to make this cake today. I can just taste it. Cream cheese icing is so awesome and it never occurred to me to double it and use it on other things. What a great idea!
Hi Christy! I wanted to let you know I made this cake Saturday to take to a Sunday school party. It was such a hit! Even my husband, who only likes chocolate cake, but not my chocolate cakes (he only likes the box cake mix) LOVED it. It was so moist!! I used vanilla instead of the butter flavoring because it was all I had. And to everyone who can’t make a layer cake look good, I can’t either. So I put the rest of my mini-choc chips on the side of the cake ( I just stuck them in the icing) and sprinkled a few on top and it looked really good!! Thanks for this recipe - it’s definitely a keeper! Jennifer
OH MY!!!! THAT IS THE BET LOOKING CHOCOLATE CAKE EVER..I ABSOLUTLEY LOVE CHECKING IN EVERYDAY IT’S ALMOST LIKE GOING TO MY MOMS AND DIGGING OT HER OLD RECIPES( SHE’S 88)..KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK I LOVE YOUR SITE!!!
Congrats on being mom of the year- I hope that I can multi-task this well when I have my children! The cake is beautiful, and let me just tell you- down here in Louisiana, no body gives a dang what it looks like as long as it tastes good! I can’t wait to try this recipe on my Beaux and his family this holiday season. I love your blog more with every post, and I can’t wait to tell my girlfriends about it.
That looks good. If only I wasn’t the only one who are cream cheese.
Okay, since I’m a Momma’s girl and a truly Southern girl, I have to admit I’m in love with your site. Not only do your recipes make me think of my sweet Momma in the kitchen as a little girl but of my heritage as a southern cook. Southern food and hospitality is a labor of love. As a single girl with little cooking time on my hands, I truly only cook for those I love. And you’re right, ANYTHING our Mommas make is the best and the prettiest we’ve ever had.
Looks fabulous! I have had red velvet cake, but since it is basically chocolate cake with red food dye, this will taste the same. Won’t it?
I could really use some comfort food today. I’m snowed in.
I am going to try this for Christmas and see hwo the in-laws like it. They’re northeners you know.
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Southern Plate recipes and stories by Christy Jordan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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