Bright Cakes to Bake Now!

The winter chill is finally lifting! Let the Spring & Summer baking season begin! Start it off bright with these ! Or you can see all the pumpkin dessert recipes here!

interior texture of lemon cupcake with lemon buttercream.Lemon CupcakesOne Bowl Carrot Cake Slice vintage forkOne Bowl Carrot CakeLemon Pound Cake Strawberry Icing on vintage chinaLemon Pound CakeOld Fashioned Strawberry Shortcake unsliced wood backgroundClassic Strawberry Shortcake with Whipped CreamThe best pavlova dessert with lemon curd fresh fruitLemon Berry Pavlova Cakesliced golden brown top of angel food cake.Angel Food Cake
beautiful decorated vanilla cake tablescape.
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Celebration Cakes

These are the cakes to bring to celebrate a graduation, birthday or anniversary. They are crowd pleasers and festive enough for any occasion!

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Festive Cupcake Recipes

Sometimes only a cupcake will do! Stay classic with these yellow cupcakes & chocolate buttercream or try something new like these caramel apple cupcakes.

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Choose the Perfect Frosting

The perfect buttercream will make a great cake or cupcake exceptional! Choose an the best chocolate buttercream, try your hand at a caramel swiss meringue buttercream, lemon buttercream frosting, or peruse all our buttercream & frosting recipes!

easy chocolate buttercream frosting on cake swirled.Chocolate Buttercream Frosting Recipeairy ermine frosting on cupcake split in half.Ermine Frosting Recipecream cheese frosting in bowl.Cream Cheese Buttercream Frostingtoasted swooshes of meringue.Marshmallow FrostingItalian meringue buttercream cleanly piped into a clear glass with a little sticking out of the top.Italian Meringue Buttercream Recipedetailed view of rosettes piped with american buttercream.American Buttercream Recipe

The 3 Mixing Methods for Fat-Based Cakes

A fat-based cake contains butter or oil as the primary ingredient and makes a cake that is more moist, rich and flavorful than egg foam-based cakes. Devils food cake and classic yellow cake are good examples of fat-based cakes.

  1. The Creaming Method is a when softened butter or shortening is beaten first with sugar. The butter-sugar mixture is beaten until light and fluffy to help leaven the cake. Eggs are beaten in well followed by alternating the wet and dry ingredients.
  2. The Liquid-Fat Method is a quick cake mixing method where dry ingredients are whisked together with wet ingredients such as oil, melted butter, eggs and milk until homogenous. Minimal stirring is ideal to limit gluten development. This is the mixing method for this one bowl chocolate cake and commercially packaged cake mixes.
  3. The High-Ratio Method is the cake version of the cut-in method, where butter or shortening are mixed into the dry ingredients including sugar until the flour is coated and no visible pieces of fat remain. Then wet ingredients are added in stages. The method is so named because of the high ratio of sugar to flour. Typically high-ratio cakes can also be mixed successfully using the creaming method.

Quick & Easy Cakes

Need a quick and easy cake that can be made in one bowl? Look no further than these delicious recipes!

Frequently Asked Questions

How to keep cakes moist?

The most common reason that cakes are dry is due to over-baking. Other ways to avoid dry cakes are using room temperature ingredients, not allowing the cake to sit out unwrapped after cooling, not refrigerating unfrosted cakes, and using a soaking syrup.

How to know when a Cake is Done baking?

A cake tester is the easiest way to tell if a thick cake is done baking. Sheet cakes or thin sponge cakes can be difficult to test with a cake tester, so I suggest pressing lightly on the center of the cake. A cake that is properly baked will spring back when touched and will provide a little resistance. If your finger leaves an impression on the surface but you feel resistance when lightly touched, then the cake is almost done! Give it another minute or two and test again.

What is an Egg Foam Based cake?

An egg-foam based cake is a light, spongy, delicate cake. They are typically drier than fat-based cakes and require soaking. Whipped or beaten eggs are the primary leavening and structure of these cakes. They must be baked immediately upon mixing and they have a tight-crumb, which makes them ideal for rolling.

The 2 Mixing Methods for Egg-Foam Based Cakes

Egg-foam based cakes are light, airy cakes with a tight crumb. They typically either contain no fat or just a little fat for flavor as in a génoise. Some fat-based cakes can be mixed using one of these egg-foam mixing methods, for example, my carrot cake recipe is a fat based cake mixed using a hybrid of the whole egg-foam and liquid fat mixing methods!

  1. The Whole Egg-Foam Mixing Method is when whole eggs are whipped with sugar to form the base of a cake batter. This method forms the base of my carrot cake cupcake recipe! It makes a moist, light cake.
  2. The Separated Egg-Foam Mixing Method is when egg yolks and whites are whipped separately prior to combining. Typically the egg yolks are whipped with sugar first, combined with dry ingredients and then a simple meringue (whipped egg whites and sugar) is folded into the batter for extra leavening and lightness. Ladyfingers are a great example of this pure mixing method. My classic white cake utilizes a combination of this method and the creaming method!

Classic Cake Recipes, Perfected

Chef Lindsey spent years perfecting these classic cake recipes! These are the recipes you will go back to time and time again. Make them as is or mix it up with different frosting & buttercream recipes, or perhaps try one of these jams, jellies, & preserve recipes as a filling!

slice of yellow cake with chocolate buttercream blue background.Classic Yellow Cakeslice of cake on cake server.One Bowl Chocolate CakeClassic White Cake Slice FeaturedClassic White CakeRed Velvet Layer Cake Cream Cheese Buttercream slice on cake server.Best Red Velvet Cake RecipeOne Bowl Carrot Cake Slice vintage forkOne Bowl Carrot Cakesliced golden brown top of angel food cake.Angel Food Cake

Moist, Dense Pound Cake Recipes

Pound cakes must have a moist, dense crumb that melts in your mouth. These pound cakes have been tested & refined until perfect! There are classics like a sour cream pound cake alongside unique flavors like this cherry almond pound cake!

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