07: Cakes and Tortes


Serves: 5

Ingredients

Directions:

While some Bake-Off® prize-winning cakes, like 1950's Orange Kiss-Me Cake and 1953's "My Inspiration" Cake, were simple cakes to round out a meal, most Bake-Off® cakes have been lavish creations, the product of a homemaker's expansive love and a bit of time. The 1951 contest's Starlight Double- Delight Cake and 1959's Mardi Gras Party Cake are both beautifully frosted, elaborate cakes. The Tunnel of Fudge Cake, from the 1966 contest, may have been the ultimate home-grown extravagance, packed full of nuts and fudgy chocolate.

The 1970s marked a real change in cake baking, with more homey cakes gaining in popularity, featuring whole-food ingredients like molasses, bananas and oats, as in 1973's Banana Crunch Cake or 1978's Nutty Graham Picnic Cake. In the 1980s, cooks returned to decadence and looked to Europe for inspiration. With 1984's Dark Chocolate Sacher Torte or 1988's Almond Mocha Cake, American families were treated like European royalty.

Recently, American cooks have been displaying their increased sophistication by combining the best of European and American traditions. The Chocolate Mousse Fantasy Torte, from the 1990s contest, combined an American original--brownies--with a European classic--chocolate mousse. In 1994 Glazed Sweet Potato Mini-Cakes revealed an haute cuisine treatment of indigenous American ingredients: sweet potatoes, maple syrup and pecans.

While ingredients, manners of preparation and tastes have changed over the years, the reasons for presenting a special cake haven't. Celebrations find cake bakers and cake eaters in perfect agreement: cakes are the perfect food for sharing.

From "Pillsbury Best of the Bake-Off® Cookbook." Copyright 2004 General Mills. Used with permission of the publisher, Wiley Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

This 07: Cakes and Tortes recipe is from the Pillsbury Best of the Bake-Off® Cookbook Cookbook. Download this Cookbook today.


More Recipes from the Pillsbury Best of the Bake-Off® Cookbook Cookbook:
07: Cakes and Tortes
Almond Mocha Cake
Banana Crunch Cake
Black Bottom Cups
Brown Butter Apricot Cake
Brownie Soufflé Cake with Mint Cream
Buttercream Pound Cake
Caramel Apple Cake
Caramel Pear Upside-Down Cake
Chocolate 'Tato Cake
Chocolate Fudge Snack Cake
Chocolate Mousse Fantasy Torte
Chocolate Praline Layer Cake
Costa Rican Cream Cake
Dark Chocolate Sacher Torte
Delicate Pear Cake with Caramel Sauce
Double Lemon Streusel Cake
Fudgy Orange Cappuccino Torte
Glazed Sweet Potato Mini-Cakes
Golden Apricot Cake
Heavenly Hawaiian Cake Roll
Kentucky Butter Cake
Key Lime Cream Torte
Lemon Platinum Cake
Macadamia Fudge Torte
Mardi Gras Party Cake
Mocha Cream Chocolate Torte
My Inspiration Cake
Nutty Graham Picnic Cake
Orange Kiss-Me Cake
Peanut Butter Crunch Cake
Peppermint Swirl Fudge Nut Cake
Praline Torte with Chocolate Truffle Filling
Raspberry-Filled Apricot Cake
Ring-of-Coconut Fudge Cake
Spicy Raisin Brunch Cake
Starlight Double-Delight Cake
Streusel Spice Cake
Swiss Almond Apple Cake
Tiramisù Toffee Torte
Tropical Fruit Fling Cake
Tunnel of Fudge Cake
Tuxedo Brownie Torte
Upside-Down German Chocolate Cake
White Chocolate Fudge Cake
White Chocolate Raspberry Torte
Whole Wheat Walnut Crumb Cake




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