Good morning, all. I am in search of a few tried and true scratch cake recipes. I really would love to try a few of your favorite recipes if you would be so kind to share them. My mother in law is an avid scratch cake fan and even though I'm 50 years old, I'm still trying to impress her Please if you can help me out, I'd appreciate it soooooo much. Thanks and I hope everyone has a wonderful day!!
Margie

My favorite recipe is Double Chocolate Layer Cake with Bittersweet Chocolate Frosting. Here are both recipes. I've had many orders for this cake combination.

Chocolate Layer Cake
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake_recipe-2095-496-Chocolate-Layer-Cake.html

Bittersweet Chocolate Frosting
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake_recipe-2109-0-Bittersweet-Chocolate-Frosting.html

Lazy_Susan

do you have a particular type of cake in mind?

karen

Hi Karen. No, not really. I think my mother in law likes just about any flavor cake as long as it is from scratch. I thought that I would try out any and all that I come across and just see which one I think she would like the best. I would actually love to have a variety of scratch cake recipes to include chocolate, yellow, white, spice, strawberry and anything else that I can find. Thanks so much for asking, Karen.

ok.

I have a couple of favs that I can type and send. Maybe send me your email address in a pm and I will send to you.

Odd Question but can I ask...are you margi from cake sculpting group....?

Margie,
I have a suggestion too, try www.baking911.com under Recipes. The reason I suggest this is that all of the recipes there are tried and tested and if you have any problems with a recipe, you can go to the message board there, "ask sarah" where you can get expert advice. I find that a key issue when people are experimenting with recipes and baking. Sarah is a baking expert and will understand exactly what happens if you have specific problems with recipes.
A lot of people don't understand that baking is chemistry. There are good cookbooks out there with tested recipes and there are also cookbooks out there with untested recipes or forumulas that are not good or are so exact, that the average baker would not have good results with them. Some recipes are adaptations of commercial recipes. When you get recipes off the Internet, sure, some could be excellent and work out great. Others are not good recipes to begin with or have typos or there is nowhere to turn to for expert help. So basically you are experimenting and it is a crapshoot as to whether or not a recipe will turn out well.
This is not meant to reflect on anyone here, it is just meant as advice.
Here are a couple of my favourite recipes that I have made many times.
You can double or triple the recipe with no problems. If you have any questions, please feel free to Pm me.

Carrot Cake
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 cups of all-purpose flour, bleached or un-bleached
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. wheat bran (optional) not the cereal, but the kind you get from health food stores
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts, optional
1/2 cup sultana raisins, optional
4 eggs, large
3/4 cup of Crisco oil
1/2 cup milk
2 cups coarsely grated carrots
In a large bowl, combine all dry ingredients and stir together. Add nuts and raisins. In a separate bowl mix eggs, oil, milk and carrots. Make a well in the bowl containing the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients, whisking only to combine. Pour into a prepared greased and floured pan - this can be made in a 9" or 10" springform pan, a 10" tube pan etc. I double the recipe and add another 1/4 recipe for a round, 3" deep 12" pan. Each recipe makes 6 cups of batter when the nuts and raisins are added. For a 12"x15" sheet pan, double the recipe and bake at 325 for approximately 65-68 minutes. The single recipe will take 50 to 60 minutes. Bake until toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean. This cake tends to sink a bit in the middle when nuts and raisins are used, sometimes after removing from oven. If you have a really slow oven, it can take upwards to 90 minutes to bake a single recipe - it takes that long for my sister.
For springform pan, follow cooling directions. For all other pans, cool in pan for 15-20 minutes and then remove from pan. This cake can be torted and cream cheese filling can be added as follows. (The cake is easier to torte when the nuts and raisins aren't used or when previously frozen - but stills tortes well with a serrated knife either way.)

Chocolate Cake
3, one ounce squares of Baker's Unsweetened Chocolate, chopped up or grated
1/ 2 cup of butter, sliced or chopped
1 cup of boiling water
2 cups of granulated white sugar
2 eggs, separated
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup of commercial sour cream - don't use the reduced fat version
1 tsp. baking soda
2 cups less 2 tbsp. of unbleached all-purpose flour (you can use regular all-purpose instead)
1 tsp. baking powder
You will only be using the mixer to beat the 2 egg whites separately. You will need 2 bowls besides.
In one bowl, place chopped or grated chocolate, and butter. You grate or chop the butter and chocolate because it is much faster to melt it this way. Pour the boiling water over and whisk until all is melted. Now whisk in the egg yolks and the 2 cups of sugar and vanilla. In a larger cup, mix the baking soda and sour cream - the soda will cause the sour cream to almost double so make sure your cup is large enough or it will foam all over the place. Add this mixture to the chocolate mixture. In a separate bowl, stir the baking powder into the flour. Add gradually to the chocolate mixture, whisking to blend well. With mixer, beat egg whites until stiff, not dry. Stir 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture. When fully blended, add remaining egg whites, folding into mixture with a spatula until you can no longer see egg white. Do not over mix.
This will give you about 5 cups of batter. The one recipe can be baked in a tube or bundt pan that has been greased and floured. Bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes. Cool in pan for 15-20 minutes and remove. For a 16' round 3" deep pan you will need about 3 1/2 recipes. Bake at 325 for 3 " deep pans, approximately 1 hour and 10 minutes.
When cool, I torte cake and fill with the following. If you bake in a bundt pan or tube pan, I use this as the icing.
For a larger cake, double the recipe to fill. For a tube pan, this recipe will frost a cake that hasn't been torted.
Filling/Frosting
2 tbsp. butter
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
6 tbsp. whipping cream, un-whipped
1 1/2 cups sifted icing sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
Place all ingredients in a small saucepan and heat over minimum heat, 1 0r 2 on my stove. Stir constantly until smooth. If you are frosting a cake, use immediately. If you let it cool too much, it becomes fudge like. If you are using as a filling, remember to place a bead of buttercream icing on the outer rim of your cake so the filling won't seep through. As a filling, you should cool to room temperature, whisk and pour onto cake. Let it set a few minutes before placing top layer over filling.
Yuu can also let this icing/filling cool, add more sifted powdered sugar until you get the consistency you prefer and pipe a shell border with it.
I make this cake up to 3 days before the wedding or bake it and freeze it for up to 6 weeks. It is actually easier to torte it when it is frozen.

Margie,
If you really want some of the best cake recipes that you will always get good results from, invest in The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Buranbaum!
I have tried most of them and have only received rave reviews!
Happy Baking,
Lori V.
Pastries By Vreeke

Thank you to each and every one who replied and helped me out. All of the recipes that I was give sound absolutely wonderful and I plan to try out each one. I just don't know what I would do without all of your help. Thank you so much!!
Margie