Well, her Ultimate Yellow Butter Cake Recipe, when the ingredients and method instructions are followed well, is wonderful and many people use it instead of a white cake recipe. It is actually an easy recipe to follow because the instructions are given in-depth and pictures are provided. I think that is the one thing folks need when they are not familar with from-scratch baking, detailed instructions and picture of what a creamed mixture looks like etc. Can't wait for the white version but honestly, many white cakes do include the yolks and the taste is that of vanilla so generally they are all lumped together in the same category nowadays, as vanilla cakes. You will always get a more dense cake when using butter as your fat but that is the price you pay for the additional flavour that butter imparts. I would highly recommend that recipe! Actually, haha, have been for quite some time here and on the Wilton site. It is a great cake for stacked cakes and also for 3-D cakes, from all accounts.
As important as it is not to fool around with making ingredients substitutions or adding extras to a recipe that are not called for in that recipe, following the method is the one thing that can make a difference between a great cake and a terrible cake. You really need to follow the method to insure that the required chemistry process takes place to insure a good cake result.
I think the unfortunate by-product of folks only ever using cake mixes to bake is, that they don't learn the concepts of baking and chemistry and proper mixing. With a cake mix there isn't too much you can do to ruin it unless you overbeat it and cause leavening and structural issues, but still you will get for the most part, at least a passable result. But baking from scratch is a combination of the right recipe/formula that is produced to give desired results and messing with the formula or the method will effect the final product. Some recipes/formulas leave no room for error at all. Some recipes are not quite as exacting and will still turn out a good product but provide a bit of leeway for beginner bakers and this is how that recipe was designed.
I don't get into discussions comparing the virtues of the final cake product whether you bake from-scratch or from mixes. But one thing I do find that people don't quite understand until they research and practice from-scratch baking is this. When you are using mixes, you don't have to consider the formula or how the fat to sugar ratio will effect the product, the flour will affect the structure, the eggs will effect both the structure and the leavening as will the creaming method in addition to the actual chemical leaveners. You don't have to consider the proper mixing methods, the time element you have with the effective limit on the leaveners etc. You open a box, dump the ingredients in a bowl and follow the usual 30 seconds on low and 2 minutes on low to medium speed. You may add a few extra ingredients but you don't have to consider the fact that if you increase say the fat ratio, you need to change another ingredient. Most doctoring of cake mixes is based on old Duncan Hines recipes of the 1970's and some adjustments for the addition of other products, are already built in to the doctored versions. But this is not the same thing as baking from scratch. And it is not the same thing as understanding the baking process.
And you cannot expect, like you get with a cake mix, to always get that same spongey squishy texture from every type of cake recipe because baking from scratch with specific types of cake recipes is meant to produce different textures and results.
If you have followed a from-scratch recipe exactly and followed the proper mixing proceedures and have good pans to bake those cakes in and your oven is reliable, if the recipe turns out dry or flat or has any other unfavourable results, it isn't because all from-scratch recipes are like that, it is because you need a better recipe. I will try any new recipe twice. Once to get the hang of it and a second time to confirm the results. After two tries if I am not happy, it gets pitched. Don't waste your time on it, it is the recipe. Why bother fiddling around with switching this, changing that unless you plan to write a cookbook. There are other good reliable recipes out there, try them.
If you really want to learn the art of baking, use recipes from baking experts. Not all cake decorators are baking specialists, their cake decorating reputation sells their cookbooks. Sometimes the recipes haven't been tested at all or are scaled down versions of commercial recipes or have typos or editing issues.
Hugs Squirrelly
