Must admit I'm getting frustrated. I've been using Duncan Hines Butter Vanilla cake mixes forever and love the taste, BUT I would prefer to have a great tasting, MOIST cake from scratch. Is there such a thing? I've tried three different recipes now from different sites, am I being too picky? There has to be something out there! PLEASE HELP! 
Must admit I'm getting frustrated. I've been using Duncan Hines Butter Vanilla cake mixes forever and love the taste, BUT I would prefer to have a great tasting, MOIST cake from scratch. Is there such a thing? I've tried three different recipes now from different sites, am I being too picky? There has to be something out there! PLEASE HELP!
Well, lets see..... I use this basic recipe but add a soaking syrup to make it moist.... The cake absorbs it and it stays moist for a few days...
If you have heard or tried soaking syrup method and like it but don't have a recipe, let me know and I will post it.
I use a simple syrup too. You take equal amounts of water and sugar, bring it to a boil, and cool off. When it's cool you can add lemon, flavoring, or alcohol. I suppose you could add the lemon when you heat it for a more intense flavor.
I tried Martha's yellow cake (very good but a bit too dense) and the yellow cake recipe here, which I didn't care for as much. I read on another board about yellow cakes, and am going to try that recipe next. I heard the Whimsical bakehouse makes a good one, but it is sweet.
Some things you can do is don't cook the cake as long, or lower your oven tempature by 25 degrees. Many ovens get too hot or too cold. I have a thermometer for my oven.
All the fancy cake bakers here in Miami use that method. . .
each has their own distinctive taste. I make my cakes that way too.
For a cake to be delivered on Sat, I bake on Thursday night, trim/level & glaze them with my moistening syrup on Friday evening (don't over do it though!!!! You don't want a cake that's dripping or soaked in syrup. Just enough so you can tell the cake looks damp, the cake absorbs it over night, practice makes perfect). Then on Saturday, I decorate & deliver. Good Luck, practice & see what works best for you. There are tons of "moistening syrup" recipes on the net, test them out or grabs bits & pieces from each and create you own.
Let us know how it works for you 
Ok - I've never heard of a soaking syrup and would love to have the recipe.
Thanks
Here's my basic recipe. Everyone that I have made it for, loves it... Hopefully, you will too.
Basic Yellow Cake
3 cups of self rising flour (any brand)
2 sticks of butter or margarine
2 cups of granulated sugar
4 eggs (separated)
1 cup of evaporated milk (this makes a big difference)
vanilla and/or almond extract to taste (1 tsp of each is good)
Procedure:
1. Cream butter and sugar at high speed until pale yellow in color.
2. Add egg yolks one at a time. Mix well. Add flavors and mix.
3. Lower the speed of the mixer and start adding flour and milk, alternating. Starting with flour and ending with flour.
4. Turn off mixer.
5. In another mixer or by hand, whip egg whites to meringue consistency. Fold into flour mixture.
6. Pour mixture into 2, 8" x 2" or 1, 8" x 3" (some batter will be leftover if using 3 inch pans) and bake for 30 to 35 minutes at 350 Farenheit.
Soaking Syrup:
1. 1 cup of water
2. 1/2 cup of sugar
3. 1/4 cup of brandy or half and half of brandy and amaretto liquor
4. 1 tablespoon of vanilla
Boil water. Add sugar. let it boil for a few minutes at mediumheat until syrupy but not caramlized. (Sorry, I haven't timed it) After 5 minutes, check it. It should be slightly thick but still watery.
Remove syrup from heat and let it sit until lukewarm or cold.
Using a pastry brush, brush onto cake until well moist. You should use up entire syrup.
Cake will be fragile when soaked in syrup. The way I do it, is:
Place bottom layer, brush on syrup, fill. then put top layer, brush on syrup and then wait just a couple of minute for cake to absorb syrup and then ice.
If you are torting to get four layers, do the same procedure. If you try to lift it, it will brake off.
PS: You can change the syrup to your liking and to change the flavor of the cake. Instead of the liquor you can adjust to almond, lemon, pineapple, etc...
Rexy, I forgot to mention that Rum is used the majority of time in these moisten cakes here in Miami, but you can use what ever liquor or flavoring you'd like. Usually I use 1/2 cup rum per cake mix batch instead of water, so if the mix calls for 1 cup water. I use 1/2 cup rum & 1/2 cup water. When you bake it, the rum cooks off and leave a yummy hint of rum flavor. For Kid's party cakes, I only put rum in the batter, not in the moistening syrup (so it's not strong, just yummy). For Adult cakes, I use rum in the batter & in the syrup. YUMMM! (it's not going to make anyone one drunk. . .it just tastes better, with a stronger hint of Rum)
Also, I just use a small ladle to "wet" my layer, I've found that using a pastry brush makes a mess for me. I guess it's convinient to use a brush, if your "wetting" & frosting the same day since the brush barely wets the cake. . .I don't have the patience to sit there wetting the cake little by little with the brush. This is why I bake on Thursday, glaze/wet on Friday/ & decorate on Sat. Everyone has their own techniques, you just need to try them all & see which works best for you 
(another tip: I found that if I bake & glaze the same day, it makes the cake kinda mushy, that's why I leave a day in b/w so that that cake can dry and not be as fragile)
Also, I just use a small ladle to "wet" my layer, I've found that using a pastry brush makes a mess for me. I guess it's convinient to use a brush, if your "wetting" & frosting the same day since the brush barely wets the cake. . .I don't have the patience to sit there wetting the cake little by little with the brush. This is why I bake on Thursday, glaze/wet on Friday/ & decorate on Sat. Everyone has their own techniques, you just need to try them all & see which works best for you
(another tip: I found that if I bake & glaze the same day, it makes the cake kinda mushy, that's why I leave a day in b/w so that that cake can dry and not be as fragile)
Just wanted to share my experience with the brush...
I don't know if its the recipe for cake I use, but when I use the brush , I dunk it pretty good in the syrup and it wets the cake real good... I don't have to wait a whole lot for the cake to absorb or anything...
I just wet, fill and decorate... I don't have to wait very long at all...
I don't hear of methods where you have to wait and be patient when soaking the cake... I don't do that one...
I have never heard of a soaking syrup and would love to try it.
I was given a recipe from a elderly lady that had a bakery for years. I loved her cakes and they were so moist. They got more moist each day.
After she closed her bakery she shared her recipe with me.
I was so suprised to find out what was in it. I figured they were from scratch.
1 cake mix - (any flavor)
3 eggs
3 canned pear halves, mashed
1 cup pear juice/water mixture (1/2 cup each)
1 tsp vanilla (I only use mexico vanilla and actually add 1/2 tsp more)
1/3 cup oil
bake at 325*
I used my blender and put the pear halves and the pear juice and water
mixture together, then I add it to the rest of the ingredients.
This works with any cake mix flavor. This is the only cake recipe I use and it is always yummy and moist.
Does it have a pear taste gma1956? when you say 3 eggs separated, do you mean you beat them separately? or do use just the whites?? just the yolks? I'd love to try this recipe .. since I have pear trees and I make my own canned pears!
I knew I could count on you guys! Thanks for all of the input. The recipe with the pears sounds VERY interesting! I guess what it comes down to is adding the simple syrup.
I live in Raleigh, NC and starting in 2006 we are going to have to list the ingredients and post them on all baked goods we sell. We can't even list chocolate chips, it has to have everything listed in the chips too! I just hated to be listing all of the preservatives from a cake mix. 
Quote by @%username% on %date%
%body%