I'm struggling to understand a cake recipe I want to try out

[lucysmam]

It's on an American website & the name was what appealed to me! But now I have my heart set on trying it out, just to see what it's like

Thing is, it's measured in cups, so how on earth do I do that? Is a cup a specific measure? & a lot of the recipes on there use shortening, but no marg/butter so far as I can see. Do you think I could substitute butter in place of the 'butter flavour shortening' it calls for, which would make it a bit easier to do

Thanks for any advice

A cups is 8 fluid ounces.

You will get a different texture with butter (maybe a better one). Margarine might be a closer substitute to butter flavor shortening. Something like Trex is a good shortening substitute, but I don't know if it comes in butter flavour.

I think they use shortening instead of butter. Don't know why they just don't use butter but hey! You can buy measuring cups here pretty much anywhere. I guess it's the same measurement in the UK as the US. Not sure how it translates into oz or grams though. Sorry. But someone else will

I found this:
United States "legal" cup
The cup currently used in the United States for nutrition labelling is defined in United States law as 240 ml.[6][7][8]
1 U.S. "legal" cup = 240 millilitres
= 16 international tablespoons
= 12 Australian tablespoons
≈ 8.1154 U.S. customary fluid ounces
≈ 8.4468 imperial fluid ounces

So if you have a measuring jug just pour in the sugar/flour/whatever using the 240 millitres as your guide.

And yes, I'm sure butter would do as shortening.

US recipes baffle the hell out of me - you're very brave for trying

Very helpful website here

Oh that is good scootergrrl - might have to print it out.

ooooh, I knew MN would solve my confusion! Thank-you sooooo much! They baffled me too Hassled, but it's a choc cake one & it looks very rich & scrummy so thought I'd try it out. It's the cups & the ingredients I haven't heard of that confuse me! (Obviously I am assuming granulated sugar & eggs are the same here & there )

Scooter, I will be handwriting that since I have no ink in the printer (will take a while but very useful!)

Ordinary sugar in the US is more like our caster sugar.

oh heck! I can see this being more confuddling. I'll stick to caster sugar then instead of the granulated it says as well [hard work]

Can you link to recipe?

this one

Although I'm thinking about not bothering tbh, hadn't thought it was going to be this confuddling when I was browsing on there last night. Had a relaxed Sunday morning cake baking planned

I give up!! My mind doesn't understand converting cups to a grams! Will have a look for a uk recipe instead!

Hate hate hate that recipe, sorry.

Bloody Americans quoting 'you must use this brand name'. '1 box powdered sugar' (clearly icing sugar, but does this woman have no idea that it might be sold in different sized boxes?) '1 large cream cheese' 1 large what? Larget tub I assume.

Quote grams, idiots. Cups is fine, it is actually a standard measure, but don't just tell us you used a big box.

No offense to Americans on MN, you are clearly much more sensible than that and would never give a recipe like that/

See, I didn't realise cups were actually a measure until this morning. But that bit would have been ok, had it not been for random brands I don't get. & I still don't get how you convert to fluid ounces.

I have saved it on there though, may re-visit when I have a toddler free hour later on & try to work it out so I get it, but for now I'm doing a choc sponge for after tea tonight with some custard

Hi Lucysmam, that does look confusing
Rachael Allen has a red velvet cake with white frosting let me know if you need it

Or not, MIL has been searching on her computer at home after she popped round & has found me an English version to try out!

or this one

Sorry x post

oh, Plum yes yes yes! If you don't mind, please

Sorry dh made me a cuppa

150g butter
300g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla ext
3 eggs separated
250g plain flour
25g cornflour
1 tsp baking powder
2 level tsp good ccoa powder
250ml butter milk
red food colour (2 tbsp liq or 1/2 tsp paste)
pinch of salt
1tsp white wine vinegar
1 tsp bicarb soda

white frosting

2 large egg whites
250g caster sugar
50g golden syrup
pinch of salt
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
2 tbsp water
1 tsp vanilla ext

2x 23cm sandwich tins
5cm deep

Preheat oven 180
butter & flour cake tins and line bases

cream butter until soft
add sugar& beat pale &fluffy
add vanilla extract & egg yolks, 1 by 1 beating well after each addition

place flour cornflour cocoa in a sieve resting on a plate
measure buttermilk with food colour and mix together it should be very red so add more if need be

sift 1 third dry ingred into the butter and eggs mixture until just combined, then pour 1 third buttermilk mixture until just combined.
Continue combining a third at atime until both are incorporated

whisk egg whites and salt in large bowl until stiff peaks.
Add 1/4 to the batter and mix
add remaining egg whites in 3 stages folding them gently with large metal spoon until just incorporated

In a small bowl mix vinegar and bicarb until it bubbles then gently fold into batter
quickly pour into tins and smooth tops
bake in oven for 25-30mins or until skewer comes out clean and cake springy on top

leave in tins for 15mins then carefully turnout on wire rack

For white frosting

Place egg whites, sugar golden syrup salt cream of tartar and water in a stainless steel or heat proof bowl set over a pan of simmering water(base of bowl should not touch water)
Bring water to a steady simmer
whisk mix until you have shiny satiny soft peaks
Remove the bowl from simmering water and continue to whisk for a further 2 mins(it will get abit stiffer)
Whisk in the vamilla extract

Immediately ice the middle,top and sides of cake with palette knife, fluffing up the frosting up to form little peaks all over the cake
You need to work fast to ice the cake as icing sets very quickly
leave for at least 30mins to allow thin crust to form on outside a creamy interior

Tip
After cakes have cooled completely and before frosting cover them loosely with clingfilm and place in the freezer for 30 mins-1hour, this helps when it comes to icing delicate crumbly cakes

Let me know how you go that one still sounds complicated to me

Although one I gave link for sounds more like the one you were trying

Ahh hope I haven't missed you

tHANKS PLUM.

Ooh, caps wrong way round, sorry. I will give yours a go, they both look pretty time consuming but the name intrigued me & drew me in so am going to have to make it to see what it's like