"The icing on the cake," from what I’ve read, means something that’s a nice-to-have. like if when you buy a car you get an expensive stereo system. I don’t want to talk about that: I want to talk about icing, or frosting, and cake.
When I was at home, Mom used to make a cake on a lot of evenings. Not anything fancy, just a box cake. You know, a Duncan Hines or Betty Crocker cake mix, to which you add water and an egg, mix everything together well, and pop it in the oven. She always made a frosting to go along with it. Again, nothing fancy, a couple of squares of Baker’s unsweetened chocolate and sugar. She’d make the cake in a 9×12 inch pan and spread the frosting on it when it had cooled. You wouldn’t think anything that simple would taste so good, but it did.
Mary makes cakes, too, but not the kind that need to be frosted. Sometimes she makes pound cake, to which she adds some kind of fruit, like apples and pears, or maybe even cranberries. Nothing fancy, but tastes good and is simple to make. Anything more complicated than that, she buys at the store, either from the bakery or from the freezer case, like a Pepperidge Farm cake. She has good taste in cakes.
Linda Hill runs Stream of Consciousness Saturday, and during January she also runs Just Jot It January.
Now a word about Betty Crocker Ready-To-Spread Frosting.
The Sound of One Hand Typing 
Mary’s cakes sound good. Adding fruit makes them healthy. That reminds me that I forgot to mention in my post about a woman I babysat for as a teenager who used to pour orange juice (instead of icing) on plain yellow cake. It was delicious and oh so moist.
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That would be good. I’ve also seen where people have made a glaze using orange juice and confectioner’s sugar.
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Box cakes are the best. For nostalgia, I get Duncan Hines Cherry Chip on my birthday each year.
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Sounds good! And the thing is, they make those cake mixes forever.
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My mom could make delicious German Tortes. I could never stomach the icing that would almost chip my tooth due to the 2 to 3 cups of icing sugar. Way too much. My mom would make a basic white or chocolate cake, and, yes, she would sometimes use the Betty Crocker ones for time. The icing. A small whipping cream that you beat until stiff peaks form with about 1/2 cup icing sugar and maybe a bit more for the chocolate icing. She would use the cocoa powder and add tablespoons depending on how much chocolate you wanted. She would beat it all together until stiff peaks form. She would cut the cake in 2 layers and add add whipping cream in the bottom layer, place the middle cake layer on top, add raspberry jam, place the top cake layer and then ice it with the remaining icing she made. She would often decorate it with rosebuds etc using the same icing and add raspberries on top or the real chocolate sprinkles you can get T the Dutch store. It is so good.
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I prefer pie to cake every time but I get your delicious meaning. š
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I love pies, too, and the ones you buy frozen and cook up at home are great.
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Delicious š
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I think so, too…
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I love box cakes! I don’t bake much but a chocolate box cake seems pretty tempting.
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There’s a woman named Ann Byrn who calls herself “The Cake Mix Doctor” who has a couple of books out about how you can take a cake mix and kick it up a notch by adding some additional ingredients. Personally, the cake from a mix is more than sufficient…
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I don’t think much tops box cakes and they are so easy to make.
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Great bakers are a joy to have around!
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You said it!
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Box cake mixes are great! My mom made a lot of the non-frosting ones too, like date bread, which was so tastyā¦
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Mary makes banana bread and occasionally adds walnuts. It’s a good use for overripe bananas, and it smells great while it’s cooking.
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We had box cakes at home too and there was never a reason to complain. It was all good!
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Right. They’re inexpensive, darn near foolproof, and taste great.
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Mmmmmmmmā¦cake.
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Mmmmmmm….
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cake!
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Yes!
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I love boxed cakes ( this is what we called the Duncan or Pillsbury ones). My mom would make cake from scratch but we always preferred the boxed cakes. Great post.
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Even the store brand cake mixes make a pretty good cake. Mom worked and never had the time to bake something from scratch, and that was fine by us.
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My mon worked abs it would have been fine with us as well. She had a tendency to put obligations on herself that no one else expected her to do. A self-imposed perfectionism that often made her miserable. I would have preferred a happier mom and boxed cakes. š
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Now I want cake
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You too, huh?
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Yes indeed
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