One Cake Batter – Over 40 Variations

A homemade cake beats a packet mix cake hands down any day. And despite what advertising might have us believe, a basic butter cake is simple to make with everyday pantry staples.

What’s more, a homemade cake is made from real butter, real flour, real milk and nothing artificial (no colours, preservatives, egg substitute, soy flour, anti-caking agents).

I rely on a good old fashioned wooden spoon to mix my cakes. As long as the butter is sufficiently softened, it takes less than 10 minutes to make a cake and throw it in the oven.

You may already have the world’s best banana cake recipe or the most awesome chocolate cake recipe. The idea here is that with a few staples on hand, one basic batter recipe and  a little understanding cake baking, you can create all sorts of cake variations based on what’s in your kitchen. Creative, spur-of-the-moment baking is only limited by your imagination.

A couple of things to keep in mind: cakes need leavening agents to make them rise. These are the eggs and the baking soda (conveniently found in self-raising flour). If you’re adding ingredients that will make your cake dense and heavy, you may need to add an extra egg or a little extra baking soda. Also, denser cakes will take longer to cook. Cook them at a lower temperature to prevent them burning on the top.

Have fun and experiment. You can’t go wrong with sweet stuff. I’ve never had a ‘failed’ cake (ok, there was this one, it was supposed to be ‘healthy’ and involved potato and chic pea flour). No one will knock back chocolate cake no matter how it looks.

1. Beat the butter and sugar until creamy
2. Add the vanilla and eggs beating well
3. Add the flour and milk and beat well until well combined
4. Pour into a greased / lined tin
5. Cook on 180°C (350°C) for 45 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean

Variations

1. Add cocoa powder (1/4 – 1/2 cup + a little extra milk) for a basic chocolate cake
2. Add cocoa powder and substitute sour cream for the milk (add a little extra to get the right consistency)
3. Stir in about 100g of melted chocolate and 1/4 cup cocoa for a decadent chocolate cake
4. Add cocoa powder and liqueur for an adult cake
5. For (my fav) Black Forest Cake: add 1/2 cup cocoa powder and a teaspoon or 2 of kirsch. Bake as usual and cut the cold cake in half. Whip enough cream with a little kirsch to spread between layers, fold some tinned cherries into the cream, conserving the syrup. Dissolve some sugar in the syrup and more kirsch and drizzle over one layer of cut cake. Spread with cherry cream mix. Top with second cake layer, drizzle remaining syrup. Finish the cake off with plain whipped cream (or sweetened or add more kirsch ) and some grated chocolate.
6. Add a teaspoon or two of instant coffee when you cream the butter and sugar for a coffee cake
7. For mocha cake, add the coffee and substitute the milk for Tia Maria or Kalluha
8. For coffee and sour cream cake substitute the milk with sour cream.
9. For Rum and Raisin cake, substitute the milk with rum and throw in a handful or two of raisins.
10. Add one cup of mashed banana for banana cake
11. Add walnuts or other nuts for a banana nut cake or just a plain nut cake
12. For coconut cake add 1/2 tsp coconut essence, 1/2 cup desiccated coconut, 1 cup of sour cream and about 1/2 cup milk.
13. For lime and coconut cake, substitute the milk for some lime juice and leave out the essence.
14. Substitute sour cream or yoghurt for the milk and add 1/2 cup of lemon juice for lemon and sour cream cake
15. Use the above and add a little lemon zest and 1/2 cup poppy seeds for poppy seed cake
16. For orange cake substitute the milk with 1 cup of orange juice and add the zest of an orange and about 1/2 cup extra self raising flour
17. Substitute the milk with Greek yoghurt and stir in some frozen raspberries for raspberry swirl cake.
18. Or use any other kind of fresh or frozen berry
19. For apple cinnamon cake, substitute the milk with pureed apple and add a teaspoon or two of cinnamon. Or try chopped pear.
20. Or add dried or glace fruit like dried apricots, glace ginger, glace pineapple
21. For a denser cake, add 1/2 cup of ground almonds to any recipe.
22. For a variation, try ground hazelnut.
23. Add some grated carrot, grated zucchini, a handful of pumpkin seeds or some mashed pumpkin. Adjust the taste with spices.
24. For Madeira cake, add 1/2 cup of ground almonds and 2 tsp finely grated lemon or orange zest.
25. Stir in a tsp or two of cinnamon for cinnamon cake
26. Or try ground ginger for ginger cake.
27. Or a combination of spices, cardamom is my favourite.
28. For upside down cake line the base of the cake tin with tinned or fresh fruit such as pineapple or peaches or pears (or berries), sprinkle with brown sugar and pour the batter over the top. Add some of the tinned syrup to the batter for extra flavour
29. Add some honey for honey cake
30. or add maple syrup and substitute brown sugar for the white
31. Substitute the milk with peanut butter
32. Substitute the milk with strawberry jam
33. Add some dates and serve with caramel sauce for an easy sticky date pudding.
34. For a caramel self-saucing pudding, sprinkle the top of the batter with 1/2 cup of brown sugar mixed with a little cornflour and drizzle 1 cup of boiling water over the back of a metal spoon. Bake until cake part is cooked through.
35. For a chocolate self-saucing pudding, sprinkle the top of the chocolate batter with 1/2 cup of brown sugar and 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder, then drizzle 1 cup of boiling water over the back of a metal spoon.
36. Use a cup cake tin instead of a large tin for cup cakes (any variation)
37. Add choc chips
38. For a basic biscuit (cookie) recipe, substitute 1 cup of the self raising flour with 1 cup of plain flour and leave out 1 egg and the milk.
39. Use brown sugar instead of white for a more caramel taste
40. For cake disasters, make a trifle or serve with ice cream.

There are infinite variations even from just the ideas above. What about chocolate, coffee cake? Or chocolate and raspberry jam cake, or chocolate raspberry swirl cake, or coconut and strawberry jam cake, or chocolate banana cake, chocolate ginger and fig cake…

and then there are all the different ways to ice or serve the cake…

What is your favourite cake?

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Have you read these posts?

1. red velvet cake
2. Caramel Peach Upside Down Cake
3. ‘leftovers’ choc banana cake
4. Madeira Cake
5. Banana and Yoghurt Bread