Meme Cake Recipe Test

[@RobPaige]

I grew up poor. Your comments on box cakes are spot on. One thing that people who never experienced poverty aren't aware of is that time is also something that people living in poverty don't have much of. Public transit here in the states ranges from "totally sucks" to "sucks in nightmarishly incomprehensible ways". If one doesn't have a washer and dryer in their home or apartment building, then they have to schlep their laundry to a laundry mat, either walking or taking public transit. I could go on for days about the ways that poverty sucks up every moment of free time, but I think I've made my point. If box cake is all they've got, let them enjoy it; being poor sucks, and we don't need to pile on. And if they're serving a box cake, just eat it. It's perfectly serviceable, and the fact that they're sharing with you when they have so little should say something.

[@SeasonLiberally]

" And if they're serving a box cake, just eat it. It's perfectly serviceable, and the fact that they're sharing with you when they have so little should say something." - BRAVO! I agree completely.

[@magicalmisc7046]

Grew up poor too and this really makes me feel acknowledged when it comes to food snobs on the internet

[@ambulocetusnatans]

You aren't kidding. Even if you do have some time left over at the end of the day, you're usually too exhausted to do anything besides sit in front of the TV and vegetate. I'm not as poor as I was a few years ago, but the old habits stick with you, and I will always be frugal but not stingy. People who grew up wealthy tend to be stingy but not frugal. Interesting, no?

[@slakingfool]

Indeed for the reasons mentions. Personally I don't use a lot of flour and especially sugar so grabbing a box of Duncan Hines brownie mix the every other year I would buy one and boosting it with a little cinnamon, vanilla extract, and a dash of cayenne is more practical.

[@Cheryl_in_TX]

Cecil, thanks for offering an alternative perspective regarding boxed and convenience foods, especially with regard to low income and/or otherwise food insecure communities. Yes, it’s more financially efficient to purchase individual ingredients and it’s more economical long term to have 5 pounds of flour, 4 pounds of sugar, 2 pounds of butter, etc., but oftentimes, grocers will have deeply discounted sales on box cake mixes (like $0.69 each) that are more amenable to someone on a strict food budget, such as food stamp allotments, than spending $15 at once on separate ingredients would allow. ❤

[@lobo3769]

The pudding to box cake is an old baker's trick for frosted cakes. Changing the oil out for equal butter or margarine is also a big help.

[@breandan3280]

As a listener of Cog Dis, I have to say I love the pun in the title of this show. And I'll have to add some pudding next time I bake a cake, I honestly never thought of that.

[@ambulocetusnatans]

When you buy the pudding, try using the code word "glory" at checkout.

[@Twentydragon]

You mentioned on _Serious Inquiries Only_ that you're striving for food positivity, and that really comes through here. I appreciate both the simple and the more complex recipes you do, because it gives people following along something to start with and to strive for, respectively. The only things I think that are missing from your videos are an ingredients list and a written recipe.

[@SeasonLiberally]

Most have downloadable recipe cards. Some very simple ones do not.

[@Bziegenhagen]

I'm a professional baker and this is what I do for every cake. I use aldi store brand cake mix bc I don't do a ton of cakes. When cakes were a bigger part of my orders I just used 50lb bags of Pillsbury cake mix. A lot of bakeries do the same. The swaps are what make it your own. I've done pudding but changed to just adding a bit of sour cream. If you're looking for a decent gf cake mix, the aldi brand is also really good. I've made tons of GF pineapple upside down cakes with aldi brand. Cheers and thanks for the videos.

[@Slaashr]

I was really happy and proud to see you address the food insecurity aspects of it, and refusing to turn your nose up. Like several of the other commenters I grew up in deep, often times abject poverty, to the point of living out of a rusty van or even a tent during periods of my childhood. For the longest time this was the only cake I ever knew, I thought this was where all cakes came from. Even when we didn't have the facilities to make it into a cake proper, the mix was still good in moderation as a little treat because that's just how poor we were. There's no stigma in this... no shame. Any day you have a cake is a cause for a little celebrating, no matter where it came from. Edit: Hey Cecil, just wondering how much pudding did you put into the cake? Did you just take like a box of the pudding mix and mix it in alongside, or is there some ratio? Might like to try this myself next time I'm baking up a cake.

[@SeasonLiberally]

The whole packet of pudding.

[@tomskelton4937]

listened to CogDis and joined here because of... anyway, commenters about international differences from US options made me think of the joke i wrote when i was living in Budapest for 6 months.. 1 cup to 200g, check 350* F to 176* C check bake for 1 hour, .... gmt +1 so it's done next week? different note about pudding, back in the 80's, the betty crocker cake super moist mixes were advertised on tv and on the box with 'pudding in the mix' but at some point that went away from 'all' the mixes and is limited to some of the mixes.

[@thomasdjonesn]

My partner loves to bake cakes, but we were not so experienced with making them from scratch. She got the ingredients and made one from scratch, and it was a disaster. I went to the store and found a brand that was ever-present growing up, (Jiffy, if you're interested,) as a back-up, and a Red Velvet mix. The Red Velvet mix held until we flipped it, and it basically crumbled. She was panicking, at this point, so I busted out the Jiffy like "this has always brought me luck." Bam, batter goes in, cake goes out, moist, a little springy, and professional looking as hell. Once we got the obscene candies, that I made, properly situated, it was photo worthy.

[@Godzilla_Jesus]

The wife and I agree, there should be a fourth cake to test. MEME cake + Pudding = ? She's a talented baker, but I do try to make her a box cake on occasion, will use the tips :)

[@ambulocetusnatans]

I had a Chemistry teacher in High School who was also a pastry chef. He would say that Chemistry and Baking have a lot in common because accurate measurement gives reproduceable results. In other words, cooking is an art; baking is a science. I'm a pretty good cook, but I can't bake for shot, which probably means I should stay out of the lab.

[@RobPaige]

Nobody walks into a lab knowing everything. That's the beauty of a lab, it's a safe place to mess up.

[@felixmasak295]

spicing up store bought mixes is generally a good way to save time, or learn how to spice up stuff before you learn to make it from scratch. I generally don't use intant mixes anymore, but I sure learned a lot about cooking and baking from riffing with them in my early 20's my favorite cooking meme has always been "there's no such thing as ONE clove of garlic", but that is not really one to try out

[@semitonetasticly]

Great video! Nice to see this tested out so straightforwardly. I don't have a link to it exactly, but I've often heard about adding coffee to chocolate box cake mixes for a similar effect. For a different thing, adding apples, chocolate, and honey (coffee too, but I haven't tried it yet) to your standard box of pre-made Japanese curry blocks can make it more unique, though you're not changing as many ingredients as this so idk if it'd work for a video haha.

[@ambulocetusnatans]

Coffee sounds yum.

[@1jugglethis]

I am a professional baker, and I have 2 cases of boxed cake mix in my home pantry at all times. Absolutely nothing wrong with them. They are consistent, inexpensive, and dead simple to make. I even use Bisquik on the regular, and those little boxes of Jiffy muffin mix. Sometimes, I just want to eat Nostalgia.

[@fasteronfire89]

I love you Cecil

[@cynieloo]

When I decorate cakes, I mostly use a doctored cake mix, usually combining your meme cake method with the pudding. It gives me consistent results and saves time that I can put into the filling, icing, and decorating. If I'm in a pinch for time, I occasionally whip store bought icing with a little almond flavoring to make it taste like I spent all day on it. 🤭

[@caycee6385]

Awesome to have an easy way to make a good cake when needed. Thanks for the method review!

[@christopherrohn5858]

I just finished my pastries class for culinary school so I’m excited to see if this is a failure or not

[@asmodean21]

My Mom always adds a packet of pudding to the cake mixes, still turns out really consistent and works well for not a lot of extra effort. Combining that with a good scratch made frosting works really well for family and friend events

[@MrTBoneSF]

When I saw "meme cake" I thought it was going to be about adding baked milk powder. Have you tried that one yet?

[@rehamkcirtap]

I watched the video and went and did this with brownies. In addition to what you did I separated eggs and whipped the whites well. It's very good. Kind of cakey but melts to a brownie and so rich.

[@shell42575]

I totally agree with what you're saying about box cakes

[@shell42575]

A thought maybe separate the yoke from the white and whipping the egg whites and folding them in might produce a better result in the extra cake. The pudding one i have heard about but never tried. I also have heard about adding apple sauce but again never tried

[@SeasonLiberally]

I hadn't considered whipping whites and folding that in. Maybe I'll do another version of the video with that method.

[@rehamkcirtap]

This is what I do when making ebelskivers.

[@ambulocetusnatans]

@@rehamkcirtap I had to look that up. Sounds delish.

[@rehamkcirtap]

@@ambulocetusnatans The only thing that's a real pain about is that you need a special little Pan for it. But they are very tasty

[@MarkRosengarten]

Outstanding experiment. I see you are wearing a lavalier mic, but I'm not sure it was picking up your voice as there is a lot of echo as if the camera microphone itself was serving as the auidio source. But really loving this series.

[@SeasonLiberally]

This was the first video I recorded when I relaunched. The lav mic was too hot and unusable. Had to use the camera audio. It's not great quality.

[@fredjkproductions]

@@SeasonLiberally yeah, the audio can absolutely be the trickiest part of this whole thing. Don’t you have Ian stuffed in one of your cabinets? 😂 seriously, absolutely adore all of your projects. Thanks and keep on keeping on.

[@huseyx2]

As a Brit, can you explain what you mean by pudding? Or if it's a specific thing can you give a brand name so we can search for the product? Pudding just means any generic dessert to us

[@SeasonLiberally]

A box of just add milk instant custard.

[@huseyx2]

@@SeasonLiberally cheers Cecil! Gonna try it out with the GF cake mixes. They all have a really slight metallic taste to me so I've been looking for ideas to improve them Edit: ah crud i just found out what you call custard isn't what we call custard! Gonna just order some pudd from the US and work out what it is!

[@SeasonLiberally]

Our vanilla pudding is basically pastry cream if you were looking for a technical term. It's a little stiffer than a crème anglaise.

[@huseyx2]

@@SeasonLiberally ahhhhhh man I tell you cookery is the only uk/us cultural difference that really makes my brain explode! Thanks for helping to explain, and thanks for the series too.

[@ambulocetusnatans]

@@huseyx2 I remember seeing a chart of the things you folks call "pudding" and I was surprised by how many items it listed. Over here it's just one thing, although there are various flavors. My favorite is Rice Pudding.

[@WideLoad405]

I still like the channels that shit on stuff a little. Can't tell you why. Maybe I'm garbage but I still like Joshua Weissman and Nats What I Reckon. Could you do some diabetic friendly recipes? I'll give an example of one I've tried. I used a katsu style recipe but instead of AP flour, I used almond flour. Instead of bread crumbs, I used crushed up pork rinds. Can you do some stuff like that?

[@SeasonLiberally]

I have a friend who is severely allergic to gluten and can't eat sugar so I can ask her for some. The recipe I am posting this week should be good for that. After I made it at my house she called asking for the recipe.

[@Cheryl_in_TX]

I like Joshua Weissman a great deal. That doesn’t mean we’re garbage. We take from it what we like and leave the rest behind.

[@keithdavies52]

Morning Cecil

[@SeasonLiberally]

Hey Keith!

[@RevRJBrink]

next time, blind taste!