Should I hide the fact that one of my favorite (and most requested) cakes is made with a mix? Should I be embarrassed that it’s so simple to make that my mom – in her inimitable fashion – calls it “Stupid Cake”, After all, as she says “any stupid fool can make it.” I don’t care. The cake is delicious and I’m not ashamed of it. If my confession gets me thrown out of the always-from-scratch club, so be it.
I often make substitutions and will give you variations on this theme in another post. But for now, I advise trying this recipe with the specified ingredients. If you are not old enough to purchase liquor or don’t want to use it, you could use an equivalent amount of orange juice. However, that substitution will make the cake less enticing, because the best part, IMHO, is the wonderful aroma the cream sherry imparts to this cake.
Speaking of the sherry. My “rule” on wine and other liquor as recipe ingredients is to use least expensive type that I would be willing to drink. In this case, I bought sherry that cost $11.99 plus tax. (Maybe I could have saved a few dollars if I had done more comparison shopping, but I was in a rush.) If you buy a less expensive brand, you can save about 30%, but because you only use 4 ounces in each cake, the savings is less than $1 in the cost of the cake.
This cake is a bit more expensive than other cakes made from mixes. However, the taste is much better, in large part because of the two most expensive ingredients – the poppy seeds and the sweet sherry. If you compare it to cakes from a bakery, on a per slice or whole cake basis, the cost of this cake is quite reasonable. So consider it a “company cake” if you’re on a budget. And keep in mind that recipes in cookbooks and most other sites don’t provide cost data. Do you typically figure out how much a recipe is going to cost before you buy the ingredients? If not, maybe you’ll start doing it now?
A note on the pudding and cake mix ingredients. You must use instant pudding and pie filling – not the type that may be labeled “cook and serve” and takes longer to cook. I use Duncan Hines cake mix. The one time I tried another brand, the cake didn’t come out as well. I have no behind-the-scenes information about cake mixes, but I suspect that each mix brand is formulated differently. Try another brand at your peril.
You can buy poppy seeds in the spice and herb section of the supermarket. Most brands I found are sold in plastic or glass containers holding around 2 ounces. Brands vary in the exact amount sold in the container. As long as you use around 2 ounces, the result will be fine.
You can mix this cake with a powerful stand mixer, a small hand-held mixer, or by hand. You’re not trying to beat the thing to death, just mix it until all the ingredients are combined. If you do a decent job of scraping the bottom every once in a while with a spatula, you should not need to mix for more than a few minutes, even by hand, and a shorter time if using a stand or hand-held electric mixer.
Poppy seed cake
10+ servings.
Ingredients
- 1 box of Duncan Hines yellow cake mix
- 1 small box (3.4 ounce size) of instant vanilla pudding (I prefer plain vanilla to French vanilla)
- 8 ounces sour cream
- 1/2 cup canola or other oil that doesn’t have strong taste (not olive oil)
- 1/2 cup cream (sweet) sherry
- 4 eggs at room temperature
- 2 ounces poppy seeds
- canola oil spray or bit of oil or butter to grease the pan
- 1-2 teaspoons of confectioner’s sugar (optional) for dusting completed cake
Equipment
- Large bowl
- Spatula
- Mixer (optional) or large spoon or fork
- Bundt pan
- Wire rack for cooling
- Small sieve
- Teaspoon
- Wire rack for cooling
Preparation
- Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Oil or butter the bundt pan, making sure to get all the corners.
- Add the cake mix and the instant pudding to the bowl.
- Add the sour cream, oil cream sherry and eggs.
- Mix until the ingredients are completely combined.
- Add the poppy seeds.
- Pour into the bunt pan.
- Bake for 1 hour or slightly longer, until a knife inserted in the middle of the rind comes out clean and the cake has started to come away from the sides of the pan.
- Let the cake rest in the pan for 10-20 minutes.
- Unmold the cake by putting a wire rack on top of the cake pan and reversing it, so that the wire rack is on the bottom. Take off the pan. Let the cake cool.
- Dust the completely cooled cake with confectioner’s sugar. The best way to dust is to move a sieve with 1-2 teaspoons of confectioner’s sugar over top of cake, holding it with one hand and moving a teaspoon with the other hand.
Tammy says
I *used* to scoff at cake mix, but now I am a BIG believer in them. Ha! They really come in handy, especially if you just want dessert and not be totally fussy about it. That being said this poppy seed cake looks sooo moist and delicious! I would love a slice with some whipped cream <3
Toodles,
Tammy<3
Laura says
Tammy, I never judge when someone (or a recipe) uses a mix. The proof is in the tasting – if it tastes as good as homemade, why not:)? Poppy seed cake with whipped cream sounds really good to me right now.
Patricia says
Why not? Because there are toxic ingredients in cake mixes. Aluminum in the baking powder (buy organic) fake fats, no longer hydrogenated thank God, but not the fats as God made them. The fats are likely to be oxidized too. Oxidized fat is toxic to your body. Dried milk and dried eggs if they have them in the cake mix are already oxidized, unlike fresh milk and fresh eggs. The flour has been ground for how long? Already oxidised too. And it will be undoubtedly modern wheat. Read a few books on how heavily modified modern wheat is (it was both irradiated and chemically bombarded to get the genetic mutations which turned it from a crop that was as tall as a man to a crop that is knee high. Read Dr. Steven Gundry’s book, “The Plant Paradox” on that, and if you don’t believe him, read the wheat experts who are bringing back the “landrace” (original) wheats. Read about how modern wheat and candida in the gut from too much sugar causes leaky gut syndrome, which is now thought to be at the base of both cardiovascular disease and autoimmune diseases. Use what is called Einkorn or in Italian Farro Monococcum (you can recognise it by the groove down the wheat berry). Get a grain mill, and grind your flour yourself. It will pay for itself in savings on the flour and in better nutrition. Or follow Dr. Gundry’s recipes and use erythritol and stevia powder for the sweetener (and use as little as possible, you will get beautiful skin from the erythritol as it helps build collagen in the skin. Subsitute coconut flour, tapioca flour, and almond flour for the flour in your recipes if you want to remain slim and healthy. Almonds can be ground in your blender or food processor with a few tablespoons of the granulated sugar to use as flour. Almond flour is high protein and high in fats, it won’t make you fat though, it will help keep you slender. Don’t count calories, count insulin reactions. Check how much insulin it takes to make sugar enter your cells. Do a fasting insulin and glucose test, then proceed to drink the 100 ml of dextrose at the lab, then have them check BOTH glucose and insulin every hour for three hours. Americans only check glucose, but that is not the whole story. See how much insulin it takes over those three hours to lower your blood glucose to normal. THAT defines your level of insulin resistance, which you want to keep as LOW as possible. Insulin resistance builds until it becomes diabetes. Diabetes is epidemic. Be smart. Keep yourself and your family healthy!
Judith McWilliams says
Another reason to give my husband when he jokes about my going to the fuss of making things from scratch! There’s no appreciation for the finer things of life–literally:-) Thanks for your effort of explaining all.
Sha Hopwell says
Can you add almond flavoring without changing the taste of the recipe?
Laura says
Sha, I’ve never added almond so I can’t say how it would affect the taste of the cake, if at all. There is no vanilla in the recipe, so you’re not subbing almond for vanilla or another flavor. If you do add it, I would try 1/4 teaspoon on the first go round and see how you like it. Almond extract is strong – more than that might be overpowering.