The Recipe
1 pkg. plain yellow cake mix
1 c. sour cream
2 4-oz. jars of baby food plums
1/3 c. oil
1/4. c. sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp. ground cardamom
Beat ingredients for 3 minutes. Pour batter into greased, floured bundt pan. Bake at 350º until the cake is golden brown and pulls from the side of the pan—about 40 to 45 minutes. Cool for 20 minutes, and remove from pan.
My Alterations
I had to change quite a bit to this recipe. Firstly, I tried to substitute the yellow cake mix with the ingredients from the basic yellow cake recipe. I left out the eggs, shortening and milk from the recipe, reasoning that there were eggs in the plum cake, used the oil instead of shortening, and sour cream instead of milk.
I used some plums languishing in my fridge instead of baby food; I boiled them and pureed them, and ended up with only 4 oz instead of the required 8 oz for the cake, so I had to reduce all ingredients by half.
Oh, and I couldn’t find ground cardamom in the store, so I had to resort to purchasing whole dried seeds and grinding them myself:
The Results
To say I was disappointed in this cake is an understatement. I tried to follow the directions for a perfect cake as stated in the basic yellow cake recipe. I sifted the flour, alternated the sour cream/egg yolk mixture with the flour, even beat the egg whites!
It, uh, didn’t work….
The Verdict
I’m still at a loss as to what I did wrong, unless my attempt at simulating the yellow cake mix went horribly wrong. The cake was flat, dense, and rubbery. It just did not appeal at all.
The plum and cardamom was a good taste combination, but they weren’t showcased very well in such a bad cake.
The Rating
1/5
Big disappointment! Maybe I’ll try again someday, but I’m going to work on other recipes for now!
