CHECKERBOARD CAKE, GRANDMA CARR'S

CheckerBoard Cake, Grandma Carr's image

My Grandma Carr was so proud of this cake when she made it. She had a special pan set that made this cake easy and she used it for Christmas, birthdays, and other festive occasions. Her recipe was made from scratch. Back in 1980 when Grandma gave me her vintage 1950 cake pans she gave me this recipe using cake mixes. You can...

Provided by Kathie Carr

Categories Cakes

Time 50m

Number Of Ingredients 4

Ingredients

2 box yellow or white cake mix (2 layer size each) both mixes should be the same flavor
plus ingredients called for on the cake boxes
1/2 c cocoa or food coloring
frosting as dsired, home made or store bought

Steps:

1. DO NOT USE 2 DIFFERENT FLAVORS OF CAKE MIXES DUE TO DIFFERENT DENSITIES OF THE FLAVORS. THE CHECKERED SECTIONS MAY BLEND TOGETHER AND YOU WILL NOT GET A NICE PATTERN. IF USING SPECIAL CHECKERBOARD PANS: Preheat oven as called for on cake box. In a large mixer bowl follow cake box directions and mix both cake mixes together in one bowl. Remove a little over 1/3 of this mixture and place in a smaller bowl. Add cocoa powder and mix well. (OR You may add different colors of food coloring and a small amount of flavoring extract to each of the different parts of the batter. See pictures of examples of a red and green cake and a pink and white cake in pictures.)
2. Use ring tool that comes with checkerboard cake pans. In first pan put white or yellow batter into inner most and outer most circles of the tool. Put cocoa batter into the middle circle of the tool. Try to get different colored batters even with each other in depth. Remove ring tool very carefully so as not to mix colors of batter and rinse it. Make the other two layers the opposite way. Cocoa in the inner most and outer most sections, and white or yellow into the center ring. Bake according to cake mix directions for 9 inch layers.
3. Remove cakes from pans carefully. Allow to cool completely before frosting. Stack layers with the different layer in the center. Frost between layers and over entire cake as desired.
4. IF YOU DO NOT HAVE SPECIAL PANS: You can make this same effect without special pans. Simply spoon or pipe (with pastry bag) cake batter into 9 INCH ROUND cake pans in a ring pattern, alternating colors. It will not turn out to be as precise as the special pans but can still be very pretty.