Molly Yeh Just Took Yellow Cake To The Next Level And Instagram Is Impressed

In the world of cake flavors, yellow is as classic as it gets. The old standby — which food writer Deb Freeman heralds as "the only flavor when it comes to cake" in a Food52 article — is immaculate in its golden-hued simplicity and rich in taste due to its high ratio of sugar to flour and its generous helpings of butter and eggs. Yellow cake is delicious even in its plainest form, but you'll often see it dressed as the emoji-like platonic ideal of a birthday cake, covered in chocolate or vanilla frosting and separated into a couple of layers by more frosting. Even novice bakers will find it easy enough to make at home, but Betty Crocker's Super Moist Yellow Cake Mix and a jar of pre-made Rich & Creamy will do just fine in a pinch.

We can't imagine yellow cake's no-fuss gateau-to-frosting ratio (read: tall layers of cake, thin layers of frosting) ever going out of style, but the buttery base begs for experimentation, too. This week, Food Network personality Molly Yeh showed Instagram her latest spin on yellow cake, and the comment section is brimming with positive feedback.

Molly Yeh's Wednesday Instagram post made yellow cake fans stop in their scrolling tracks with her tasty-looking spin on the dessert, which she calls "yellow cake as cookie bars." The treats are sliced into squares and appear to be half yellow cake and half chocolate frosting — a diversion from the typical ratio, to be sure, but one that yields a pleasing color-block effect. 

The bars look like fluffy cloud squares worthy of a cookbook spread, but Yeh isn't done tinkering with the recipe. "Need to work on my chocolate frosting situation," she writes in the caption. "Do you like tangy things in your chocolate frosting, like sour cream or cream cheese? Or just straight up butter?" Cookbook author Jake Cohen was the first to answer. "Always tang," he wrote, which was seconded by Real Simple's Jenna Helwig. The answers ran the gamut after that, with some commenters rooting for sour cream ("easier to work with," wrote one user), some singing the praises of cream cheese, and some standing by butter. One user admitted to being a "straight up butter purist," while another suggested mixing butter and powdered sugar with some milk. Another user wrote "All of the above." Yeh has a lot to work with, so here's hoping we'll see an official recipe on her blog soon.