The
Heavenly Cake Bakers got to choose from a list of recipes that Marie, the group's organizer, had made in the past. Although it was hard to pick a recipe (all of them sound good), I decided to pick something that I could take to work for today's bake sale (benefiting the flood victims in Pakistan). My choice:
Spice Cake. Rose suggests frosting it with a Peanut Buttercream Frosting but since I can't eat peanut butter, I opted to use my standby Whipped Molasses Cream Cheese Frosting instead. My main concern with the PB frosting was of course quality control: how can you sell something you haven't tasted yourself? :o)
 |
| Frosted, decorated and ready for the bake sale |
The batter came together very quickly. I like that Rose add a little bit of cocoa powder to the batter for a little color. I remember that trick from when we made her carrot cake.
 |
| The batter was thick and satiny |
 |
| Ready for the oven (including my quality control muffin) :o) |
After only 30 minutes in the oven, the cake was done.
 |
| The cake rose quite nicely |
After it cooled, I wrapped it in plastic wrap, and didn't frost it until the next day. We tasted the "muffin" shortly after it came out of the oven. I found it to be lacking that "spice punch" I was expecting. Rose says to let it sit a day to let the spices marry, so the next day I tried it again, and liked it much better. Having said that, I will definitely increase the amount of spices next time. As for the cake's texture: melt-in-your-mouth tender! Yum.
 |
| Taken at the bake sale to who you the cake's interior |
Final thoughts:
- Although hubby and I enjoyed this cake, we felt it needed more "spice" flavor. Rose only specifies to use cinnamon and cloves. In addition I used freshly ground nutmeg, ginger, and all spice. Hubby also found it a tad dry but I thought the moisture content was fine. His rating: 7.5 out of 10.
- I replaced 1 Tbsp of butter in the recipe with 1/2 oz (by weight) of canola oil.
- Instead of baking the cake in round 9" pan, I opted for a square 8" pan as their volume is fairly comparable.
- At the Bake Sale today we raised $338.00. This will be donated to the Red Cross to help the flood victims in Pakistan.
wow, you raised a lot of money for the bake sale! The cake looks really moist.. i'll have to try making it sometime!
ReplyDeletewow..that's for a great cause! great looking cake! From the first photo, i thought it was some potato slices on top..and was trying to see what decoration it was..then i realised it's whipped cream decorated like this..so neat and so uniformly! How did you do it?
ReplyDeleteBeautiful cake!
ReplyDeleteHuh... I could have sworn by looking at the first photo that you baked this cake in a sheet pan, but no, it was an 8-inch square - deceiving. Whipped molasses cream cheese frosting sounds very yummy, and I like the pattern you used - do you have the recipe listed somewhere on your blog?
ReplyDelete:)
ButterYum
The texture of your cake looks perfect! moist as I love... Your cakes sounds always very gourmets :) And, congratulations for all this money ammaser for the victims in Pakistan. It's a good amount!
ReplyDeleteHanaa, I thought it was a sheetpan also. And how do you make the decoration design? Please do share! It's very pretty.
ReplyDeleteOh and that's a great amount of money for the bake sale.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on your fundraising efforts; that's fantastic!
ReplyDeleteYour frosting choice sounds wonderful.
This cake sounds wonderful, and I'd definitely go with the Molasses frosting. What a nice combination. Like you, I like extra spice in my desserts, so I'd probably double it up. Congratulations on your fund-raising efforts!
ReplyDeleteWhat a fantastic result at the cake sale ... well done!
ReplyDeleteI love the sound of the cake, as I love spice but not dried fruit - this would suit me perfectly (with the extra spices you suggest!!)
Thanks for popping by ... I'm following you now!
You all did wonderful on your bake sale! Beautiful cake and I love your decoration pattern on top. The frosting flavor sounds delicious too Hanaa, hugs, Shandy
ReplyDeleteThat cake is a thing of beauty! I love how you applied the frosting, it's gorgeous. I'm glad your bake sale was such a success!!
ReplyDeletece gâteau est parfait avec une texture bien moelleuse
ReplyDeletej'aime beaucoup
bonne soirée
I'm adopting you as my sister . . .I can always count on you for making me laugh and feel better about something not quite up to par.
ReplyDeleteBTW, I never heard of the Examiner either, until they hired me. I found out the online newspaper is based in the Seattle/Tacoma area. The positive is I get to say I am a food writer. They are already doing a background check on me and want my first article in the next 3 days. Can you have writer's block on day 1?
I bought a book by Dianne Jacob called "Will Write for Food". The book came highly recommended for writing cookbooks, reviews, fiction articles, memoirs, etc. and now that I have it, I can see why. Nice to have a book written to solely teach the art of food writing. 1 whole chapter is just about descriptive adjectives.
Who knew "delicious" and "YUM" was so over used? (laughing)
Amazon.com sells the book around $10 used. Mine came with added notes from the previous user. I believe he or she stopped at Chapter 2 1/2, feeling quite brilliant, from what I can decipher. Talk to you soon, HUGS, Shandy
Thank you for doing this for such a great cause. This looks delightful. Makes me think it been along while since I made a spice cake or a carrot cake! Wonder I always feel busy and still haven't made this
ReplyDeleteLovely cake and even lovelier gesture to donate the proceeds to the victims of the floods in Pakistan! So very heartwarming, Hanna!
ReplyDelete