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Tuesday, September 14, 2010

HCB - Spice Cake with Whipped Molasses Cream Cheese Frosting

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.

16 comments:

  1. wow, you raised a lot of money for the bake sale! The cake looks really moist.. i'll have to try making it sometime!

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  2. wow..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?

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  3. Huh... 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?

    :)
    ButterYum

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  4. 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!

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  5. Hanaa, I thought it was a sheetpan also. And how do you make the decoration design? Please do share! It's very pretty.

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  6. Oh and that's a great amount of money for the bake sale.

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  7. Congrats on your fundraising efforts; that's fantastic!

    Your frosting choice sounds wonderful.

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  8. 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!

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  9. What a fantastic result at the cake sale ... well done!

    I 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!

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  10. 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

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  11. That 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!!

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  12. ce gâteau est parfait avec une texture bien moelleuse
    j'aime beaucoup
    bonne soirée

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  13. 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.

    BTW, 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

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  14. 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

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  15. Lovely cake and even lovelier gesture to donate the proceeds to the victims of the floods in Pakistan! So very heartwarming, Hanna!

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