Fav Spice Cake

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Tomato Soup Mystery Cake Now Pumpkin SpicE

Spice CakeThis was Marc’s choice for a birthday cake … The Mystery Cake for the mystery man.

I have tested alternatives to the main ingredient, canned tomato soup. With this recipe I substituted pumpkin with terrific results. The idea of pumpkin puree just sounds better for several reasons.

The cake is called a mystery because of the hidden tomato soup ingredient that cannot be detected in the flavor of the cake. As for the pumpkin substitution, it is hard to determine if the spices used take the palate to a pumpkin place as in pumpkin pie.

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Chardonnay Cake with Buttercream or Citrus Drizzle

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A Cake To Drizzle Or Not

Chardonnay Cake With Buttercream or Citrus Drizzle

 

This is a rich tasting but light in texture yellow cake … A cake I made for my daughter’s birthday today. I have added just a touch of drizzle … But did not pour a chardonnay glaze over the cake as in the original recipe.

I’m not sure who to give the credit to for this recipe. It was given to me many years ago but I fail to remember the details. With a little research I have found it has been recorded by Cindi Leive, 100 Recipes Every Woman Should Know.

Changes have been made to the glaze only. I like to make all cakes from scratch. So, with this recipe I experimented with replacing the vanilla pudding with ingredients like extra eggs and cream for the whole milk with disasterous results. I did a little research here but all the suggestions were very chancy. Dry whipped topping was suggested, too. But if using this topping I might as well use the pudding mix as in the original.

Try this Chardonnay Cake with Buttercream or Citrus Drizzle! After all it has been recommended as 1 in 100 recipes women should know! That says something, doesn’t it?

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Cinnamon Cocoa Sheet Cake

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Delicious, rich, cinnamon Spicy

cinnamon cocoa Sheet Cake

Cinnamon Cocoa Sheet Cake

This rich cake is a favorite of Aubree’s. Dressing up a sheet cake is difficult because the batter is very rich and meant to be baked in a thin layer. But if it is a special birthday what do you do? I have layered this cake … Not so pretty. Here I used a 12 section quiche pan with 12 false bottoms. And at the end of baking I had twelve blobs of very cooked batter at the bottom of the oven. Small cupcakes did pretty well. So, this is what I suggest for a birthday if this is the favorite cake, a tower of cupcakes. This recipe will make 24 small cupcakes.

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Portuguese Butter Sponge Cake

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Portuguese Butter Sponge Cake

Five senses overload best described Aunt Alice’s kitchen … Bleach cleaned and brightly lighted; smelling of smoked meats and sweet cakes; crowded with grown-ups who were loud with laughter, full of unfamiliar words, and giving toothy smiles and hugs as unconsciously as breathing. This was a pleasantly scary place to be for a three year old. I wish I could literally time travel to experience this again. And again.

As for this Portuguese Butter Sponge Cake … Having backyard chickens with extra eggs, and a memory boost from a friend, thank you Margaret, and thoughts of the grown-ups in my great aunt’s kitchen revived this family favorite. This cake was eaten straight from the oven for the intensified buttery taste, more noticeable when warm.  Margaret had eaten it just this way at our house and remembered it after all these years as a favorite.

There’s something about great food and memories. I have to laugh about our old family photos. It seems from these we did nothing else, but eat. Continue reading