Spice Cake

You taste one Spice Cake and you’ve tasted them all. Not true! A cake that will surely become a favorite! Looking for new birthday cake recipes! This was sent to me by my eldest as a possibility. Directly from Bake From Scratch Magazine but not exactly. The ingredients being advertised in this recipe were Heilala Pure Vanilla Extract (one of the best bourbon vanilla’s, so they say) which kinda gets lost in the spicy cake, and Heilala Vanilla Bean Paste. I can’t wait to try this vanilla extract in my Chantilly Cream. If you look closely you can see the crushed vanilla bean seeds in the frosting. Now that’s a great frosting! It may seem like literally too much frosting for the cake … But it works!

Recipe

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Prepare a 9 inch nonstick (preferred) spring form pan-butter or baking spray lightly. Cover bottom with parchment paper after spraying bottom lightly. Spray lightly the top of the paper too.

2 Cups all purpose flour
2 Teaspoons baking powder
1/2 Teaspoon baking soda
1 Teaspoon kosher salt
2 Teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 Teaspoon ginger
1/4 Teaspoon cloves
1 Cup sugar
1/2 Cup vegetable oil
2 Large eggs
1 Cup applesauce
1/2 Cup buttermilk
1 Teaspoon best vanilla extract (Heilala can be purchased on Amazon if you’d like to try it.)

Whisk together the first 7 ingredients in a bowl and set aside.

In a large bowl beat the sugar and oil together and add the eggs and beat until well mixed. (The texture of this cake is somewhere between a layer cake and a sponge cake.)

Add the applesauce to the sugar/oil/egg mixture and mix well.

Add the dry ingredients to the mixture a little at a time along with the buttermilk. Mix until just incorporated well.

Stir in the vanilla.

Pour into prepared baking pan and bake 35-40 minutes. Check with a wooden toothpick or skewer for doneness. When pierced down into the center and comes out clean it’s done.

Remove from the oven. Loosen the sides after ten minutes and when cool enough to handle remove the cake from the pan completely to cool.

Frost when room temperature.

Serve. Refrigerate cake leftovers.

Frosting

8 Ounces cream cheese-room temperature
1/2 Cup butter-room temperature
1 Box of confectioners’ sugar-about 4 cups
1/2 Teaspoon kosher salt
1 Tablespoon Heilala Vanilla Bean Paste

Beat all ingredients until spreading consistency. Start slow to avoid a fine sugar dust throughout your kitchen.

Frost cake when room temperature.