Chai Banana Bread

I used this recipe but did not add the icing. I used a mix of raisins, dried cranberries, and dried apples.

Carrot-Pineapple Bundt Cake

My seasonal baking also included a carrot-pineapple bundt cake. Here is the recipe. This was really moist and people liked it quite a bit.

Spice Cake

I made a spice cake to celebrate the autumn weather. I used this recipe, but reduced the butter to about 1/3 cup and added raisins. I think it could easily be made with more spices as the spices weren’t so pronounced right after baking, which is when I brought it to someone.

Beer Cake

When you see a recipe like this, it’s hard not to try it. I used a pilsner. The cake had a very moist crumb but tasted like a pound cake otherwise. The streusel topping sunk into the cake as it baked, so there wasn’t much of it left on top. I didn’t have any cream of tartar but it worked just fine without it – I added a pinch of ground agar agar instead.

I thought the cake matured overnight, and tasted better the second day.

 

Dessert Wine Trifle

I put this trifle together over the holidays. I am not as fond of the gelatine variation, so I made a custard/whipped cream version. From the bottom to the top, it consists of:

• Carla’s hot milk sponge cake from the More with Less cookbook, drenched in white dessert wine (late harvest Royal Tokaji)
• Basic egg yolk-and-milk custard
• Carla’s sponge cake with wine
• Strawberries soaked in wine and sugar
• Unsweetened whipped cream with chunks of meringue
• Egg-white sponge cake made with the whites left from the custard, drenched in wine
• Melon balls soaked in wine
• Custard
• Sweetened whipped cream
• Blueberries and meringue

All in all, a colossal caloric dessert, which was fun to assemble and which my guests hopefully enjoyed eating.

 

Apple Praline Cake

This is a very nice apple cake. When it was ready to go in the oven, it looked all wrong, with the apple pieces standing upright in tight formation.

However, when it baked the cake rose around the apples. My cake didn’t need the extra time the author mentioned, nor was it too moist in the center. I used 4 large Boskoop apples.

One problem was that the tips of some of the apple slices burned.This was easily solved by cutting off the burnt tips before applying the praline topping. In the finished cake the praline topping hides the evidence of this procedure.

The final cake was moist and delicious.

Marbled Matcha Cake

I didn’t have a small pan like the recipe called for, so I knew my cake would turn out a bit flatter than the original. What I wasn’t expecting was the orange tint on the top of the cake. I thought it was rather pretty.

Inside it looked as expected. I think I cooked it a little longer than needed, and one of my eggs had a double yolk which may have also contributed to the colour. The crumb was nice and the cake was not too dry. It is mildly sweet and would be nice topped with honey if you like a sweeter cake.

Vegan Carrot Cake

This egg-free, dairy-free cake is sweetened with fruit syrup. I used the recipe for ‘Chunky Carrot Cake’ from Sweet & Natural Baking by Mäni Niall but left out the nuts, substituted rye flour for the whole wheat, and only used 1/4 cup oil. It has an almost gingerbread flavour and is nice topped with date syrup or (soy) yoghurt sweetened with agave and stevia.

 

Pumpkin Buttermilk Cake

Origin

I started with this recipe for pumpkin gingerbread.

Ingredients

For the cake

• 1/3 cup unsalted butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 3 eggs
• 2 cups puréed pumpkin
• 1 cup + 2 tablespoons buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon cloves
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon allspice
• 1 teaspoon ginger
• pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 3 cups flour

For the glaze

• powdered sugar
• lemon juice
• milk

Process

Preheat the oven to 350° Fahrenheit/180° Celsius. Butter a bundt pan.

Beat the butter and brown sugar together. Beat in the molasses, eggs and pumpkin  in turn, beating well after each addition.

Sift together the dry ingredients. Combine them and the buttermilk with the wet ingredients and mix until combined. Pour into the prepared cake pan and smooth the top.

Bake until a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean, about one hour. Allow to cool in the pan for half an hour, then turn out on a wire rack to finish cooling.

Allow the cake to sit overnight, covered, for the flavours to develop.

Mix the powdered sugar with a bit of lemon juice and enough milk to form a thick glaze. Drizzle the glaze over the cake and allow the cake to sit until the glaze dries.

Almond Liqueur Cake

My friends recently brought me some lovely almond liqueur from Portugal which is so smooth and delicious I couldn’t help but imagine it moistening and flavouring a cake.

I wanted to start with a simple and plain cake recipe. I used Carla’s hot milk sponge cake from the More-with-Less Cookbook by Doris Janzen Longacre. Once the cake had cooled, I pierced it with a metal skewer and poured about two and a half shots of liqueur over it, which the cake greedily absorbed. I finished the cake with a chocolate ganache made using some lovely Spanish chocolate another friend gave me.

Rating: Tasty – I will probably make it again