you don't need sassy, you need spice cake

Some of the best things, when put to paper, oftentimes just don't sound that spectacular. Spice cake? Really? It just doesn't have the ring of awesomeness. Holy-Mother-Flipping-Totally-Rad-Spice-Cake, maybe. Please do not let the lackluster photo or hum-drum name sway you into not making this cake, because really, you must make this cake. It's good. Real good. With every bite my husband was rendered speechless and when he did muster up words, he rapturously muttered things like "be still my heart"*. When the last piece was eaten, I cried a little inside.

Make it now and thank me later. Oh, and go read about my food & wine autumn roadtrip outside of Vancouver for the Food Network blog.

spice cake
2 c flour
1 t cinnamon
1/4 t ground cloves
1/4 t ground nutmeg
1/4 t ground cardamom
1/4 c ground almonds
1 1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 c brown sugar
1/4 c molasses
1 egg
1/2 c oil
1/2 c yogurt
1/2 c milk
1/2 c toasted pecans, chopped
1/2 c raisins

Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl, combine the flour, spices, ground almonds, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. In another bowl, mix together the brown sugar, molasses, egg and oil until combined. In a measuring cup, mix the milk and yogurt together and set aside.

Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and gently blend. Add in the milk mixture, along with the pecans and raisins and mix until just combined. Grease and flour a bunt pan and pour in the mixture. Bake until a cake tester comes out clean, 45-55 minutes or so (depending on the size of your cake pan). Cool slightly on rack and then invert cake from pan and let cool completely or eat warm.

* Okay, he did not say "be still my heart", but it sure paints a better picture than "this is good cake" (which I already mentioned anyway, so there).

what time is it? it's time for cake

Last night I was in the mood for cake but I didn't want something with a lot of calories, so I poked into one of the cookbooks that I found on my Portland trip: 1,001 Low-Fat Vegetarian Recipes (found on the discount shelf at Powells, natch). This cake may be low in fat, but it's got lots of sugar, but I decided to throw caution to the wind cuz dammit, I wanted cake! And boy, this cake was worth it. Spicy and moist and it almost tasted like a spice donut! Yum. I wasn't too sure about the frosting, because as I naturally tend to do, I don't really follow recipes to the letter and mine turned out to be more of a glaze than a frosting. But the glaze worked well and I added some cinnamon to give it more flavour, but I did find that the recipe did make too much icing. Next time, I'd cut it in half or even leave it out altogether, and the cake wouldn't suffer one it without it.

spice cake with penuche frosting
4 T margarine or butter, softened
3/4 c sugar
1 egg
1/2 t vanilla
1 1/3 c flour
2 t baking powder
1 t cinnamon
1/4 t nutmeg
1/2 t ginger
1/4 t salt
2/3 c skim milk

1. Beat margarine, sugar, egg & vanilla in a large bowl until smooth. Mix in combined flour, baking powder, salt and spices alternately with milk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Pour into a greased and floured 8 or 9 inch round cake pan. (I used a bundt pan).

2. Bake at 350 degrees until cake is browned and springs back when touched, about 40 minutes. Cool in pan for 10 minutes and then remove and cool to room temperature on a wire rack.

3. Place cake on serving plate and glaze with Penuche Frosting.

penuche frosting
3 T margarine or butter
1/2 c brown sugar
2 - 2 1/2 c powdered sugar
1/2 t vanilla
1/2 t cinnamon
2-4 t skim milk

1. Melt margarine in a medium saucepan; stir in brown sugar and heat until bubbly. Stir in powdered sugar, vanilla and cinnamon and enough milk to make a spreading consistency.