Bored with Birthday cake...

The 'spouse's birthday is on a work day for him this year - so I need a cake to bring to the firehouse. Ordinarily, this would be a slam-dunk: I'd do the Black-and-Tancake engineered, with the help of Pucca, Llama and Mincybits, on this very website - however, I just brought that for Father's Day (he was also working) and it's an awfully rich, heavy cake.

My go-to cake for the August birthday is Moosewood's Olive Oil Citrus cake, which we all love - but I'm a bit bored with it - and, as it's really a pound-cake kind of thing, it's got a face that only a mother could love, so to speak. So, I'm looking for a cake recipe that's light, summery with an equally light and summery frosting, something that I can make pretty - but that will meet the needs of Manly Men (and Womanly Women, of course) Who Put Out Fires. Any ideas? Anything with fruit or citrus is good, or with a nut base like almonds, or even just plain vanilla in a new way...

Mhays wrote:My go-to cake for the August birthday is Moosewood's Olive Oil Citrus cake, which we all love - but I'm a bit bored with it - and, as it's really a pound-cake kind of thing, it's got a face that only a mother could love, so to speak.

Funny--this summer I've been experimenting with orange cakes, trying to replicate one that I had in Australia. I made orange walnut cake last weekend, which turned out pretty well--not as sweet as regular poundcake, more of a European-style dessert.

Mhays wrote:So, I'm looking for a cake recipe that's light, summery with an equally light and summery frosting, something that I can make pretty - but that will meet the needs of Manly Men (and Womanly Women, of course) Who Put Out Fires.

I don't know anything about manly men, but I'm a big fan of citrus cheesecakes in the summer--can be refreshing but still substantive, easy to decorate. How about some variation of a pineapple upside down cake?

Nigella has some really interesting cakes in her Feasts (I think) cookbook - one of which is a chocolate malt cake. I have it at home. Want me to flip through and send any ideas tonight?

Cooks Illustrated also had a great lemon cream cake recipe. There was also a strawberry cream cake but those may not be manly-man enough for your needs.

I also saved this one from epicurious but haven't made it yet. It sounds kind of fun and playful:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/CHOCOLATE-PEANUT-BUTTER-CAKE-WITH-CREAM-CHEESE-AND-BUTTERFINGER-FROSTING-231746

Thanks, all!

A riff on pineapple upside-down cake sounds interesting: one of the spouse's favorite desserts is fresh fruit tart with pastry cream...

However, the Chocolate-Peanut-Candy cake sounds just like something the guys at whatever station he's at that day would like...even though (to me) it sounds awfully rich and heavy. I really like that it's a peanut cake filled with chocolate, rather than a mix of the two. The Strawberry Cream cake would be OK, except he doesn't really like strawberries - but mixed-fresh-fruit on those same lines might be just what I'm after.

Nigella sounds like a good resource, I'd love to hear what you come up with - would you mind? Keep 'em coming; I've got a couple weeks before the big day...

If you decide to go the pineapple upside-down cake route, the Rick Bayless cookbook "Mexican Everyday" cookbook has a great skillet-baked recipe - its soooo good. The batter is almost a muffin style, but its light enough for summer, and with a scoop of good vanilla on the side - quite delicious. I've also made it with mangoes and peaches with success as well. YUM.

Let me know if you want the recipe.

Not a birthday cake per se, but you could do some type of tres leches cake.

Or a Coca-cola cake with coca-cola icing won't be too heavy but still satisfy any possible need for a chocolate cake at the station house. There is a ton of variations on this recipe on-line . . . and perhaps can be made with Mexican coke?

Or a Caramel cake?

One of our favorite cakes is an adaptation from Joy of Cheesecake, and it's not a cheesecake, but a cake, with cheese. It's got a relatively light crumb, for such rich taste.

Chocolate-Chip Cream Cheese Cake
------------------------------------
Hardware:
2qt Bundt pan or similar
Oven, preheated to 300F

Software:
2 C all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 C (2 sticks) Butter
1/2 lb Cream Cheese
1 1/2 C Sugar
4 Eggs (large)
1 tsp Nutmeg
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1/2 C pecans, chopped
1/2 C mini chocolate chips

Instructions: (Muffin Method)
1. Sift together flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg
2. Cream together butter, cream cheese, sugar until smooth in mixing bowl
3. Add the vanilla, then the eggs, one at a time (mixture may appear curdled -- will not be smooth)
4. Add dry ingredients to wet
5. Stir in mini chocolate chips and chopped pecans. NOTE: Full-size chips will sink to the bottom, mini ones are required
6. Pour into pan, bake for 1 hr 20 min, test with a knife coming out clean

Serve room temperature, optionally sprinkled with powdered sugar

This cake keeps very well (all that nice fat), it's never lasted long enough to get stale.
Original recipe had walnuts and lemon zest instead of the chips and pecans (very few sweet recipes where walnuts work better than pecans. OK, maybe baklava, but I'd rather have pistachios than either of those) and no nutmeg or vanilla.

Mhays wrote:So, I'm looking for a cake recipe that's light, summery with an equally light and summery frosting, something that I can make pretty - but that will meet the needs of Manly Men (and Womanly Women, of course) Who Put Out Fires. Any ideas?

I wouldn't call it light and summery but if you really want something different, you might consider a meatcake.

What about an ice-cream cake? Or sherbet if you want something even lighter.

Basically you just make a regular layer cake or an angel-food cake, split it into thin layers and slather softened ice cream in between. Once it's assembled, put it back in the freezer. Frost with more ice cream or flavored whipped cream.

Or you could make a birthday-cake bombe, all ice cream, but shaped like a regular cake. Or frozen watermelon cake.

How about an Udon Noodle B-Day Cake

Well..one of the best cakes I've made lately is dried cherry almond pound cake which has a really lovely crumb and is chock filled with cherries that are soaked in amaretto and toasted almonds -- I'd be happy to pm you the recipe. Now I realize you're sort of over pound cake but I tell you -- this is a delightful cake. And I'm sure you could do a nice glaze with amaretto flavoring it. Oh wow that sounds good.

Another idea is a dessert from my family -- my mom calls it a Blueberry Pan Dowdy, but I think Pan Dowdy's are traditionally more crumbly/biscuity and this is definitely cakey. It's especially good with vanilla ice cream melting all over it. It's a famliy recipe -- so here it is if you're interested. Definitely not a traditional birthday type cake but a gorgeous thing to eat, nonetheless. And it's blueberry time! I love the crispy top with the fluffy soft cake and the delicious berry amalgam on the bottom.

Pam's Blueberry Pan Dowdy (my mom)

2 Cups Fresh Blueberries
1/3 + 1/2 cups Sugar
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
1 Cup Butter
1 Egg
1 1/2 cups Flour
2 teaspoons Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/2 cup Milk

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Combine berries, 1/3 cup sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan and cook, uncovered, stirring occasionally for 5 minutes. Pour into greased 9x9 baking pan.

Cream butter and 1/2 cup sugar until fluffy. Add egg and beat. And the flour and the milk alternately, ending with the flour.

Pour batter over berries (or spoon it) and bake for 20 minutes until light golden brown.


*** Sometimes i"ve been known to add amaretto this with the lemon juice -- or almond extract if I'm in the mood. But my mother traditionally just uses the lemon juice.

Have a great celebration!

Shannon

Rene G wrote:I wouldn't call it light and summery but if you really want something different, you might consider a meatcake.

Not so much for a birthday...but we are discussing meatloaf for Sparky's next foray into cooking...

Wow! Great ideas, everyone - now I have to mull them all over...but I really appreciate all your thought and help.

I suggest the Peanut Butter Torte from Baking: From My Home to Yours with Dorie Greenspan. It was easy to make, totally silky, rich but not overwhelmingly so, and a bit different. One of the favorite staff birthday cakes, for sure. Google "TWD Peanut Butter Torte" to see the Tuesdays With Dorie bloggers make this one.

I second the Angel food idea. If you don't want to make it filled with ice cream, you can top it with whipped cream, berries, and sliced almonds. It's pretty refreshing, and you can cut the sugar in the batter for a less painfully sweet dessert.

Marmish wrote:I suggest the Peanut Butter Torte from Baking: From My Home to Yours with Dorie Greenspan. It was easy to make, totally silky, rich but not overwhelmingly so, and a bit different. One of the favorite staff birthday cakes, for sure. Google "TWD Peanut Butter Torte" to see the Tuesdays With Dorie bloggers make this one.

I have made recipes from Dorie's books, though I have found the baking times she specified unreliable. What has been your experience?

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:

Marmish wrote:I suggest the Peanut Butter Torte from Baking: From My Home to Yours with Dorie Greenspan. It was easy to make, totally silky, rich but not overwhelmingly so, and a bit different. One of the favorite staff birthday cakes, for sure. Google "TWD Peanut Butter Torte" to see the Tuesdays With Dorie bloggers make this one.

I have made recipes from Dorie's books, though I have found the baking times she specified unreliable. What has been your experience?

Regards,

I found everything I've made from BFMHTY to be very good. I like that the muffin recipes make the number of muffins they are supposed to with no leftover batter. I don't recall any issues with baking times, although that isn't something that would bother me too much. In the eGullet thread on this book, we've baked 170 of the recipes. I've made more recipes from this book than probably any other book I own, with only one or two that I wouldn't repeat based on personal taste.

earthlydesire wrote:Another idea is a dessert from my family -- my mom calls it a Blueberry Pan Dowdy...

This suggestion made me think of Cathy2's Oma's Apple Kuchen, which I made yesterday with a combination of Granny Smith apples and blueberries (I couldn't decide). It's very tasty. You could just get creative with the layout of the fruit to doll it up for the occasion.

I made Earthlydesire's Blueberry Pan Dowdy on Saturday and it was eaten up very happily by my neighbors as we sat outside on a lovely summer evening. It was very good, especially with the recommended ice cream. The cake rises pretty high and is sweet in contrast to the still tart blueberries. The berries were just right. Not the same as a cobbler or streusel-topped fruit dish. Thanks, Shannon!

Oh I'm so glad you like it, Evy!

I have to get myself some blueberries and make it myself soon.

My auntie's specialty for birthdays is Sunshine Torte - I don't know if her family developed the recipe or got it elsewhere. It's a lemon chiffon cake with a rich chocolate filling and whipped cream frosting. If you're interested, I can PM you the recipe...

Yes please!

bluroses wrote:My auntie's specialty for birthdays is Sunshine Torte - I don't know if her family developed the recipe or got it elsewhere. It's a lemon chiffon cake with a rich chocolate filling and whipped ream frosting. If you're interested, I can PM you the recipe...

If it's not a family secret, why not post it? It sounds great.

I don't mind sharing. My only hesitance came from the fact that I don't know if maybe it has been published elsewhere and they took it a zillion years ago (no one seems sure where it came from) and I would be posting copyrighted material. However, if y'all don't mind, I don't!

Auntie Carolyn's Sunshine Torte

Sunshine Chiffon Cake
2 cups all purpose flour
1 ½ cups sugar
1 T baking powder
½ t salt
¾ cup cold water
½ cup oil
7 egg yolks, beaten
1 t lemon extract (it calls for vanilla, but the lemon gives the cake more flavor)
2 t grated lemon rind
7 egg whites
½ t cream of tartar

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in mixer bowl. Add water, oil, egg yolks, lemon extract, and lemon rind. Attach bowl and wire whip to mixer. Turn to Speed 4 and beat about 1 minute. Stop and scrape bowl. Continuing on Speed 4, beat about 15 seconds. Pour mixture into another bowl. Clean mixer and wire whip.
Place egg whites and cream of tartar in mixer bowl. Attach bowl and wire whip to mixer. Turn to Speed 8 and whip 2 to 2 ½ minutes, or until whites are stiff but not dry.
Remove bowl from mixer. Gradually add flour mixture to egg whites. Fold in gently with spatula, just until blended.
Pour batter into ungreased 10 inch tube pan. Bake at 325 for 60 to 75 minutes or until top springs back when lightly touched. Immediately invert cake onto funnel or soft drink bottle. Cool completely before removing from pan. Cut cake into very thin layers (she usually has at least six layers).

Filling
1 cup softened butter
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
¼ cup water
2 oz. unsweetened chocolate
4 egg yolks, beaten
4 egg whites

Cook granulated sugar, chocolate, and water in double boiler or on very low heat (I use low heat) just until smooth. Remove from heat. Add a few drops of this mixture to egg yolks, mixing in more and more until both egg yolks and chocolate mixture are combined. (If chocolate mixture starts out too warm, you get scrambled eggs in your chocolate.) Return mixture to low heat, cooking until mixture becomes thick. Let cool thoroughly. While this is cooling, you can cream the butter and confectioner’s sugar together thoroughly. Then whip the egg whites. Combine the butter/sugar mixture with the cooled chocolate mixture and then fold in the beaten egg whites. Spread between layers of cake.

Frosting
2 ½ pts whipped whipping cream sweetened to taste with confectioner’s sugar.

Nutritional info per slice (based on 20 slices - the filling is pretty rich; we've gotten more slices per cake, depending on who is cutting it!): 433.1 calories; 28.1 g total fat (13.8g saturated, 2.8g polysaturated, 9.9g monosaturated); 170.4mg cholesterol; 92.4mg potassium; 41.2g carbohydrates (0.8g dietary fiber, 28.9g sugars); 6.4g protein.

bluroses wrote:I don't mind sharing. My only hesitance came from the fact that I don't know if maybe it has been published elsewhere and they took it a zillion years ago (no one seems sure where it came from) and I would be posting copyrighted material. However, if y'all don't mind, I don't!

Hi,

I have occasionally have not been able to locate a family recipe passed onto me. I have found many of these recipes via internet searches. Sometimes a missing family recipe was once a back-of-the-box favorite or at least on the church and potluck supper circuit. If yes, then the possibilities of finding it by some clever searches are doable.

My friend Helen's kids once got quite upset with her for divulging the family's secret recipe for eggrolls. She pointed out her basic recipe comes from the back of the package, which anyone can obtain. Of course, there is an issue of technique that is all her own.

Thanks for the Sunshine Cake recipe. It looks very charming.

Regards,

For a particularly seasonal upside down cake, try this:

Plum Upside Down Cake

INGREDIENTS:
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
¼ cup chestnut honey
1 pint Italian plums
¾ cup all-purpose flour
¼ cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon cardamom
1 ¼ cup granulated sugar
1 stick unsalted butter
3 eggs, separated
¼ teaspoon vanilla
½ cup milk

METHODS: Preheat oven to 350° F. Pit and halve plums. Melt butter in skillet. Add honey, cook until bubbling. Carefully place plums in pan cut side down. Mix together flours, baking powder, kosher salt and cardamom in a medium-size bowl. Mix together the milk and the vanilla. Cream the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides and add the eggs. Add a third of the dry ingredients while the mixer is running. Add the ½ of the liquid ingredients. (alternating). Bake for 40 minutes.

Sorry I took so long to get back to you all - today's the big day, cakes are resting in the freezer, but I'd like to thank everyone for the posts on this thread, though, it's now a great resource for entertaining - I can't wait to try more of them.

As the 'spouse's favorite candy is peanut M&Ms, I finally settled on the Peanut Butter cake from Epicurious, but will decorate with m&ms as well as crumbled butterfingers. Because I'm me, I tinkered a bit: first halving the recipe so it fit in 2 8" cake pans, and I also decided that cream cheese frosting might be one too many flavors, so I made a white chocolate ganache frosting instead. From what I tasted of scraps and bowl-lickings, it certainly seems delicious but we'll be waiting for a final review from firehouse tomorrow (I didn't want to spill the beans when I saw you today at Maxwell Street, Hellodali and aschie30! )

However, when it's just the three of us, I use a 6" cake pan, so I kind of morphed some ideas together for the family birthday. Since Lemon Chiffon has been working for us, I made that as the cake, but used blueroses recipe, but quartered to account for the pan size. I filled it and frosted it according to Epicurious' Mixed-Berry Chiffon Cake with Almond Cream Cheese Frosting and it's waiting to be topped with the berries we bought at the Evanston Farmer's market. Again, what stuck or dripped or otherwise didn't make it into the finished product was delicious, especially the almond paste custard filling.

If I can sneak in pictures without messing with the celebration, I'll post them - and I'll let you all know how they taste, too!

Oh, I've been wanting to make that peanut butter cake so I'll be eagerly awaiting the review. And I think you are right on with the white chocolate ganache instead of cream cheese frosting. It would all sound really tasty right now if I wasn't still full from Maxwell St. feasting

Well, here they are, in all their glory:

Lemon Chiffon/Almond Cream cake



Peanut Butter Torte



Reviews - Lemon Chiffon/Almond : first of all, bluroses cake was light and fluffy and subtle (I used vanilla extract, I was out of lemon) Unfortunately, the Almond filling and frosting were decidedly not: it was a little like having almonds fired at you from all senses. While I like the flavor of almond, it struck me as something that would have been better inside a croissant or pie, or something bland that needed a topping rather than a cake; it's delicious and creamy on its own. I fortunately didn't use almond extract as the recipe directed, so all that flavor came just from the almond paste. Otherwise, a lovely, light cake, just what I was going for.

Peanut Butter Torte: this was very good, though I had some difficulties with the white chocolate ganache recipe (contrary to what you find on the internet, white chocolate does NOT behave the same as dark in a ganache - it turns translucent, for one thing) and my fix involved more sugar than I'd have preferred; recipes on the 'net usually involve making a buttercream and adding the ganache. The 'spouse's comment: "Why didn't you just frost it with a dark chocolate ganache?" Indeed, that would have been less trouble and would have worked nicely with this cake. However, the peanut butter cake is quite good - something like a quick bread, not terribly sweet, and the chunkiness of the peanuts gives it a nice texture. The chocolate peanut ganache in the center sweetens it up a bit, but is rich and dark and heavenly (and I'm not really a fan of that combo.) A not overly sweet cake, kid-friendly, but with grown-up appeal. It's highly recommended, and added to my reportoire.

Thanks again to everyone for all your suggestions!

On to Sparky's birthday, coming up in a couple of days! Of course, he went and asked for a strawberry cake, with strawberries IN the batter; so I'll be testing this recipe from Whole Foods (the only one I found that didn't involve Jell-O or food coloring.) Has anybody tried it?

Mhays wrote:Well, here they are, in all their glory:

Wow, nice very nice!

I hope you saved me a piece of that lemon/almond cake.