A Little Bit of All Right

 The Tart Cherry Almond Cake starts with an easy almond-flavored cake batter that you then fold in tart cherries. Once it comes out of the oven and cools, it gets a soak in an almond simple syrup and then topped with a thick glaze and a sprinkle of slivered almonds.  The only problem I had with this recipe is that the cherries all sunk to the bottom. The recipe says you can use either fresh or frozen tart cherries. I had a couple of jars of tart cherries in my house, so I decided to use one of those. The note at the top suggests placing half the cherries on top of the batter if you're using frozen, which I did with my jarred cherries. But they all sunk anyway. With the cherries all clustered at the bottom, I had to work to get a proper taste of all the components. And while the iced cake was good, and the cake-encased cherries were good, the cherries with iced cake was perfection. If I were to make this cake again, I would cut the cherries into fourths, and I might even opt to coat

May is strawberry season here in Maryland. We have a local farm that we go to with friends every May to pick strawberries, so this recipe was perfect for me. I turned a big portion into strawberry jam, part of which is used to flavor the frosting, used more in the cake itself, and served extra on the side for anyone who wanted an additional strawberry boost. The cake starts with a lemon-zest flavored batter that gets topped with strawberry halves before being baked. The recipe calls for 1.5 cups, but I didn't actually measure. I just placed as many strawberries on top as I thought the cake could stand. While the cake bakes, you make a lemon syrup that then all gets brushed/poured onto the cake to both reinforce the lemon flavor and provide an amazing level of moistness to the cake.  Once the cake cools, it's time to make the strawberry marshmallow frosting. Start by heating up eggs whites and sugar and then whisk until still, glossy, and cool to the touch. I did have a bit of p

The recipe header describes this as banana heaven, and that is certainly a good description. It required 5 bananas, and came out both smelling and tasting wonderfully banana. The cake starts with a spiced banana batter. You then fold in diced bananas that have been cooked briefly in a mixture of rum and brown sugar. Once the cake is baked and cooked, it gets a brown butter rum drizzle that is a good match for the banana flavor.    My drizzle did not drizzle, and it was much darker than the picture in the book. I did add a little bit of milk to the mixture even though the recipe didn't call for it. I probably should have added some more to get a looser mixture. Instead, it was more like frosting. It was still delicious, and there were not complaints from the tasters. One suggestion the author makes is that when you're ready to remove the cake from the pan you should flip it onto the cake plate, and then let it sit for a minute before slowly lifting the pan off the cake. I had ne

Where does February bring to mind for you? Mae Jemison, Shirley Chisholm and Josephine Baker? Hearts, candy and flowers? Snow, ice, and cold? In our family it's Samoas, Trefoils, and Thin Mints. Yes, February is Black History Month, and it has Valentine's Day right in the middle, and it is (at least where we live) the coldest month of the year, but it is also Girl Scout Cookie month, and my daughter is a girl scout who actively participates with her troop in selling cookies. So of course I had to try out this month's choice of a Thin Mint-inspired cake, the Thicc Mint Cookie Cake. It's a layer of chocolate cake, topped with mint buttercream, and covered in ganache. It did not disappoint. This cake had a great mixture of flavors and textures that is indeed reminiscent of the cookie. It was easy to prepare and sliced up neatly. I'm especially a fan of the buttercream mixture. It starts with 1 cup of butter and 1/2 cup of shortening to which 3 1/2 cups of powdered suga

 This year the Cake Slice Bakers will be baking out of The Cake Book: Beautiful Sweet Treats for Every Craving . Based on January's recipes, I believe I'll find the subtitle completely accurate. We had three recipes to choose from: Lemon-Olive Oil Chiffon Cake, Glazed Tangerine Donut Cake, and a Dark Chocolate Cajeta Cheesecake. I opted for the Glazed Tangerine Donut Cake. The cake is supposed to be baked in a tube pan which will give it the appearance of a donut. It then gets topped with a tangerine glaze to finish the look. I opted to use my Bundt pan, so it doesn't quite have the expected appearance, but the taste was still spot on. The cake is flavored with vanilla and nutmeg giving it a light spice cake flavor. It's light, airy, and moist, and tastes lovely without the glaze. With the glaze, it's the perfect cake for cup of coffee or tea, and carries over to make a nice bite for breakfast.  I'm really looking forward to what the rest of the year will bring.

 December is always free choice month for the Cake Slice Bakers. Some years I know early on which cake I'll bake in December; other years I find myself flipping pages, looking for a recipe that calls my name. This year was the second kind. I was looking for a cake that was something I hadn't made before and that I had all the ingredients on hand. I finally settled on the Chocolate Orange Marble cake. The recipe has you make one batter, divide it into two sections, and then flavor one with melted chocolate and the other with orange. You then put the orange batter in a loaf pan, top it with the chocolate, and use a spoon to try to marble it. After baking, you slowly add an orange flavored simple syrup to the cake while it's still hot. Once cool, remove from the pan, slice, and enjoy. This is a delicious and fairly easy-to-make cake. Both the chocolate and the orange flavors were present, one not overwhelming the other. I opted for dark chocolate (70% cocoa), but you could cer