A Little Bit of All Right

In the Cake Slice Bakers, December brings the opportunity to cook any cake we want from that year's cake book.  I chose the Strawberry Cake.  My son said to me that it was an odd choice for December.  I would have agreed with him except that this recipes relies on frozen strawberries thereby making it a perfect treat for wintertime.  I used store-bought frozen strawberries, but you could certainly use a bag that you picked and froze during the spring.  The strawberries are cooked down and added to the cake batter, and then the entire cake is topped with a cream cheese frosting. I was able to find some surprisingly tasty fresh strawberries to use on the outside of my cake, but you could leave that off or even use a different berry to decorate. As you can see from the picture below, the strawberry puree largely sunk to the bottom of each cake layer.  This turned out not to greatly affect the taste; the light strawberry taste filtered throughout the cake, but I think if the strawberri

Many years ago, I volunteered to make specialty pancakes for a church pancake breakfast.  I had a recipe for gingerbread pancakes and decided to use cookie cutters to shape the pancakes into gingerbread people.  It turned out that, between greasing the cookie cutters, the fact that I only had space for four at a time, and the longer cooking time, it took much longer to make gingerbread people pancakes than round round which meant that by the end of the pancake breakfast, I still had quite a bit of batter left.  So I added some more flour to the batter, poured it into a prepared glass dish, and baked up a gingerbread cake to take with me to dinner that night. While I've made those same pancakes many times since, I've not made a gingerbread cake again until this month.  I'm glad I didn't put it off any longer. This recipe is the perfect recipe for when you need a quick dessert.  I generally have every ingredient in my house; it doesn't require a mixer or softened butt

I will confess, topping a pumpkin spice cake with coconut is not something I would have ever thought to do if I hadn't had it as a choice for this month's CakeSliceBakers event.  But I had all the ingredients on hand so thought, why not?  Really, the question should have been, why have I not done this before!  This cake was delicious.  It was so good that I used the other half of my can of pumpkin puree to make it again. This recipe includes chopped pecans in the cake; I added a few extra to the topping which we all enjoyed.  The cake itself was moist and had a great taste to it.  The topping wasn't too sweet and complemented the cake beautifully.  Best of all, it made a great breakfast the next morning! Definitely a keeper! Each month The Cake Slice Bakers are offered a selection of cakes from the current book we are baking through. This year it is Little Everyday Cakes  by Candace Floyd. We each choose one cake to bake, and then on the 20th - never before - we all

The month of September is historically a very busy one for moms across the country; after a year of relatively little kid activity, this September felt like a whirlwind as we tried to readjust our lives once again.  It called for a quick bake that used ingredients I had on hand.  This Honey-Ginger Sour Cream Cake was such a recipe.  You can even top and serve straight out of the dish you cooked it in. Besides the ingredients in the title, this cake also has a bit of lemon in it.  Once cooled, it gets topped with a lemon-honey drizzle.   The cake itself was pretty good, though we did all think it could have used a little more of the ginger.  We were not big fans of the drizzle.  I'm not sure if it was the honey, the lemon, or the combination of the two, but it definitely tasted too strong for our liking. Each month The Cake Slice Bakers are offered a selection of cakes from the current book we are baking through. This year it is Little Everyday Cakes  by Candace Floyd. We ea

This month I was drawn to the Peach or Mango Upside Down Cake primarily because it looked like a recipe I could easily adapt for camping.  I've made cobblers a few times in my handy-dandy cast iron pan, and this recipe followed a similar process and uses ingredients that I generally have on hand. The recipe has you melt butter and brown sugar in a cast iron frying pan, adding your sliced fruit, and letting it cook for a few minutes.  You then top with a vanilla cake batter, bake for 30-35 minutes, let cool for 20-30 minutes, and then flip upside down for the great reveal! Here it is fresh out of the oven.   I used nectarines instead of peaches as we had received a bunch of nice large nectarines in our produce box this week, and they wouldn't need to be peeled.  Two large nectarines was enough.  When I flipped the cake out, I had a small bare spot on the top where I'm guessing I didn't have a slice of fruit.  I think it's probably important to crowd the pan a bit whe

 For July, I decided to bake the Blackberry-Almond Upside Down Cake.  This recipe has you coat your blackberries lightly in sugar, place in a single row on the bottom of your cake pan, and then top with a thick almond cake batter. The cake was moist and tasty, and it was still moist the next day when we finished it up for breakfast.  I had refrigerated the cake because it's been so hot and humid lately I was worried the fruit might start to get moldy if I left it on the counter. My only "complaint" is that I wish there were more blackberries scattered throughout the cake - though of course then it would not be an upside down cake.  Maybe serving it with some blackberry jam would get the taste I was seeking.  I could easily see using this same recipe with other berries or even diced peaches. Each month The Cake Slice Bakers are offered a selection of cakes from the current book we are baking through. This year it is Little Everyday Cakes  by Candace Floyd. We each c

I went to college in San Antonio, Texas and while there, discovered many dishes that have continued to be among my favorites - steak fingers and creamy gravy, cheese and onion enchiladas with a that red chili sauce that no restaurant on the East coast has ever managed to copy, beef brisket with a side of BBQ sauce.  And at just about every large group gathering there would be a Texas Sheet Cake. To be clear, I'm pretty sure the Texas Sheet Cake did not originate in Texas.  Rumor has it that it's called a Texas Sheet Cake simply because of it's size - everything's bigger in Texas!  The Texas Sheet Cake that I'm familiar with is a simple chocolate cake that can be made with a saucepan, one bowl, and whisk - no big mixer needed.  The batter is then poured into a greased half-sheet pan and baked for 20 minutes or so.  While the cake is baking, you make a chocolate glaze to pour over the cake, also in a saucepan, no mixers required.  If you're looking to take somethi

 Another month of difficult decisions in my cake making world.  Siren's Chocolate Cake? Sour Cream Coffee Cake? Peanut Butter Snack Cake?  Oh wait; the peanut butter cake has an option for chocolate buttercream - that's the one for us! Another easy-to-make cake with great flavor from Candace Floyd.  The cake batter took about 10 minutes to put together and 20 minutes to bake.  I let it cool overnight, whipped up the buttercream in the morning, and we had cake sampling at lunch! The recipe recommends either a peanut better frosting or chocolate buttercream with chopped honey roasted peanuts sprinkled on top.  The cake was moist and had a nice peanut butter taste.  I plan to make this again in a few weeks with the peanut butter frosting.   Each month The Cake Slice Bakers are offered a selection of cakes from the current book we are baking through. This year it is Little Everyday Cakes  by Candace Floyd. We each choose one cake to bake, and then on the 20th - never before

 For my April Cake Slice Bakers cake, I let my family vote because I truly could not decide.  It was unanimous - they needed chocolate cake!  The Mexican Chocolate Cake definitely delivered on a nice chocolatey taste.  The recipes has you add cinnamon and a bit cayenne, which I was a little concerned about so only added half of the amount called for. I did not need to worry.  I could have added the full amount and even my youngest would have enjoyed the flavor.  The cinnamon balanced nicely with the chocolate. The recipe produced a moist cake with just the right amount of frosting.   Each month The Cake Slice Bakers are offered a selection of cakes from the current book we are baking through. This year it is Little Everyday Cakes  by Candace Floyd. We each choose one cake to bake, and then on the 20th - never before - we all post about our cake on our blogs. There are a few rules that we follow, but the most important ones are to have fun and enjoy baking & eating cakes!

 My March bake for the Cake Slice Bakers was a crumb cake.  While I've eaten plenty of packaged crumb cakes, I had never made one myself.  I can't imagine why it took me this long.  This recipe is easy to follow and produced a cake that was flavorful and not oversweet. Definitely a cake we'll make again and again. Each month The Cake Slice Bakers are offered a selection of cakes from the current book we are baking through. This year it is Little Everyday Cakes  by Candace Floyd. We each choose one cake to bake, and then on the 20th - never before - we all post about our cake on our blogs. There are a few rules that we follow, but the most important ones are to have fun and enjoy baking & eating cakes! Follow our Facebook , Instagram , and Pinterest pages where you can find all of our cakes, as well as inspiration for many other cakes. You can also click on the thumbnail pictures below to take you to each of our cakes. If you have a blog and are interested in

This month for the Cake Slice Bakers I chose to bake the Orange Marmalade Loaf  with Coconut Topping.  In addition to orange marmalade, the cake relies on fresh orange juice and orange zest to give that citrusy taste, making it the perfect cake for this time of year. The cake is topped with a crumble made with sugar, flour, butter, and unsweetened coconut that gets sprinkled on right before baking.  There was quite a bit of the topping, so I was concerned that it would fall off, but it did not.  It baked right into the cake to provide a little crunch. The cake was delicious when served warm that evening, and it was even better when I ate a piece for breakfast the next morning.  It was easy to put together and used readily accessible ingredients that I generally always have in my kitchen.  Definitely a keeper! Each month The Cake Slice Bakers are offered a selection of cakes from the current book we are baking through. This year it is Little Everyday Cakes  by Candace Floyd. We ea

 New year, new cake book!  This year the Cake Slice Bakers are baking from Everyday Little Cakes  by Candace Floyd.  Apparently there are folks who struggle with leftover cake - not a problem we have with 2 teenaged boys in our house - so she's designed recipes for smaller cakes.  The one I chose for January is baked in 2 6-inch pans instead of the 8-inch pans most recipes call for.  And if you think two inches shouldn't make a big difference in size, let me tell you it does!  A normal 8-inch layer cake is enough for our family for 2 meals, sometimes with a bit left over.  The 6-inch layer cake was enough for one meal with a bit leftover.  As my younger son pointed out, that just means I need to bake more cakes! To give some reference for size comparisons, in the picture below the cake is sitting on a standard Corelle plate. When I saw the January choices, it was a no-brainer for me.  Chocolate malt is one of my very favorite flavors, and chocolate malt balls one of my favorite