2 Great Butter-Free Cakes

Before you get all excited, thinking that the term "Butter-Free" in the title suggests there's something healthy on this page, just stop it. Stop it right there.

There are such cakes. They rely on an extravagance of egg whites and patience. They are low in fat, impossibly airy, and perfect sprinkled with some fresh berries on a hot summer day. In fact, given the relentless heat in our un-air conditioned apartment, that kind of cake would probably have hit the spot.

No, these cakes have plenty of fat, but in liquid form. This gives them two advantages: (1) they're just a tad easier to throw together--no creaming or streaming here*; and (2) they are perfect refrigerator cakes. Meaning, if you want a delicious pudding, mousse, whipped cream, custard or other fancy layer in your cake creation, you will have to store it in the fridge. Meaning, you want it to be texturally perfect when it is eaten cold. Meaning, you want a cake with little-to-no butter, which hardens up when chilled.

Enter Mr. Chocolate and Ms. Vanilla. Each of the following recipes will make one 8- or 9-inch cake. Chocolate made its debut as the sis's delicious 30th birthday cake. Vanilla, as this year's Fourth of July flag cake.

*P.S. if you are still using boxed cake mixes because "they're just so convenient," try these recipes. They're just as easy and chemical-free!

One-Bowl Chocolate Cake

1 cup flour

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup cocoa

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup buttermilk

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla

1 egg

1. Preheat oven to 350º. Grease and line your cake pan with parchment paper cut to fit (this is important!).
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, cocoa, soda, powder, and salt. Add buttermilk, oil, and vanilla. Beat 2 minutes. Add egg and beat 2 more minutes. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 30-35 minutes, until tester inserted near center comes out clean.

Easy Vanilla Cake

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 1/4 cups flour

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 350º. Grease and line your cake pan with parchment paper cut to fit (this is important!).
2. Beat eggs and sugar with electric mixer until slightly thickened, about a minute. Add flour, buttermilk, oil, powder, and vanilla. Beat for one more minute, until well incorporated. Pour into the pan. Bake 25-30 minutes, until tester inserted in center comes out clean.

Cornmeal Ricotta Cake

One day last fall, my sister-in-law--in a conversation she probably doesn't even remember--mentioned in passing a favorite treat from her local bakery. It's only taken me like four months to finally get this thing out of my head, where it has been rattling in the ensuing time, and into my belly, where it is now sitting comfortably. As with so many other foods that I am just now discovering at the ripe old age of 27, I am left wondering: why haven't I been eating this cake all my life? It's like an Italian miracle.

What makes this thing so good? Crunchy cornmeal. Sweet and slightly tangy ricotta. It's like your favorite cornbread made little dessert babies with a cheesecake. LORD this is yummy. But it also loses freshness fast. Make it on the day you plan to serve--ahem, scarf--it, wrap leftovers tightly and store at room temperature.

As you can see, we served it with hand-whipped cream (that's right--hand whipped, thank you David) and a little bit of jam we heated in the micro.

Cornmeal Ricotta Cake

Serves 4 easily; ready just over an hour; based on this recipe from the LA Times, which includes orange zest and fresh cranberries--yum!--but not what I was going for...

2/3 cup flour

1/3 cup stone-ground cornmeal (aka polenta)

1 tsp baking powder

1 egg

2 Tbsp maple syrup

2 Tbsp vegetable oil

1/2 tsp vanilla

5 Tbsp butter, soft

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 tsp salt

2/3 cup ricotta cheese

1. Preheat oven to 350º. In one bowl, whisk together flour, cornmeal, and powder. In another, whisk together egg, syrup, oil, and vanilla. Set aside.
2. With electric mixer, beat butter with sugar and salt until thoroughly combined. Add half of flour mixture and beat again, just until mixed. Now, switch to a spatula because you DON'T want to overmix. Gently stir in ricotta and rest of flour mixture. Again, DON'T over mix here. Just until combined.
3. Pour into greased 4-inch square or 5-inch round pan. Spread to cover. Bake 35-40 minutes, until tester inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool at least 20 minutes.

My Favorite Chocolate Cake

Everyone needs a good, solid, foolproof, go-to chocolate cake. This is mine. It is impossibly moist, good at room temperature or in the fridge, and stands up to many types of icing. Plus: one bowl, no mixer. TADOW!

The full recipe, from the charming Sky High: Irresistible Triple-Layer Cakes, can be found at the equally charming blog Smitten Kitchen. It should be used indiscriminately for as many occasions as you find for a full-sized cake. [This is the famous 27th Birthday Cake, for those of you who partook.]

But maybe you don't need the temptation of a triple-layer cake on your kitchen counter. Maybe you just want a slice or two. Shouldn't you be able to have that?

I say yes.

So when I am in need of a classic chocolate-layer-cake-with-chocolate-icing fix, this is what I do. You can either bake it in two 5-inch cake pans and make layers that way (what I did), or do a single layer in a 8- or 9-inch cake pan and just chop it in half and layer those (what I have done before). That way, at least, you only end up with half a cake.

My Favorite Chocolate Cake

makes 1 5-in cake or 1/2 full-size cake; takes about an hour

1/2 cup flour

2/3 cup sugar

3 Tbsp cocoa

1/2 tsp soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup sour cream

1/3 cup water

1/2 Tbsp white vinegar

1/4 tsp vanilla

1/2 beaten egg

1. Preheat oven to 350º. Line your cake pan(s) with parchment. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, cocoa, soda, and salt. Make a well in the middle an add oil and sour cream. Mix to combine--it will be very thick. Gradually add the water, then the vinegar and vanilla. Whisk to incorporate. Lastly, whisk in the egg.
2. Divide between two prepared pans or scrape into one. Bake 25-30 minutes, until sides pull away from edges and cake springs back when lightly pressed with your finger (in the middle). Cool on a rack and then transfer to the fridge. Because this cake is so deliciously moist, it is easier to work with when cold.

Go-To Chocolate Icing

will ice small cake; low fat to boot!

2 Tbsp butter

1/2 oz semisweet chocolate

pinch salt

1/3 cup cocoa

1 1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/3 cup milk (skim is fine)

1. Melt butter and chocolate in a small bowl in a microwave or small saucepan over low heat. In a large bowl whisk together salt, cocoa, and powdered sugar. Pour warm chocolate mixture into sugar mixture and mix with a spatula to moisten.
2. Now, get out your beaters and mix on low speed to continue moistening. Add milk in several additions, beating well after every one. Feel free to tweak a little as needed: more p.sugar if your icing doesn't feel like it will hold its shape; more milk if its too thick.

Blueberry Cheesecake

Oh. My. Heavens.

Did you ever see that Friends where Rachel and Chandler discover a mail-order cheesecake in their building and accidentally eat it all and then order another and drop it on the ground and end up forking it straight off the floor because it is just that good? Did you, like me, pass the rest of the episode in a haze because you were distractedly wondering how amazing that cheesecake tasted? I mean, how unbelievable must a cake be to achieve eat-off-a-NYC-floor (however fictional) deliciousness?

Well say hello to your answer. This mini cheesecake is worth throwing your friends and family to the ground should they stand between you and it. Toss a few elbows. Wield your fork. It's pillowy soft and disappears on your tongue, except for that impossible richness that makes it cream cheese's best effort to date.

It requires a mini springform pan, which is not really part of everyone's kitchen arsenal, so if presentation is not essential to your enjoyment, you could just make it in a cake pan (with very tall sides), and dig it out one piece at a time. The blueberry topping was my addition, and could be replaced with many other fruits (just follow the same proportions) or maybe even some chocolate. Because this cheesecake is almost as tall as Rachel and Chandler's apartment building, I have a hunch that this downsized recipe could be halved to make an equally satisfying cake at a reduced height (just be sure to shorten the baking time).

Mini Blueberry Cheesecake

c/o Epicurious; makes one 6-in cake; active time about 15 minutes, plus baking and cooling

For Crust:

1 cup graham cracker crumbs

4 Tbsp melted butter

2 Tbsp sugar

For Filling:

16 oz cream cheese; room temp (do NOT try to go low fat here)

3/4 cup sugar

2 Tbsp flour

2 eggs

8 oz sour cream

2 Tbsp milk

2 tsp vanilla

For Topping:

2 cups blueberries

2-3 Tbsp sugar

1. Preheat oven to 375º. Wrap outside of 6-in springform pan with foil. Mix crust ingredients together in a processor or by hand and press into bottom and 2-inches up sides of prepared pan. Bake about 8 minutes, then take out and set aside to cool. Maintain oven temp.
2. Meanwhile, beat cream cheese and sugar with an electric mixer until smooth and sugar is dissolved. Add flour and blend, then egg and blend, then sour cream-milk-vanilla and blend. Pour into crust. Place springform into a larger pan and add water to said pan--enough to come 1 inch up sides. Bake until center is just set, edges begin to puff and turn a golden brown, about 50 minutes. Turn off oven and let cake sit undisturbed for another hour. Transfer springform to fridge and chill overnight. (I know it's hard, but believe me, it will be so much better if you wait it out.)
3. For topping, add berries and sugar to a saucepan over medium heat. Berries will warm and the sugar will cause berries to create juices. Stir periodically until thickened. Spread over top of cake and let dribble down the sides a little. People like that.

The Cutest Little Zucchini Cake You've Ever Seen

What's that, you need more things to do with your ever multiplying summer squashes? Well here I come to the rescue, again. This time with dessert.

Actually, Rose Levy Beranbaum comes to our collective rescue with a wonderfully light, moist, and not-too-sweet cake from one of her many miracles of culinary literature, the Cake Bible. It's a a recipe for zucchini cupcakes that translates easily into cake form, and I particularly like the use of brown sugar instead of white.

The cake itself needs nothing more than a dash of powdered sugar, but if you're feeling extravagant, the thinnest layer of cream cheese icing (spiked with cinnamon) will take it over the top.

Zucchini Cake with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Icing

makes 5-in round (or equivalent) cake; ready in a little over an hour

For Cake:

3/4 cup flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ginger

1/8 tsp salt

1/3 cup chopped, toasted walnuts or pecans

1 egg

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 cup grated zucchini (about 1 medium, with skin)

1. Preheat oven to 350º. Grease and flour a 5-inch (or equivalent) cake pan. Stir together flour, soda, spices, and nuts. Set aside.
2. Beat egg with sugar and oil until sugar is dissolved and mixture is smooth. This can be done with a whisk and some perseverance, but beaters or a mixer are preferable. Mix in zucchini, then dry ingredients. Pour into prepared pan and bake 30-40 minutes (depending on your baking dish), until a tester inserted in center comes out clean.
3. Cool 10 minutes in pan, then loosen edges and invert onto a cooling rack. Let cool completely.

For Icing:

2 Tbsp butter, room temperature

2 oz. cream cheese, room temperature

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 cup powdered sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1. Beat butter and cream cheese with electric mixer for 2 minutes, until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and beat well. Add sugar 1/4 cup at a time, adding cinnamon in one batch and beating well after each addition. When it's all in, beat 1 extra minute for a nice, smooth texture. Spread a verrrrrrry thin layer over top and sides.

Blueberry Molasses Cake

It's been a while since I've poached a recipe from 101 Cookbooks, the superstar natural foods blog. If you like thoughtful, health-conscious, whole foods, you will love what's going on there. Read up.

Recently ran across a recipe there for Old-Fashioned Blueberry Cake, itself lifted from a vintage issue of Gourmet, circa 1974 I believe? I loved that the cake contains no sugar, only molasses as a sweetener, as well as a healthy dose of frozen blueberries. The natural sweetness of this cake is so satisfying and so simple. It's a great bite at the end of a meal or alongside afternoon tea. The molasses gives it a gingerbready flavor, so be prepared to taste a little autumn. Granny here is looking out for ya.

Blueberry Molasses Cake

c/o 101 Cookbooks, c/o Gourmet; takes about 45 minutes total

1/2 cup flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

pinch salt

1/4 tsp cider vinegar

2 1/2 Tbsp milk, divided

1/4 cup unsulphered molasses

1 egg

1 1/2 Tbsp butter, barely melted

2/3 cup frozen blueberries, tossed in a dash of flour

1. Preheat oven to 350º. Grease a 5-inch round cake pan, or equivalent. Mix together flour, soda, powder and salt in a large bowl. Set aside.
2. In a small bowl, mix cider vinegar + 1 Tbsp milk. In another bowl, whisk together remaining 1 1/2 Tbsp milk and molasses. Add vinegar-milk to molasses-milk and mix well. Add egg. Pour wet over dry and stir to combine. Stir in butter, then blueberries. Pour into prepared pan.
3. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Top with powdered sugar or enjoy as is.

Fruity Crumb Cake

Whoa. I really don't have anything to say about this crumb cake, but whoa. I snagged the recipe from Smitten Kitchen, a truly entertaining and deeply enjoyable blog. Follow it. Read it. Great pictures.

Could have probably gone even smaller with this downslice, but we had a friend over for dinner and I was feeling magnanimous. Plus David has started complaining that I am getting too good with the math, leaving us with approximately no leftovers. So it served three, healthily, with one slice to spare.

Deb at the Smitten Kitchen uses rhubarb in her crumb cake, which looks absolutely divine. I think tart fruits (rhubarb, blueberries, raspberries, etc.) work best in this recipe, because sweet ones (strawberries, peaches, any other fruit) tend to be a little too mellow. We had peaches and blues, so that's what went in, but I'm dying to try rhubarb. Maybe the CSA will come through. Who knows?

Fruity Crumb Cake

(c/o Smitten Kitchen; serves 4; total time about 1 hr)

1/4 lb. fruit (I used 1 peach + 1/3 cup blueberries)

2 Tbsp sugar

1 tsp cornstarch

2 1/2 Tbsp brown sugar

2 1/2 Tbsp white sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

pinch salt

4 Tbsp butter, melted

3/4 cup + 2 Tbsp flour (cake or all purpose)

2 1/2 Tbsp sour cream

1 egg

1 tsp vanila

1/2 cup flour

1/4 tsp soda

1/4 tsp powder

pinch salt

1/4 cup sugar

3 Tbsp butter

1. Preheat oven to 350º and grease 5-inch round or 4-6 inch square pan.
2. For the fruit: combine fruit, sugar and cornstarch in a small bowl; set aside.
3. For the topping: melt butter in medium bowl and stir in sugars, cinnamon, salt, and flour. It will look like a regular dough (not crumbly). Do not fret.
4. For the cake: In a small bowl, combine sour cream, egg and vanilla. In another bowl, mix together flour through salt. Add butter and a scoop of sour cream mix to dry ingredients. Beat until moistened. Add rest of sour cream mix and beat until combined. Pour into prepared pan, reserving about 1/4 cup of batter. Top with fruit, then gently spread remaining batter. Crumble topping over surface, aiming for uniform-ish size. Pop in the oven and bake 30-35 minutes, until tester inserted comes out clean. Cool 20 minutes.
5. Grab some powered sugar and pour into a sieve (or, in my case, a tea brewer). Sift over top for a pretty presentation.

Peanut Butter Banana Cake (and Crap-that-was-easy Vanilla Gelato)

Phew. It is cake week here in the Love-Smith house. I think I'm making up for not having baked anything in, like, a whole week by going all out. Last night, Irish car bomb cake....tonight, Elvis.

I believe I have mentioned before my deep, abiding love for peanut butter -- particularly in conjunction with bananas. Understanding that too much of this treat might leave me squeezed into an ill-fitting sequined unisuit, I thought a miniature sweet might be just the ticket.

Soooo...I took a banana cake recipe from Epicurious, threw in some chocolate chips, then topped it off with Ina Garten's p.b. icing. All divided by 17. Here's how it works:

Peanut Butter Banana Cake

(serves 2-3; start to finish, about an hour)

for the cake:

1/4 cup + 1 Tbsp cake flour

1/8 tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp baking powder

pinch salt

1/4 cup mashed banana

1 Tbsp buttermilk

1/4 tsp vanilla

1/2 beaten egg or 2 Tbsp egg sub

2 Tbsp butter

1/4 cup + 1 Tbsp sugar

1/4 cup chocolate chips (optional)

for the icing:

1 Tbsp butter

1/4 cup peanut butter (preferably natural)

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla

1 Tbsp milk

1. Preheat oven to 350º. Grease and flour a small pan (5-inch round worked well for me; 4-6 inch square would work too). In a small bowl combine flour through salt. In another small bowl, mix banana, buttermilk and vanilla.
2. With a mixer, beat butter and sugar until fluffy, 1-2 minutes. Add egg and beat well. Add remaining ingredients, alternating between dry and wet mixtures. Pour into prepared pan and sprinkle chocolate chips over top, if using. Bake until cake begins to color and toothpick inserted comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Cool completely.
3. Meanwhile, beat butter, p.b., sugar, and vanilla in a medium bowl until combined. Add milk and beat until smooth and fluffy.
4. If your cake is on the thinner side, slice in half and make a tiny layer cake by spreading icing on middle and top (I didn't have enough for the sides, but if I had it may have been too much). If your cake is thick, just frost top and sides. Ta-dow!

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Crap-that-was-easy Vanilla Gelato

Wanting something cool and smooth to cut the taste of the sure-to-be-rich cake, I scoured the net for a quick ice cream recipe that might just rely on that can of sweetened condensed milk I was stowing in my cabinet -- which would also cut out the time and patience that a custard ice cream would require. Based on my fridge and the various recipes I could cobble together, here's the quite successful result:

1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk (I used low fat)

1 cup light cream or half and half (fat free would be fine)

1 1/2 cups milk

1 tsp vanilla

Whisk it all together and throw it in your ice cream maker. So far (I started this whole process about 3 hours ago), the gelato is still soft-serve style, but I think a night in the freezer will firm it up good. Oh, and in case you're wondering, I'm calling it gelato because it relies on more milk and less cream, which is basically the difference between the Italian frozen treat and our American version (that, and a slower "churning" process which results in a denser, often richer-tasting product). This also means that, because of its make-up, gelato is better at warmer temperatures than ice cream. So, when it does firm up in your freezer, be sure to take it out 15-20 minutes before you plan to enjoy it, and stir it up good before serving.

Irish Insanity Cake

Apologies for the some-time hiatus, but there was traveling and then there was general busyness and then there was a whole week in there when I had no one to cook for. I now completely understand why single people never eat. Where's the motivation? It's so much trouble for just you. And there's no one to wash your dishes.

Well, anyway, here's to the times you're eating with your roommates or significant others or just get tired of the supermarket salad bar.

Specifically, here's to the time when you want a pretty spectacular dessert flavored with not one but TWO irish boozes: Guinness and Bailey's Irish Cream. Zing! Start with a chocolate stout cake, frost it with some Bailey's buttercream, then drizzle it all with a deep, dark chocolate ganache. The best part is, my little recipe makes 3-4 servings of cake, depending on your baking pans, so you won't be tempted (and believe me, you would be tempted) to polish off an entire layer cake by your lonesome.

Guinness Cake with Bailey's Irish (Butter)Cream and Chocolate Ganache

(Adapted from Bon Appetit; serves 4; total cook, cool, and ice time, about 1 hr)

For the Cake:

1/4 cup Guinness

1/4 cup (4 Tbsp) butter

3 Tbsp cocoa

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 tsp baking soda

pinch salt

1/2 beaten egg (or 2 Tbsp egg substitute)

2 1/2 Tbsp sour cream

For the Frosting:

4 Tbsp butter

1 1/4 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

2-4 tsp Bailey's

For the Ganache:

2 Tbsp cream (heavy or light, whatev)

2 oz. dark chocolate

1. For the cake: preheat oven to 350º. Carefully melt together butter, cocoa, and Guinness until smooth. Cool slightly. Meanwhile, whisk together flour, sugar, soda and salt in a small bowl, and eggs/sour cream in another. Slowly add chocolate-Guinness mixture to egg/sour cream, whisking constantly. Add dry ingredients and fold in.
2. Grease and flour a cake pan. I happen to have a 6-inch square cake pan, which made perfect sized layers, but a 5-7 inch round would do OK too. You could also go smaller and make a thick cake instead of layers, just increase the baking time a bit. Bake for 25 – 30 minutes, until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool.
3. For the frosting: beat butter creamy. Add powdered sugar and vanilla, beat well. Add Bailey's teaspoon by teaspoon until you reach desired consistency. Yum. Cut cooled cake in half and frost as you would a full layer cake.
4. For the ganache: gently melt (or microwave) the chocolate and cream together, stirring smooth. Pour over frosted cake.

Angel Food Cake

Well, after about three years of being a committed runner, yesterday I finally experienced a rite of passage that, I believe, makes me authentic. Are you aware that it is Marathon weekend here in Boston? Do you think my experience has something to do with this? No, no. It was this: I bit it. Pretty hard. Twice.

The first time was a solid, Marlee-style high school trip [the kind we used to practice in the back yard where we'd intentionally--intentionally--trip over our own feet. For the life of me I cannot now recall why we did this. I think it was our intention to perfect the trip in private, then pull it out in public where it would fulfill its most awkward and hilarious potential]. So I caught my own shoelace in a crosswalk. Note: crosswalks are in streets made of asphalt. Later, I failed to scale a stray root on the Esplanade and successfully frightened a tourist family who rushed to my aid.

Why am I telling you this? For two reasons: one, because my hands (among other parts) are scraped and damaged to high heaven, which makes cooking tricky; and two, because despite (because of?) this condition I felt I deserved cake. What better confection than one for which the mixer does all the work?!

Inspired by the buckets of cast-off egg whites I periodically slog home from my new job, I've been mentally planning Angel Food for about a week. Turns out, it takes very little effort, but lots and lots of patience. When you're beating egg whites, you have to be sure to add the sugar very slowly, then it bakes for an hour and cools another two. BUT, when it's done, you have a heavenly cloud of cake that is certainly not healthy (read: 1 1/2 cups sugar), but tastes light as air.

Angel Food Cake

(from Cook's Illustrated)

12 egg whites (about 1 3/4 cups), room temperature

1 cup sifted cake flour (this means sift first, then measure)

1 1/2 cups sugar, divided

1 tsp cream of tartar

pinch salt

2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 tsp lemon juice

1. Preheat oven to 350º. If your tube pan doesn't have a removable bottom (like mine), cut a parchment or wax paper ring and set it down inside. Put egg whites in bowl of mixer and turn on low to get frothy.
2. Meanwhile, measure out 3/4 cup of the sugar for the whites. Mix the other 3/4 cup with the cake flour. Have a sieve on hand.
3. When the eggs are frothy, add tartar and salt and pump up to medium speed. Mix until "billowy" the recipe says. Still on medium speed, slowly add the 3/4 cup of sugar 1 Tbsp at a time, until all the sugar is added and the whites are at soft peaks.
4. Remove bowl from mixer and sift flour/sugar mixture over the beaten whites 4-5 shakes at a time, gently folding to combine before adding more. Be patient and fold slowly but thoroughly. Pour into prepared pan and tap against counter 3 times to eliminate any large, lurking air bubbles. Bake 50-60 minutes, or until cake springs back when pressed.
   
   
5. When done, immediately invert pan onto a wine bottle or, in my case, two overturned bowls. You want air circulating all around the cake. Let cool completely, up to 2 hours.
6. To extract, run a knife around the sides and center, and dump out onto a platter. Slice, or rather saw, with a serrated knife. Serve with fresh berries and whipped cream or chocolate sauce, or berry compote, or jam, or whatever you can dream up.

As you can see, my cake got a little saggy. I can think of two reasons for this: (1) I did not have the requisite 1 tsp of cream of tartar and used only a fraction of what the recipe called for. Oops. (2) I did not have my act together when it was time to take the cake out and invert it, so it had a few moments to sink while I was scrambling around looking for something to flip it on to. Plan better than I did, ok?

Canada, in cake form

Although I am a fan of Canada, I never really equate delicious cuisine with our nondescript brothers to the north. That is, of course, except for that sweet nectar of the lumberjack gods: maple syrup. I mean, who can't love a food product that is brought to your stack of pancakes via a spigot shoved into the side of a tree? It's ingenuity at its finest.

On a recent trip to Quebec, David and I quickly discovered that maple was their claim to culinary fame, and it made the menu rounds. I still vividly remember the melting maple candy I savored at one of many candy shops that received our patronage during our 2-day stay. That thing alone was worth the 14-hour round trip drive.

So the accidental cake I made this evening was a surprising throwback. Remember that maple applesauce I told you about recently? It's still sitting in the fridge. I know people like to sub out applesauce for butter in their baking sometimes, so I decided to join the party. I used a spice cake recipe from BH&G, and decided to also follow their recommendation to top it with browned butter frosting. Holy crap, people. The woodsy flavor of the browned butter plus the mapley sweetness of the spice cake??? Wrap me in flannel and ship me across the border, eh?

Maple-Applesauce Cake with Browned Butter Frosting

(makes 5 x 5 -- or equivalent -- size cake)

1/2 cup flour

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/3 tsp baking powder

pinch baking soda

1/8 tsp each ginger and cloves

1-2 shakes of nutmeg

2 Tbsp butter, soft

1/4 cup sugar

1 egg yolk, preferably room temp (or 2 Tbsp substitute)

1/4 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup maple applesauce

For the cake: preheat oven to 350º. Combine all dry ingredients in a small bowl; set aside.

With an electric mixer, beat butter until creamy, 20 seconds. Add sugar and beat until well combined and fluffy, 1-2 minutes. Add yolk and vanilla, beating until incorporated. Alternately add flour and applesauce until it's all in.

Pour into a greased and floured 5 x 5 (or other very small) baking receptacle. Bake about 20 minutes, checking the last 5 to make sure you don't overdo it. Cool on a rack.

Browned Butter Frosting

3 Tbsp butter

1 1/4 cups powdered sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

2 tsp milk

Place butter in a small pan over low heat. Slowly cook until butter turns a "delicate brown". It will foam and you will smell it. Keep the heat low and your eye on it--I can't really give you a time on this one. It will take a couple of minutes.

In a bowl, combine powdered sugar, vanilla and milk. Pour in browned butter and beat (electric mixers again) until a spreadable consistency that you like. If it seems dry, add milk 1 tsp at a time. If it seems wet, add powdered sugar 2 Tbsp at a time.

King Cake!

Full disclosure: nothing about the following recipe is divided, downsized, or in any way related to something you might consider "small." But oh my word, the cake! Or, to be more accurate, the French sweet bread stuffed with cream cheese goo and covered in colored sugar! It takes patience and plenty of Mardi Gras spirit, and if you have a tiny plastic baby, it takes that too. But if you want to make brioche, here's what Peter Reinhart of the James Beard Award winning book, 'The Bread Baker's Apprentice' has to say. If I were to do this all over again, I would most definitely half this recipe:

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Middle Class Brioche

('Middle class' as opposed to 'Rich Man's Brioche', also in the book, which calls for twice as much butter)

SPONGE:

1/2 cup bread flour

2 tsp instant yeast

1/2 cup whole milk, lukewarm (90º–100º)

DOUGH:

5 large eggs, beaten slightly

3 cups bread flour

2 Tbsp sugar

1 1/4 tsp salt

1 cup (2 sticks) room temperature butter

My additions to make it King-Cakey:

FILLING:

2 8-oz packages cream cheese, room temp

2 cups powdered sugar

2 tsp vanilla

ICING:

2 oz cream cheese, soft

3-4 Tbsp milk

1 1/2 c powdered sugar

Colored sugars of yellow, green, and purple

1. First, make the sponge. Stir together flour and yeast, then add the milk, mixing till all is hydrated. Cover with plastic and let sit for about 20 minutes, till it looks bubbly and risen a little.

2. Once sponged, add the eggs and mix on medium speed (you'll need electric mixing of some kind for this beast) until smooth. Add flour, sugar, and salt, and mix on low speed until combined. What you now have is a giant lump of unmanageable muck. It gets worse, but then it gets better. Let it rest for 5 minutes to let the gluten develop. Then, cut the butter into 5 or 6 pieces, and add the pieces one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stop and scrape the sides down periodically. The dough will act like it is magnetically attracted to the paddle refuse to stay in the bowl at all (see right). Persevere. Keep mixing 5-6 minutes until the dough is well mixed and eerily soft. Seriously, touch it. It's weird.

3. Line a baking sheet with parchment or wax paper and spray it down with oil. Turn the dough out and pat into an 8x6in rectangle. Cover in plastic and let it hang out in the refrigerator for 4 hours or overnight.

4. Remove from fridge and, working while it's cold, turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Roll dough into a super long and skinny rectangle, let's say 6 inches wide and about 30 inches long (yes, that's almost three feet). Mix the ingredients of the filling together and spread evenly along the rectangle. Roll one long 30-inch side over to meet the other 30-inch side and pinch it tight, so you have a long, skinny cylinder. Pull the two ends around to meet each other and pinch those shut. Place the ring on a greased baking sheet, seam side down. Cover it in lightly oiled plastic.

5. Now, in your oven where it is quiet and dark, put this baking sheet for 1-2 hours, and leave it alone to rise until at least doubled in size. Then, take it out, preheat the oven to 350º and stick that sucker back in. Bake it for about 25 minutes.

6 Remove from oven and cool on a rack AT LEAST one hour (if you can restrain yourself). Now comes the fun part. Mix up the icing to a pourable consistency and drizzle all over the cake. Cover with so much sprinkles you can barely see the cake underneath. Then eat it by golly, EAT IT!