What a cake! It makes its own sauce

WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Enlarge Image

This quick spice cake makes its own delicious sauce.

A reader called Lyla recently phoned in with a request for a self-icing spice cake. One reader, who prefers to remain anonymous, sent in a recipe for spice cake with a baked-on meringue topping. It comes from the cookbook she learned to cook with, and she's been making it for 50 years. Another recipe came in, without a name, in answer to a request for cottage pudding a few months back. It's a version of that self-saucing moist cake with spices and a caramelly sauce.

Brenda Engbaek is hoping for a recipe for "1930s Dollar Fruitcake." And please keep holiday favourites coming in, sweet or savoury. If you can help with a recipe request, have your own request, or a favourite recipe you'd like to share, send an email to recipeswap@freepress.mb.ca, fax it to 697-7412, or write to Recipe Swap, c/o Alison Gillmor, Winnipeg Free Press, 1355 Mountain Ave., Winnipeg, MB, R2X 3B6. Please include your first and last name, address and telephone number.

Quick spice cake

114 g (1/2 cup) shortening

57 g (1/4 cup) butter, softened

250 ml (1 cup) light brown sugar, packed

2 egg yolks

3 ml (3/4 tsp) baking soda

280 ml (1 cup plus 2 tbsp) buttermilk, or just over 250 ml (1 cup) whole milk mixed with 15 ml (1 tbsp) white vinegar and allowed to stand until curdled

5 ml (1 tsp) baking powder

3 ml (3/4 tsp) salt

2 ml (1/2 tsp) each of nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon and allspice

575 ml (2 1/3 cup) all-purpose flour

2 egg whites

pinch of salt

250 ml (1 cup) light brown sugar, sifted if necessary

125 ml (1/2 cup) chopped walnuts or pecans

30 ml (2 tbsp) crystallized ginger, minced fine, or 1 ml (1/4 tsp) ground ginger

Preheat oven to 175C (350F). Grease a 22x22 cm (9x9 in) pan. In a medium bowl, cream together shortening and butter. Add brown sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. (Reserve whites for meringue topping.) Dissolve baking soda in milk and set aside. In a small bowl, combine baking powder, salt, spices and flour and whisk to combine. Add flour mixture and milk mixture alternately to the shortening mixture, beginning and ending with flour, and beating after each addition. Spoon into prepared pan. Make topping by beating egg whites until foamy. Add a pinch of salt and continue to beat until whites are shiny and form stiff peaks. Add the brown sugar very gradually, beating very well after each addition. Gently fold in nuts and ginger. Spread meringue over the cake batter and bake for 45-55 minutes.

Tester's notes: The moist spice cake is a perfect counterpoint to the nutty brown sugar meringue. This cake is nice warm, but our reader says she likes it even better the next day. You can also add raisins to the batter, which is her husband's favourite version.

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Upside-down spice cake (WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)

Upside-down spice cake

310 ml (1 1/3 cup) all-purpose flour

125 ml (1/2 cup) light brown sugar

5 ml (1 tsp) baking powder

10 ml (2 tsp) ginger, divided

10 ml (2 tsp) pumpkin pie spice, divided

125 ml (1/2 cup) whole milk

60 ml (1/4 cup) vegetable oil

1 egg

30 ml (2 tbsp) butter, cut into pats

250 ml (1 cup) light brown sugar

500 ml (2 cups) boiling water

Preheat oven to 220C (425F). Grease a round 22 cm (9 in) diameter baking dish with high sides. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and spices. In a small bowl, combine milk, oil and egg, and pour into flour mixture. Stir until combined and spread into prepared pan. (Batter will be heavy and will need to be spread quite thin.) Dot batter with butter, sprinkle with sugar and carefully pour over boiling water. Bake for about 30 minutes, let stand for 10 minutes and then serve with cream or ice cream.

Tester's notes: This isn't so much self-icing as self-saucing. It looks as if it will never work: You start with a little bit of batter spread very thin and finish with boiling water. But somehow, through the mysterious alchemy of baking, it comes out of the oven with a browned aromatic top and a caramelly sauce on the bottom.

Warm and comforting, this pudding-style dessert really needs to be served right away because it gets stodgy when cold. I was using unsalted butter, so next time I would add a pinch of salt to the boiling water to bring out the flavour of the caramel. I also might cut down the water a bit, to get a slightly thicker sauce. Make sure not to use a standard cake pan but a deep ceramic or glass baking dish.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition December 7, 2011 D5