This is the latest installment of
Club: BAKED. This week is hosted by Julie at
Little Bit of Everything. I love this simple, subtle cake.
I like the simple list of ingredients. I like the subtle tartness added by the sour cream. I like the subtle cinnamon. I was tempted to really increase the cinnamon, but I'm glad that I stayed true to the recipe. Cakes don't need to be showstoppers. As the name implies, this is an everyday kind of cake. Not too sweet, not too heavy. This cake's simplicity reminded me of
smittenkitchen's Everyday Chocolate Cake which (if my memory is correct) uses only one bowl.
I sprinkled s
ugar and cinnamon on the batter before I baked it. I used a 9"
springform pan. I started checking the cake at 35 minutes, but it continued to bake for about 15 minutes more for a total of 50 minutes. You can actually see all the holes I poked while trying to make sure it baked all the way through. Even though the frosting sounded dreamy, I skipped it because it seemed too heavy for a mid-August treat.
I was
surpris
ed that the recipe did not include vanilla. It seems like all recipes contain vanilla! I did not miss it as we eagerly cut the cake while it was still cooling on the rack which explains the crumbles. This cake seems infinitely adaptable. It also reminded me of Mark
Bittman's Olive Oil Cake (p. 852 in
How to Cook Everything Vegetarian). Maybe leave out the cinnamon and add lemon or lime zest with vanilla? Or pump up the spice by adding cardamon or ginger or cloves with an orange glaze?
I mark each week's recipe with my pink
dino bookmark. I read through the recipe several times before I bake it. Stella tries to re-claim the pink
dino, but I always manage to keep it. This time it was super easy because I distracted her with cake!
ugar and cinnamon on the batter before I baked it. I used a 9" springform pan. I started checking the cake at 35 minutes, but it continued to bake for about 15 minutes more for a total of 50 minutes. You can actually see all the holes I poked while trying to make sure it baked all the way through. Even though the frosting sounded dreamy, I skipped it because it seemed too heavy for a mid-August treat.
ed that the recipe did not include vanilla. It seems like all recipes contain vanilla! I did not miss it as we eagerly cut the cake while it was still cooling on the rack which explains the crumbles. This cake seems infinitely adaptable. It also reminded me of Mark Bittman's Olive Oil Cake (p. 852 in How to Cook Everything Vegetarian). Maybe leave out the cinnamon and add lemon or lime zest with vanilla? Or pump up the spice by adding cardamon or ginger or cloves with an orange glaze?
This is the latest installment in Club: BAKED. Be sure to check out Jamie's post for the recipe at Random Acts of Food. You know it's going to be a fun recipe when you get to use 4 types of chocolate including Andes 
mints. In the introduction to this recipe, the authors assert that it's a tragedy that recipes with mint are generally reserved for the holidays. I fall into this camp because, even though my tiny kitchen was hot as I baked these late on the last day in July, I kept thinking about the holidays. I found myself humming Jingle Bells and Feliz Navidad!
I was surprised that the recipe didn't require baking soda or baking powder. Two sticks of butter seems excessive, but what's wrong with a little excess every now and again? I appreciated the chilling time which lets you divide the time into 2 chunks which is great if you have a toddler (or other time commitments). I should tell you that I do not like to get my hands dirty. I tried to use a spoon and melon baller to mold the dough into balls, but I ended up using my hands...which meant I washed my hands about every 3 balls. I used the end of a wooden spoon to make the indentations. It made kind of large indents, but the cookies turned out great. The dough is a strange combination of sticky and dry. I probably let it soften too much, but the balls were crumbly when I tried to use the dough straight from the refrigerator.
