Crazy Spice Cake

By Kath Dedon

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My latest “crazy” cake is this Crazy Spice Cake.  I used the basic cake recipe that I used for the Vegan Lemon “Crazy” Cake, omitting the lemon zest and lemon extract. Then I searched for the right combination of spices.

Using Eat Your Books (an online tool that I really appreciate), I noticed Walter Waltuck  and Melicia Phillips’ recipe for Spiced-Up Honey Cake.  I pulled their Staffmeals from Chanterelle cookbook from the shelf to look up the recipe. Their combination of equal parts cinnamon and ginger with smaller amounts of nutmeg and coriander sounded perfect.

For my 8-inch square cake, I halved the amounts of spices and I really liked this combination of spices!

The Crazy Spice Cake can be sprinkled with powdered sugar, as you see here.  But next time I make it, I’m going to try Waltuck and Phillips’ glaze. I’m actually wondering why I didn’t do that yesterday. That just gives me a good excuse to make it again, I think! (I guess I’m just crazy for crazy cakes!  🙂 )

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Crazy Spice Cake

(Adapted from recipes from the Sweet Little Bluebird and the Art of Gluten Free Baking blogs, and Walter Waltuck and Melicia Phillips’ recipe in Staffmeals from Chanterelle)

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(print the recipe)

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Serves 9, one 8 x 8-inch square cake

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If you don’t have any issues with wheat or gluten, you can definitely substitute 1 1/2 cups + 3 tablespoons of all-purpose flour for the gluten-free blend. To measure by weight, if your brand of all-purpose flour weighs 30g per 1/4 cup, you’ll need 202g for this cake.

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Dry ingredients

1½ cups + 3 tablespoons gluten-free flour  (236g, if you’re using Jeanne Sauvage’s blend*)

1 cup sugar (I used maple sugar.)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ginger

½ teaspoon nutmeg

½ teaspoon coriander

½ teaspoon salt

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Liquid ingredients

1 cup cold water

1 Tablespoon white vinegar

½ teaspoon vanilla

5 tablespoons oil

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Glaze (optional)

2 tablespoons honey (Substitute agave syrup for a vegan cake.)

1 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoons unsalted butter (Substitute vegan margarine for a vegan cake.)

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For serving if you don’t use the Glaze

Powdered sugar to sprinkle on the cooled cake (optional)

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1. Preheat oven to 350°.

2. Stir the dry ingredients together in a bowl.

3. Measure the liquid ingredients into a 2-cup measuring cup.

4. Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir quickly to blend it together. (It’s OK if there are still a few streaks of flour in the batter.) Quickly pour the batter into an ungreased 8×8-inch square cake pan and get it into the oven.

5. Bake for 30 minutes. Cool completely in the pan before cutting.

6. If using the Glaze, heat the honey, sugar, and butter together in a small saucepan, stirring constantly until it is hot and the sugar is dissolved. Poke holes all over the cooled cake with a fork and brush the hot glaze over the cake.

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*Jeanne’s Gluten-Free Flour Mix (found on her excellent  Art of Gluten-Free Baking Blog)

Jeanne says that 1 cup of her blend is 140g. So if you use this blend for the cake, you need 236g if you want to measure the blend by weight. Be sure to stir the blend together before measuring.

Mix together and store in the refrigerator:

1 1/4 cups (170g) brown rice flour

1 1/4 cups (205 g) white rice flour

1 cup (120g) tapioca flour

1 cup (165g) sweet rice flour (Mochiko)

2 scant teaspoons xanthan gum

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