Birthday Cake
Our January of living well got off to a high tone as we celebrated the new year with a Champagne toast, before turning our attention and our champagne flutes to that most luxurious of cocktails: the Kir Royale. In honor of both Lady Violet and Old Man Winter (both capricorns, by the way), we took a lovely stroll through a winter garden, perhaps even took the inspiration to build a silver and green themed terrarium. After the breathing period of the first weeks of the new year, many take themselves shopping during the first long weekend of the year, and we were ready at Urban Home with a checklist for home electronics in time for winter’s upcoming high water marks of the Superbowl and the Academy Awards. But the most important reason to celebrate during that long weekend is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday, whose national holiday is recognized both in honor of the man and his legacy and in the spirit of time set aside for community service.
I decided to write about the good life in January because it is my birthday month. After Halloween and New Year’s Eve, birthdays are my favorite holiday. People react to birthdays all kinds of ways, from indifference to denial, from bewilderment to excitement. I am a firm believer that birthdays merit celebration, but I always try to learn how anyone having a birthday feels about it, because just as many don’t want the day recognized as do. Often people have personal preferences for the proceedings if there are any, and on this most personal of holidays especially, that should be respected.
My grandmother believed in birthdays, which was good luck for me, because unfortunately my parents subscribed to the theory that one celebration counts twice for anyone whose birthday is close to the winter holidays. The only time it is correct not to recognize someone’s birthday is if they don’t want it recognized. If cost is an issue, we remember that the success of birthday recognition isn’t measured in ambition but in sincerity – even the simplest remembrance is lovely, and it is the recognition that is the point. Something as simple as a card, a cupcake, a few kind words in person or electronically is a gesture of consideration. When it is offered, the gesture becomes a celebration.
In this as in so many other ways, my grandmother both rescued and taught me, for the birthday parties she gave me were fun, attentive, modest, and always predicated on the precepts that a party is a gift you are giving to the attendees, and that is especially true if there are honorees. Having learned this lesson fundamentally has served me well as a host. This is how I always approach hosting an event, and I coach hosts to do the same.
The centerpiece of a birthday party is the honoree, but the event that everyone is waiting for is the cake. We serve cake on birthdays because cake is special. It is appropriate to ask the honoree what kind of cake they want, and then do your best to provide it. What kind of cake the honoree likes tells us what they think is celebratory, and when it is presented in their honor, it makes watching them blow out the candles that much more heartwarming. If they mention that they’d rather have a different dessert, or that they can’t or don’t eat sweets, then that is a reasonable accommodation.
As she did about much having to do with the home, my grandmother had definite procedures and beliefs regarding baking. This was a time when baking was an expected skill for a homekeeper and an expression of the rhythm of homekeeping. One baked cobblers with harvest fruit, canned mincemeat in time for holiday pies, had biscuits ready for almost any meal. One kept the cookie jar and the bread box stocked. And one had a snack cake residing on the kitchen counter in a pan with a snap top lid: moist applesauce cake, spongy raisin cake, crumbly coffee cake. This was for hungry kids to gobble after school, for tucking into the menfolks' lunch pails, for serving with coffee when guests dropped by.
To my grandmother and most of her contemporaries, layer cakes were known as “Sunday cakes,” because these serious efforts were intended to be presented to the supreme jury present at a church supper. Sunday cake was also what was ferried to the cake walk; that social custom of that time and place where bakers put their most advanced efforts on display both as prizes for the game of cake walking and as dry runs for the dead-serious competition coming up at the county fair. You could always count on an impressive procession of coconut, pecan, German chocolate, and carrot Sunday cakes, and to win, place or show in this arena was rightly admired as the accomplishment that it was.
For birthdays, my grandmother preferred to serve sheet cakes, and this is a practice I agree with. A square of good sheet cake provides spectacle through simplicity, and that concentration of goodness is the essence of celebration. I am frequently asked to bake sheet cakes for friends and family on their birthdays. Though chocolate and banana cakes are the most requested, my favorite for my own birthday is Grandma Spice Cake. This dessert exudes charm because it is old fashioned and sophistication because it is lush. In a Grandma Spice Cake, a hefty punch of hot-sweet spices are air-lifted through a creamed butter and sugar batter and slathered with decadent caramel frosting. Anyone who’s ever tasted it will agree that here is a true prize: my grandmother’s spice cake, taken from her heirloom recipe. Whether you are serving it for a birthday or as dessert, this special cake provides a perfect slice of the good life.
Grandma Spice Cake
Always use the freshest spices for this cake; click here for Urban Home Blog’s Guide to Herbs and Spices. Remember when baking a cake not to over mix the batter or to alter any of the steps or ingredients, and to resist the temptation of checking the cake once it’s in the oven. This cake uses the practice of souring milk, which helps with the rise of the cake while it’s baking, and the crumb once it’s cut. This is an old-fashioned creamed cake, so this recipe is written for an electric mixer; click here for Urban Home Blog’s Guide to Kitchen Electrics for the mixer we like.
For the cake
2 sticks unsalted butter
2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for the pan
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1-1/4 cups firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground cloves
3/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground mace
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
1 cup whole milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon white vinegar
3 large eggs
For the frosting
1 stick butter
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 pinch ground nutmeg
Make the cake
1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Place two sticks of butter, still wrapped, on a clean plate. Each stick of butter should be marked with eight lines, each of which represents one tablespoon. Use the blade of a butter knife to measure up each stick of butter to five tablespoons. Move the blade of the knife just slightly beyond the five tablespoon mark to represent one third of a tablespoon.
3. Cut a measure of 5-1/3 tablespoons from each stick of butter. Unwrap the measures and place the butter in the well of a large mixing bowl. Use the wrappers to loosely cover the butter. Set the bowl aside so that the butter can soften.
4. Use some of the remaining butter to generously grease the bottom and sides of a 13 x 9 inch baking pan. Measure out a tablespoon of flour and add that to the buttered pan. Shake the pan so that flour adheres to the butter and forms a coating on the bottom and sides of the pan. Shake out and discard excess flour if any.
5. Firmly pack the brown sugar in a measuring vessel to the 1-1/4 cup line. Transfer the firmly packed brown sugar to a medium mixing bowl, and use a fork to break the sugar up.
6. Measure the granulated sugar, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, allspice, mace, cardamom and white pepper into the bowl containing the brown sugar. Use the fork to mix the sugars and spices together.
7. Measure the flour, baking soda, and salt into a mixing bowl. Use the fork to stir the three ingredients together.
8. Measure the milk into a mixing cup with a spout. Use a measuring spoon to remove and discard one teaspoon of milk. Measure one teaspoon of vinegar into the milk. Use a whisk to stir the vinegar into the milk.
9. Crack the eggs into a bowl. Measure the vanilla extract into the eggs. Swirl the eggs and vanilla around to break up the eggs. You only need to do this lightly; it is not necessary to break the yolks.
10. Fit an electric mixer with its beaters and plug the mixer in close to your work space. Place the large bowl containing the butter within easy reach of the mixer. Place all of the bowls containing the other ingredients and the measuring cup containing the soured milk within easy reach of the large mixing bowl. Place the prepared cake pan and a silicon spatula within easy reach of the work space.
11. Once the butter is workable, remove and discard the wrappers. Turn the mixer to low and, working gently, whip the butter until it is light and fluffy, approximately 2 minutes.
12. Once the butter is fluffy, turn off the mixer and remove the beaters. Use the spatula to scrape down the bowl and beaters. Reattach the beaters to the mixer.
13. Hold the mixer with one hand with the beaters in the bowl containing the whipped butter. Turn the mixer to low. Use one hand to shake the sugar-spice mixture into the bowl containing the whipped butter and the other hand to use the mixer to thoroughly incorporate the sugar-spice mixture into the butter.
14. Turn off the mixer and remove the beaters. Use the spatula to scrape down the bowl and beaters. Reattach the beaters to the mixer.
15. Swirl the vanilla-egg mixture into the bowl containing the butter-sugar mixture. If necessary, use the spatula to get all of the vanilla-egg mixture into the bowl.
16. Turn the mixer to medium and use the mixer to incorporate the vanilla-egg mixture into the butter-sugar mixture. Stop mixing just as the ingredients are incorporated. It is okay if some of the egg mixture has not fully broken up; it will once you continue mixing.
17. Shake about one third of the flour mixture into the bowl containing the batter. Use the mixer set to medium to incorporate the flour into the batter. Stop mixing just as the ingredients are incorporated.
18. Pour one-half of the soured milk into the bowl containing the batter. Use the mixer set to medium to incorporate the soured milk into the batter. Stop mixing just as the ingredients are incorporated.
19. Repeat steps 17 and 18 and then repeat step 17 to use the final third of the flour mixture.
20. Turn off the mixer and remove the beaters. Use the spatula to scrape down the bowl and beaters.
21. Hold the bowl containing the batter over the prepared cake pan. Use the spatula to gently scrape the batter into the bowl, scraping down the sides of the bowl to get the full amount of batter into the bowl.
22. Gently shake the cake pan side to side and front to back to ensure that the batter is easily distributed throughout the pan. Use the spatula to smooth the top of the batter.
23. Gently place the cake onto the center rack in the preheated oven.
24. Bake the cake 40 minutes, no peeking.
25. After 40 minutes, gently open the oven door and check the cake. It should exhibit a good rise with a clean flat or slightly domed top, slightly browned edges, and a solid center with no area of undercooked batter. If necessary, bake 5 more minutes.
26. Once the cake is done, gently remove the cake from the oven and place the pan on hot pads or a sturdy baking rack for the cake to cool, approximately 1 hour. If necessary, cover the cake with a clean tea towel or a light layer of paper towels as it cools, but don’t let anything touch the surface of the cake.
Make the frosting
1. After the cake has cooled, place a medium sized saucepan on the stove top.
2. Unwrap 1 stick of butter and place the unwrapped butter into the saucepan.
3. Firmly pack the brown sugar in a measuring vessel to the 1 cup line. Transfer the firmly packed brown sugar to the saucepan.
4. Measure the powdered sugar into a mixing bowl and place the bowl safely within reach of the saucepan. Add the nutmeg to the powdered sugar.
5. Measure the milk into a measuring cup. Measure the vanilla extract into the milk.
6. Turn the burner heat to medium. Swirl the pan over the heat to melt the butter and sugar together. As you swirl the pan, the sugar should melt; if it doesn’t, quit swirling the pan and use a wire whisk to stir the mixture until it is silken, approximately 2 minutes.
7. Once the flour-brown sugar mixture is melted together and silken, remove the pan from the heat but leave the heat on. Working safely, use one hand to use the wire whisk to stir the mixture while you use the other hand to incorporate the vanilla milk into the sugar-butter mixture.
8. Return the pan to the heat. Use the whisk to stir the frosting until it is very silken and fragrant.
9. Once the frosting is silken and fragrant, add the powdered sugar mixture to the pan containing the frosting. Use the whisk to stir the sugar into the frosting until it is thick and spreadable, approximately 1 minute.
10. Turn off the burner heat.
Frost the cake
1. Once the cake is cool enough to frost, use an offset spatula to gently spread the caramel frosting across the cake. If the frosting is too thick, whisk a few drops of milk into the frosting until it is spreadable.
2. Once the cake is frosted, cover the cake pan with its lid. If not serving the cake within a couple of hours, refrigerate the cake and serve it within one day.
I decided to write about the good life in January because it is my birthday month. After Halloween and New Year’s Eve, birthdays are my favorite holiday. People react to birthdays all kinds of ways, from indifference to denial, from bewilderment to excitement. I am a firm believer that birthdays merit celebration, but I always try to learn how anyone having a birthday feels about it, because just as many don’t want the day recognized as do. Often people have personal preferences for the proceedings if there are any, and on this most personal of holidays especially, that should be respected.
My grandmother believed in birthdays, which was good luck for me, because unfortunately my parents subscribed to the theory that one celebration counts twice for anyone whose birthday is close to the winter holidays. The only time it is correct not to recognize someone’s birthday is if they don’t want it recognized. If cost is an issue, we remember that the success of birthday recognition isn’t measured in ambition but in sincerity – even the simplest remembrance is lovely, and it is the recognition that is the point. Something as simple as a card, a cupcake, a few kind words in person or electronically is a gesture of consideration. When it is offered, the gesture becomes a celebration.
In this as in so many other ways, my grandmother both rescued and taught me, for the birthday parties she gave me were fun, attentive, modest, and always predicated on the precepts that a party is a gift you are giving to the attendees, and that is especially true if there are honorees. Having learned this lesson fundamentally has served me well as a host. This is how I always approach hosting an event, and I coach hosts to do the same.
The centerpiece of a birthday party is the honoree, but the event that everyone is waiting for is the cake. We serve cake on birthdays because cake is special. It is appropriate to ask the honoree what kind of cake they want, and then do your best to provide it. What kind of cake the honoree likes tells us what they think is celebratory, and when it is presented in their honor, it makes watching them blow out the candles that much more heartwarming. If they mention that they’d rather have a different dessert, or that they can’t or don’t eat sweets, then that is a reasonable accommodation.
As she did about much having to do with the home, my grandmother had definite procedures and beliefs regarding baking. This was a time when baking was an expected skill for a homekeeper and an expression of the rhythm of homekeeping. One baked cobblers with harvest fruit, canned mincemeat in time for holiday pies, had biscuits ready for almost any meal. One kept the cookie jar and the bread box stocked. And one had a snack cake residing on the kitchen counter in a pan with a snap top lid: moist applesauce cake, spongy raisin cake, crumbly coffee cake. This was for hungry kids to gobble after school, for tucking into the menfolks' lunch pails, for serving with coffee when guests dropped by.
To my grandmother and most of her contemporaries, layer cakes were known as “Sunday cakes,” because these serious efforts were intended to be presented to the supreme jury present at a church supper. Sunday cake was also what was ferried to the cake walk; that social custom of that time and place where bakers put their most advanced efforts on display both as prizes for the game of cake walking and as dry runs for the dead-serious competition coming up at the county fair. You could always count on an impressive procession of coconut, pecan, German chocolate, and carrot Sunday cakes, and to win, place or show in this arena was rightly admired as the accomplishment that it was.
For birthdays, my grandmother preferred to serve sheet cakes, and this is a practice I agree with. A square of good sheet cake provides spectacle through simplicity, and that concentration of goodness is the essence of celebration. I am frequently asked to bake sheet cakes for friends and family on their birthdays. Though chocolate and banana cakes are the most requested, my favorite for my own birthday is Grandma Spice Cake. This dessert exudes charm because it is old fashioned and sophistication because it is lush. In a Grandma Spice Cake, a hefty punch of hot-sweet spices are air-lifted through a creamed butter and sugar batter and slathered with decadent caramel frosting. Anyone who’s ever tasted it will agree that here is a true prize: my grandmother’s spice cake, taken from her heirloom recipe. Whether you are serving it for a birthday or as dessert, this special cake provides a perfect slice of the good life.
Grandma Spice Cake
Always use the freshest spices for this cake; click here for Urban Home Blog’s Guide to Herbs and Spices. Remember when baking a cake not to over mix the batter or to alter any of the steps or ingredients, and to resist the temptation of checking the cake once it’s in the oven. This cake uses the practice of souring milk, which helps with the rise of the cake while it’s baking, and the crumb once it’s cut. This is an old-fashioned creamed cake, so this recipe is written for an electric mixer; click here for Urban Home Blog’s Guide to Kitchen Electrics for the mixer we like.
For the cake
2 sticks unsalted butter
2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for the pan
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1-1/4 cups firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground cloves
3/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground mace
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
1 cup whole milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon white vinegar
3 large eggs
For the frosting
1 stick butter
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 pinch ground nutmeg
Make the cake
1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Place two sticks of butter, still wrapped, on a clean plate. Each stick of butter should be marked with eight lines, each of which represents one tablespoon. Use the blade of a butter knife to measure up each stick of butter to five tablespoons. Move the blade of the knife just slightly beyond the five tablespoon mark to represent one third of a tablespoon.
3. Cut a measure of 5-1/3 tablespoons from each stick of butter. Unwrap the measures and place the butter in the well of a large mixing bowl. Use the wrappers to loosely cover the butter. Set the bowl aside so that the butter can soften.
4. Use some of the remaining butter to generously grease the bottom and sides of a 13 x 9 inch baking pan. Measure out a tablespoon of flour and add that to the buttered pan. Shake the pan so that flour adheres to the butter and forms a coating on the bottom and sides of the pan. Shake out and discard excess flour if any.
5. Firmly pack the brown sugar in a measuring vessel to the 1-1/4 cup line. Transfer the firmly packed brown sugar to a medium mixing bowl, and use a fork to break the sugar up.
6. Measure the granulated sugar, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, allspice, mace, cardamom and white pepper into the bowl containing the brown sugar. Use the fork to mix the sugars and spices together.
7. Measure the flour, baking soda, and salt into a mixing bowl. Use the fork to stir the three ingredients together.
8. Measure the milk into a mixing cup with a spout. Use a measuring spoon to remove and discard one teaspoon of milk. Measure one teaspoon of vinegar into the milk. Use a whisk to stir the vinegar into the milk.
9. Crack the eggs into a bowl. Measure the vanilla extract into the eggs. Swirl the eggs and vanilla around to break up the eggs. You only need to do this lightly; it is not necessary to break the yolks.
10. Fit an electric mixer with its beaters and plug the mixer in close to your work space. Place the large bowl containing the butter within easy reach of the mixer. Place all of the bowls containing the other ingredients and the measuring cup containing the soured milk within easy reach of the large mixing bowl. Place the prepared cake pan and a silicon spatula within easy reach of the work space.
11. Once the butter is workable, remove and discard the wrappers. Turn the mixer to low and, working gently, whip the butter until it is light and fluffy, approximately 2 minutes.
12. Once the butter is fluffy, turn off the mixer and remove the beaters. Use the spatula to scrape down the bowl and beaters. Reattach the beaters to the mixer.
13. Hold the mixer with one hand with the beaters in the bowl containing the whipped butter. Turn the mixer to low. Use one hand to shake the sugar-spice mixture into the bowl containing the whipped butter and the other hand to use the mixer to thoroughly incorporate the sugar-spice mixture into the butter.
14. Turn off the mixer and remove the beaters. Use the spatula to scrape down the bowl and beaters. Reattach the beaters to the mixer.
15. Swirl the vanilla-egg mixture into the bowl containing the butter-sugar mixture. If necessary, use the spatula to get all of the vanilla-egg mixture into the bowl.
16. Turn the mixer to medium and use the mixer to incorporate the vanilla-egg mixture into the butter-sugar mixture. Stop mixing just as the ingredients are incorporated. It is okay if some of the egg mixture has not fully broken up; it will once you continue mixing.
17. Shake about one third of the flour mixture into the bowl containing the batter. Use the mixer set to medium to incorporate the flour into the batter. Stop mixing just as the ingredients are incorporated.
18. Pour one-half of the soured milk into the bowl containing the batter. Use the mixer set to medium to incorporate the soured milk into the batter. Stop mixing just as the ingredients are incorporated.
19. Repeat steps 17 and 18 and then repeat step 17 to use the final third of the flour mixture.
20. Turn off the mixer and remove the beaters. Use the spatula to scrape down the bowl and beaters.
21. Hold the bowl containing the batter over the prepared cake pan. Use the spatula to gently scrape the batter into the bowl, scraping down the sides of the bowl to get the full amount of batter into the bowl.
22. Gently shake the cake pan side to side and front to back to ensure that the batter is easily distributed throughout the pan. Use the spatula to smooth the top of the batter.
23. Gently place the cake onto the center rack in the preheated oven.
24. Bake the cake 40 minutes, no peeking.
25. After 40 minutes, gently open the oven door and check the cake. It should exhibit a good rise with a clean flat or slightly domed top, slightly browned edges, and a solid center with no area of undercooked batter. If necessary, bake 5 more minutes.
26. Once the cake is done, gently remove the cake from the oven and place the pan on hot pads or a sturdy baking rack for the cake to cool, approximately 1 hour. If necessary, cover the cake with a clean tea towel or a light layer of paper towels as it cools, but don’t let anything touch the surface of the cake.
Make the frosting
1. After the cake has cooled, place a medium sized saucepan on the stove top.
2. Unwrap 1 stick of butter and place the unwrapped butter into the saucepan.
3. Firmly pack the brown sugar in a measuring vessel to the 1 cup line. Transfer the firmly packed brown sugar to the saucepan.
4. Measure the powdered sugar into a mixing bowl and place the bowl safely within reach of the saucepan. Add the nutmeg to the powdered sugar.
5. Measure the milk into a measuring cup. Measure the vanilla extract into the milk.
6. Turn the burner heat to medium. Swirl the pan over the heat to melt the butter and sugar together. As you swirl the pan, the sugar should melt; if it doesn’t, quit swirling the pan and use a wire whisk to stir the mixture until it is silken, approximately 2 minutes.
7. Once the flour-brown sugar mixture is melted together and silken, remove the pan from the heat but leave the heat on. Working safely, use one hand to use the wire whisk to stir the mixture while you use the other hand to incorporate the vanilla milk into the sugar-butter mixture.
8. Return the pan to the heat. Use the whisk to stir the frosting until it is very silken and fragrant.
9. Once the frosting is silken and fragrant, add the powdered sugar mixture to the pan containing the frosting. Use the whisk to stir the sugar into the frosting until it is thick and spreadable, approximately 1 minute.
10. Turn off the burner heat.
Frost the cake
1. Once the cake is cool enough to frost, use an offset spatula to gently spread the caramel frosting across the cake. If the frosting is too thick, whisk a few drops of milk into the frosting until it is spreadable.
2. Once the cake is frosted, cover the cake pan with its lid. If not serving the cake within a couple of hours, refrigerate the cake and serve it within one day.
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