The Cake Slice Baker's November 2013 - Applesauce Spice Cake

I have been looking forward to this day for a while.  Not only is it time for a new cake from the Cake Slice Bakers, it is also time to reveal our new book for the upcoming year.  Can I have a drum-roll please - we all voted and the winning book was Great Cakes by Carole Walter.  Ms. Walter is a respected author, has over 30 years of teaching experience, and has been honored for her "Outstanding Commitment to the Culinary Arts.”  It would be an understatement to say that this woman knows her stuff.

Just to refresh your memory the Cake Slice Bakers consists of a dedicated group of bakers from all over the world and every year we bake from a different cake book. Each month a selection of cakes are presented and we vote on which cake to bake next from our current book. We then have a month to bake it in secret before we all blog about it on the same day each month – the 20th – never before. We never reveal to anyone outside of the group which cake it is until this date. There are a few rules that we follow but the most important one is to have fun and enjoy eating cake! We have a blogroll which is open to anyone to view and it lists all the members. We link to this at the end of our cake reveal posts each month and it can be also be found at The Cake Slice Blogroll. Please come and visit us!

Honey-Ginger Spiced Pecans

This is a super quick recipe that I whipped up to decorate my November cake from the Cake Slice Bakers. A quick search revealed a honey-glazed pecan recipe, and I added some ginger for an added kick.  They paired really well with the Applesauce Spice Cake, and I could not stop nibbling on the leftovers.  I think they would be a great addition to a salad too.

Honey-Ginger Spiced Pecans
(Printer Friendly Recipe)

Ingredients

• ⅓ cup honey
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1½ cup pecans
• 1 tablespoon sugar

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350℉.
2. Whisk together honey and ginger, add pecans, tossing to coat well. 
3. Spread pecans in 1 layer in a shallow baking pan and sprinkle with sugar. 
4. Bake in middle of oven 15 minutes, then stir and bake 5 minutes more.
5. Transfer while still warm to a sheet of parchment paper or foil and, working quickly, separate pecans with a fork. 
6. Cool completely (about 1 hour) and remove nuts from parchment, breaking up any large pieces.
7. Pecans keep, layered between parchment or wax paper in an airtight container, at room temperature 3 days.

Recipe adapted from Epicurious

Chai Spice Girls ~ Creative Cookie Exchange

It is funny how a single photo can bring back a flood of memories. Last weekend I was helping my daughter go through some old photos. She is a senior and is in the process of preparing her dedicated page in the school year book. I picked up one photo where she (and her sisters) had dressed up as the Spice Girls for Halloween, and she was Baby Spice. In the photo she is only three years old, and it is hard to believe that she will be eighteen soon. I still remember getting them ready to Trick or Treat like it was yesterday. It meant a lot to me to be able to sort through photos and explain to her when it was taken and why it was special to me, and I even came across a few photos that I had forgotten I had of me as a baby.  I think it is safe to say that we both had a lot of fun on our trip down memory lane, even if she did think some of her photos were a little embarrassing.

Sticky Toffee Bundt Cake with Cranberry Jelly Glaze #BundtaMonth

When I found out that the theme for this months #Bundtamonth was Jam I was really surprised, not by the ingredient but by the fact that I immediately knew that I wanted to make a bundt version of a Sticky Toffee Pudding.  Considering that this is a very sweet dessert I thought that a cranberry jelly glaze would be the perfect foil for that sweetness.

The flavors in this cake are perfect for this time of year.  To me the sticky toffee flavor is such a comfort  food, especially if you make a little vanilla custard to go with it.  Also, I just love cranberry season and always end up with multiple bags in my freezer so that I can continue to enjoy them throughout the year.

The Cake Slice Baker's October 2013 - Old Vermont Burnt Sugar Cake With Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

It is so hard to believe that a year has gone by since we chose Vintage Cakes by Julie Richardson as the cookbook would be baking from in 2012-13.  It has been such a pleasure to bake with everyone in the Cake Slice Baker's group, and I am looking forward to our new book which will be revealed with next months post. As this is our last cake from the book it was decided that rather than vote on one cake, we would all choose the cake we wanted to make.  In some ways this was harder than voting because I kept looking through the book and then changing my mind.  I finally got it down to four cakes before I settled on the Old Vermont Burnt Sugar Cake With Maple Cream Cheese Frosting. It just seemed fitting for this time of the year.

In the book Julie Richardson describes how burnt sugar syrup was used to flavor cakes before the invention of extracts such as vanilla or almond.  The syrup is simple to make and gives this cake a wonderful toffee-caramel taste.  For me it brought back memories of making toffees for school fetes and cake sales, that were slightly soft and very chewy (or as we called them stickjaws), or so hard that you could suck on them for hours.