This Spice Cake Recipe Insisted I Create It!

A voice that floated into my brain had its way with me.

The Cover of my food processor cookbook published in 1985.

Forty years ago, as I was putting the finishing touches on my manuscript for Patently Easy Food Processor Cooking, a little voice—assertive and persistent—said “You must put me in too.” What’s going on? Who is this? A recipe is telling me it needs to be in my book? I say to myself, “My book has all the recipes it needs.” But I keep listening, and the voice says “A spice cake. I have to be in your book.” “But I already have a spice cake recipe in my book.” “Not mine. You need me, too.”

I’ve learned to pay attention to unbidden advice, whether voiceless or not, and that’s how Blue Mountain Spice Cake made its way into my book. It’s a simple recipe, mildly spiced, and ideal for snacking. I love it. I hope you will, too.

Serving of Blue Mountain Spice Cake. Berries are always welcome!

Here are the ingredients you’ll need.

The French phrase for having the ingredients all in one place is mise en place.

I always begin by preparing the baking pan first. Then I preheat the oven.

This is a 9-inch square pan buttered and dusted lightly with dry bread crumbs. You can use all-purpose flour instead.

To prep the dry ingredients, put the metal blade into the food processor work bowl and add the cake flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Process for 5 seconds and transfer the mix to a sheet of waxed paper.

Reinsert the metal blade in the work bowl and add the brown sugar and orange zest. Process for 2 minutes.

The orange zest is very finely chopped in the brown sugar.

Next you add the egg and vanilla and process for 1 minute.

The batter is smooth and liquidy.

Next, add the softened butter.

Process for 1 minute.

With the machine on, add the buttermilk through the feed tube. Just pour it in. The batter is now ready to be combined with the dry ingredients.

Here are the dry ingredients on top of the batter.

After four quick pulses—say on/off rapidly four times, once for each pulse—scrape the work bowl and give one more quick pulse. Scrpe the side of the work bowl. Your batter will be completely mixed and smooth. If not, give it a stir with the plastic spatula. Scrape the batter into the pan and bake.

Here’s the baked cake. It’s not very tall, and the top is a bit domed.

This picture shows you the height of the spice cake. You can also see the slightly rounded top of the cake.

And here’s the recipe as it appears in my book.

Happy Baking!

One final point. When making cakes in the food processor you mix the egg and sugar together first, then add the butter. The conventional method is to cream the butter with the sugar, then mix in the eggs and finally the flour.

You can, of course, make this cake in the conventional way with a mixer.

Oh, another thing. You should shake the buttermilk container to make sure the milk is smooth. It tends to separate a bit in the fridge. When shaken, the buttermilk will be bubbly, so it’s best to weigh it—230 to 240 grams.

And Please…

Thank you!