Spice Cake
Warm, cinnamon-heavy cakes — Carrot Cake Squares, Pumpkin Spice Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting, Apple Spice Cake, Moist Gingerbread Cake — for fall baking.
★ dessert
dessertCarrot Cake Squares
Deliciously fresh carrot cake with a creamy cheesecake swirl.
Toasty MarshIngredients
- 1/2 cup Melted Butter
- 1 cup Light Brown Sugar (Packed)
- 1 tbsp Vanilla Extract
- 1 cup A.P. Flour
- 1 Large Egg
- 1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp Baking Powder
- 1/4 tsp Salt
- 1 cup Shredded Carrots
- 4 oz Cream Cheese (Room Temp)
- 1/4 cup Granulated Sugar
- 1 Large Egg Yolk
- 3/4 tsp Vanilla extract
Instructions
- 1Preheat oven to 350°F.
- 2Spray an 8x8 baking dish with non-stick spray and set aside.
- 3*Carrot Cake Steps* Melt butter in microwave.
- 4In a medium bowl, add the melted butter and brown sugar. Mix until well combined.
- 5Mix in the egg and vanilla extract.
- 6Add in the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt. Stir until completely combined.
- 7Fold in the shredded carrots. Set mixture aside.
- 8*Cheesecake Swirl* In a medium bowl, add in the cream cheese and sugar. Beat with a hand mixer until smooth.
- 9Add in the egg yolk and vanilla extract.
- 10Beat on medium/high until smooth and creamy.
- 11Add half of the carrot cake batter into the pan and spread out evenly.
- 12Add half of the cheesecake batter to the carrot cake batter. Do this by dropping dollops of batter all over the carrot cake batter. ***Don’t swirl yet.***
- 13Add the remaining carrot cake batter on top of and around the cheesecake batter.
- 14Add the remaining cheesecake batter by adding dollops on top of the carrot cake batter.
- 15Using a knife or skewer, swirl the batters together as much as you’d like.
- 16Bake for about 35-40 minutes until the edges are golden brown. There will be very little jiggle to the center.
- 17Cool completely before cutting. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
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Open in Pepper →The Cake That Smells Like Fall
A spice cake does half its work before anyone takes a bite. Cinnamon, ginger and molasses in a warm oven fill the whole house, and that smell alone gets people into the kitchen.
Cooks on Pepper reach for these when there's a potluck Saturday, a church supper, or a Sunday afternoon with apples on the counter that need using up. Most bake in one pan and get cut into squares, which is exactly what you want when you're feeding a crowd.
Every recipe here is a spice cake worth the oven time — Carrot Cake Squares and a Vegan Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting, Super Moist Spice Cake, Spice Cake with Eggnog Buttercream, Gingerbread Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting, Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Spice Cake, and Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes when you need something easy to hand out.
Quick Tips
- 1
Cool before you frost
Cream cheese frosting slides right off a warm cake. Give it at least 1 hour on a rack, or 30 minutes in the fridge if you're in a hurry.
- 2
Grate carrots yourself
Bagged shredded carrots are dry and thick. Grate 3 to 4 medium carrots on the small holes of a box grater for a moister crumb.
- 3
Bloom the spices
Whisk cinnamon, ginger and cloves into the melted butter or warm oil for 1 minute before mixing in the sugar. It deepens the flavor noticeably.
- 4
Stop stirring early
Mix just until the flour disappears, about 20 to 30 strokes by hand. Overmixed spice cake bakes up tough and rubbery.
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