Not From Fannie Farmer (But another Retro Recipe coming soon)

It's in the oven now, and will get the usual maple frosting, but trying an older (and modified) version of spice cake. Most spice cakes are a little mellow for my taste, so I turned up the volume.

Spice Cake A La GC

2-1/2 cups SoftAsSilk Cake Flour	1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda	3 tsp Cinnamon
1-1/2 tsp nutmeg	1-1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp salt	1 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup butter	1-1/4 cup buttermilk
3 eggs

This cake is more than a bit old school and actual involves *sifting* some things together. If you don't have a sifter, grab a bowl and a whisk - whisking dry ingredients together is a bit of a cheat, but much faster than waiting for Amazon to ship you a sifter.

Before doing anything with ingredients, butter and flour two 9" springform round cake pans - and set your oven to 350F. Now, sift flour into a large mixer bowl and then sift together into bowl sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, salt. Next add brown sugar, butter and buttermilk to bowl and begin mixing at low speed.

THIS SPEED SETTING IS SELF-DEFENSE - YOU DO NOT WANT THE SPICE MIX AIRBORNE!!

Now, add eggs one at a time and wait for mixture to cream together - stop mixing when the batter is smooth and creamy and pour into pans. Bake at 350 F for 30-40 minutes, testing with knife to determine if done.* While cooking there will be an amazing spicy aroma floating in the air...

When done, cool on a rack. After cooling take a dollop of your preferred frosting (maple) and drop it in the center of your designated cake plate. Place your first cake layer on top of this (the idea is that if you are going *anywhere* with this cake, this gives it a fighting chance at staying in place and arriving intact).

Frost top of first layer (I tend to like about 1/4" of frosting between the layers), add 2nd layer of cake and then frost top and sides. Make as pretty as your whimsy dictates.

I'd reccomend the maple variant of Butter Cream Frosting (next post).

*To test a cake with a knife, take a sharp knife and insert it point down into the center of a cake and then withdraw it. If the knife comes out with batter, the cake is not done. If the knife comes out clean, it is done. If the knife will not come out, you should be worried.