While I like cookbooks with large recipe content, I also have an appreciation for smaller cookbooks with thoughtfully curated recipes. That’s how I feel about “Everyday Cake: 45 Simple Recipes for Layer, Bundt, Loaf, and Sheet Cakes” by Polina Chesnakova. There’s nothing here that comes across as wacky or overtly trendy. I’d say that the recipes all seem familiar but updated for the modern appetite. There are only four chapters in this book:
- Bundt and tube cakes,
- Round cakes,
- Square and rectangular cakes,
- Loaf cakes
Some examples of what you’ll find here are:
- Gingerbread bundt cake with lemon mascarpone icing,
- Raspberry-rose angel food cake,
- Pear-walnut cake with spelt and cardamom,
- Coconut-lime cream cake with fluffy marshmallow frosting,
- Yellow birthday cake with whipped malt chocolate buttercream,
- Frosted apple-cinnamon oat cake,
- Confetti cake with strawberry frosting,
- Cannoli ricotta cake with candied pistachios,
- Parsnip and cranberry maple cake
For my first test recipe, I went with the strawberries and cream cake. I was swayed by the description of “this pound-meets-sponge cake… is delightfully light, so you won’t think twice about reaching for a second slice.” However, this recipe has a slightly unusual order of operations that tripped me up a little. For this recipe, you beat the eggs and sugar first. Next, you fold in the dry ingredients. Then (and this is where I went a little wrong), you whisk a cup of the batter with melted butter, and then mix everything back into the rest of the batter. I am pretty sure that I didn’t move fast enough. (Small kitchen, no counter space, new recipe… I am doomed to work more slowly.) The batter bubbled quite a bit while I was working, and I believe that I lost some of the rising power of the leavening agents by the time the cake went in the oven. That is to say, my result, while tasty, was not “delightfully light.”
The only change I made was to make two small cakes from the recipe. I brought one to a friend’s house, and made a blueberry compote to go with it (it’s the end of summer, definitely past strawberry season), and the other I layered with jam and cream. (The jam is an easy variation offered in the book.) Overall, I prefer the fruit version over the jam version. The jam made the cake a touch too sweet for my preference. Overall flavor was really nice. I’m just sad that mine ended up denser than I imagined.
I definitely want to remake this as I think I can do a better job.
Since we’re quickly approaching the fall, the second recipe I made was the roasted pumpkin spice cake with tahini glaze. Let it be known, I love pumpkin spice. I pretty much use it all year around except in the summer. I have a favorite pumpkin spice blend (it’s Trader Joe’s), and a favorite pumpkin loaf (it’s the Downeast Pumpkin Bread recipe), so I was curious how this stood up. I was also very curious about the tahini glaze. I’ve made a tahini cream cheese frosting in the past that I liked but one of my sisters thought was too “tahini-y”. Could this be a better option?
Chesnakova’s pumpkin cake comes together in a fairly typical method. In one bowl, mix your dry ingredients. In another bowl, beat eggs and sugar. Add in vanilla. Add in oil, then the pumpkin puree. Finally fold in dry ingredients, transfer to a loaf pan, and bake. The spices used here are ground cinnamon, ground ginger, ground cloves, ground cardamom, and ground nutmeg. So the only spice here that might be slightly unusual is the cardamom. (The Downeast Pumpkin Bread is different proportions of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger. But note, Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Pie Spice blend lists cinnamon, ginger, lemon peel, nutmeg, cloves, and cardamom.) After the loaf bakes and cools, the loaf gets a glaze made of powdered sugar, tahini, maple syrup, and milk.
The cake itself has a wonderful texture. It’s soft and moist. In terms of flavor, the cardamom doesn’t necessarily make this pumpkin loaf taste too different from other recipes but the cardamom is strong enough that I couldn’t ignore it. I liked the tahini glaze. I would like to try it as an “easier” replacement for Maura Kilpatrick’s Sesame Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting**. The textures are very different but I feel like the flavors are adjacent enough that I might be able to get away with it.
Personal preference though, I didn’t love the tahini flavor combined with the cardamom. I perceived it as a touch too perfumy, which was weird as I liked the cake and the glaze individually. Having said that, if you’re looking for an elevated pumpkin bread, Chesnakova’s recipe might be what you’re looking for.
Chesnakova says her “recipes are clear and detailed, meant to empower – not overwhelm – the reader,” and that her hope is “whether you’re a novice or seasoned baker, or somewhere in between, this cookbook will entice you and bring delight.” I think she delivers on that. If you’re someone interested in baking cakes and looking for a rounded collection of recipes that isn’t a tome taking up space, this is the book for you.
The book is available now for purchase, and the author is currently on tour. If you’re in the Greater Boston area on 9/29, you can order event tickets via Curio Spice (ticket comes with a copy of the book per the event description).
https://curiospice.com/pages/classes
** = Sesame Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting is what is used for Sofra’s Easter Carrot Cake. It’s made with halvah which is not the same as tahini but tahini is one of main ingredients. The recipe can be found in “Soframiz” by Ana Sortun and Maura Kilpatrick. It might be my favorite carrot cake ever but I’m too lazy to source halvah. Hence me experimenting with a tahini cream cheese frosting in the past.
Reference Links:
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/624190/everyday-cake-by-polina-chesnakova/
Disclaimer – I kindly received a review copy of this book from Sasquatch Books for this review. I’m not getting paid for this post. The views and opinions expressed are purely my own. I’m also not affiliated with Curio Spice in anyway. I’m just passing along event information in my area.
Awesomesauce Eats 