We had one of Emma's favorite meals for dinner—yakisoba, Japanese fried noodles and vegetables—but the best part of the entire thing (see subject) was the cake. We've been on a lemon cake jag for a while now, everyone wanting lemon on their birthday, so I was glad when Emma said, "Um, cinnamon?" It gave me a chance to flex my culinary muscles a little. So I made a regular white cake, but I took out two tablespoons of the dry ingredients and mixed in two tablespoons of sugar and one of cinnamon, sprinkling that over the batter and swirling it in. Tasty, sure, but it wouldn't have been something to blog about.
If it hadn't been for the brown sugar frosting. When she said "cinnamon" I thought "brown sugar" and the cake came together in my head; but together in the pan, and then in the plate (and then on the fork and then in my mouth) was something else entirely. It was just...seriously, it was too good. I could open a shop with this cake and frosting and nothing else.
Brown Sugar FrostingBut that's not how I made it. I used only 3/4 cup of brown sugar, because I wanted something really like frosting, spreadable, and this recipe didn't sound spreadable. (Actually—true confessions—it was more like icing, just the tiniest bit runny and oh-so-incredible.) So to the small saucepan I added 1/2 tsp of cinnamon and just 3/4 cup of brown sugar, and then as I was beating it while I cooled I added in powdered sugar in the normal-making-frosting way. It probably took 2 cups of powdered sugar, I didn't measure exactly, I just eyeballed it.
1Tbsp butter (and I used margarine with great success)
5 Tbsp cream (which, soymilk works perfectly)
pinch salt
1 1/2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
In a small saucepan combine the brown sugar, margarine, cream/milk, and salt. Stir constantly over medium heat until the mixture comes to a boil. Remove from heat. Cool slightly, add vanilla, and beat until the frosting is cool and slightly thickened. If the frosting gets too thick, add a few more drops of cream.
It was a thing of beauty, I'm telling you. If I could give you each a piece of this cake I would.
Happy birthday to my Emma Joy!
3 comments:
happy Birthday Emma!
We thought of her yesterday! I couldn't remember how old she was. Joe said, "A year younger than Celeste." I said, "yes, but how old is Celeste?" Neither of us knew. :)
I can't believe she's 14! you have a miamaid at your house WOW!
I hope Macklin's starting to feel better!
The cake sounds fabulous! I'll have to try it.
The other day, I had a piece of cinnamon swirl cake from Starbucks, As i ate it with all of it's cinnamon swirl yumminess, I thought to myself, "I wonder if Alyson's cake tasted something like this." it was mighty tasty!
Did you use a regular cake recipe or a vegan one?
Well, mostly vegan; my best vegan cake recipes have in the ingredient list "replacer for x eggs" because there are a number of ways to replace eggs and, I guess, everyone has their favorites; but I do use eggs in baking, so I replace them with—eggs! So technically the cake was ovo-vegetarian.
Mostly I don't even label us as vegan anymore, because of the eggs in baking. (And Macklin, Kyrie, and Ethan will eat 'em scrambled, gasp!) I just call us vegetarian, and get more specific about the occasional eggs only when people ask.
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