Recipes suitable for multiple occasions are always my goal. For cakes, I want one that goes from everyday easy to special celebrations with a few minor tweaks. Spice cakes are one of my favorite autumn desserts. This month’s recipe is ideal for after-school snacking, a simple weekday dessert, or a stunning celebration cake.
I first designed Autumn Spice Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting as a two-layer celebration of autumn’s arrival, but soon fell in love with its versatility. The combination of pungent Saigon cinnamon, freshly grated nutmeg, ground ginger, and cloves produces pleasant spicy notes, while the sour milk reacts with the baking soda and spices to produce the cake’s melt-in-your-mouth, light texture. That’s why it’s a great snack when the kids come home from school. Simply pour the batter into a 9×13 pan, bake, and serve warm. If you have a bit more time, cool the cake completely and dust each serving with snowy, confectioners’ sugar.
To me, there’s nothing quite like the pairing of spicy cake with cream cheese frosting. Whether it’s a pumpkin cake or one like this month’s recipe featuring a combination of spices, the tangy flavor and fluffy texture of cream cheese frosting is pure heaven when paired with warm, autumn spices. This frosting recipe makes a generous amount, so there’s ample to frost between the layers, ice the sides with a thin crumb coat — chill the cake for 20 minutes to set the crumb coat — then finish the sides and top of the cake with a thick layer of fluffy frosting with swirls around the edge.
For Halloween celebrations, reserve 1 cup of frosting and tint the remainder pale orange. After icing the cake with orange frosting, transfer the white to a piping bag fitted with a large, fluted tube and pipe white swirls around the edge. Instead of chocolate-dipped almonds, insert candy corn or candy pumpkins into each swirl.
Christy Rost is a cookbook author, host of Celebrating Home cooking videos, and longtime resident of the Park Cities and Preston Hollow. Her ‘At Home with Christy Rost’ cooking series for Eat This TV Network airs on AmazonFire, AppleTV+, Roku, Samsung TV, and YouTube. Please visit christyrost.com for details and recipes.
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