Odette Williamsโsย Simple Cake arrived on my doorstep the day before Phoebeโs birthday, but something tells me even if it was a random Tuesday in the middle of the night, this book wouldโve given me no choice but to beeline for the kitchen to bake a cake, like the one you are looking at above: What she calls Chocolatey Chocolate Cake with Silky Marshmallow Icing.
Simple Cake is my favorite kind of cookbook: Beautiful, personal, poetic without being treacly. While thereโs something to be said for the biblical โcategory killerโ type of collection, the one that has every recipe youโll ever need, the baking books that get me to break out the standing mixer are the ones that feel like the author just pulled out a few stained index cards from her wooden recipe box; the ones that have the overall feel of How lovely of you to stop by. Thatโs what Simple Cake is. Williams gives us recipes for 10 cakes and 15 toppings. And though that might not sound like a lot, once you do the mix-and-match math there, youโll see itโs probably all youโll ever need.
Once you leaf through it, you will find yourself so happy you still have that bag of almond flour in the pantry because: Almond Gato! (So simple! Seven ingredients; one of them is salt.) It will suddenly occur to you that maybe a warmย Cinnamon Donut Cake (think farmerโs market cider donuts, but in cake form) would cheer up your daughter who is injured and sidelined from playing her favorite sport. Or perhaps Bribery Cake (Chocolatey chocolate cake with chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream) would work for that, too. As Williamsโ writes, โItโs the cake you bake to help you or a loved one across the finish line.โ Next up for me: TLC Cakes (pan-fried Coconut Cake), Self-Care Cake (Milk and Honey Cake with Whipped Cream); Poppy Seed Yogurt Cake, called A Cake for the Working Week.
In other words, itโs impossible to read this book and not think: Itโs a good day to bake a cake.
.
Chocolatey Chocolate Cake with Silky Marshmallow Icing
You can double this recipe whenย itโs party timeโjust use a 15 byย 11-inch sheet pan and bake forย 35 to 40 minutes. Makes one 10 by 3-inch round cake. To make this mocha, replace half the boiling water (so 1/2 cup) with freshly brewed coffee or espresso. Preparation: 20 minutes
Preheat the oven to 350ยฐF. Grease a 10-by-3-inch round pan with butter, lineย the bottom and sides of the pan with parchment paper, and grease the paper.ย (Iโll let you just grease, line the bottom of the pan, and lightly flour the sides ifย youโre feeling lazy.)
Place a large sifter or a sieve in a large mixing bowl. Add the flour, cocoa,baking powder, baking soda, and salt and sift.
Add the sugar and whisk until combined.
In another large bowl, whisk the eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla together.
Gradually add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and whisk until thereรย are no lumps and the batter is smooth.
Carefully pour in the boiling water and stir until combined. (Watch the littleย ones with the hot water!)
Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake in the center of the oven forย approximately 50 minutes or until a wooden skewer inserted in the centerรย comes out clean, and the cake bounces back when lightly pressed.
Remove from the oven and let the cake stand for 10 minutes. Run a butterย knife around the cake to gently release. Peel off the parchment paper from the sides. Invert the cake, peel off the bottom piece of parchment, and coolย on a wire rack.
2 large egg whites, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Fill a medium saucepan with about 1 1/2 inches of water, bring to a boil, and then lower the heat to maintain a gentle simmer.
.
Place the water, egg whites, sugar, cream of tartar, salt and vanilla in a metal mixing bowl. (Use the mixing bowl of a standing mixer if you have one.) Place the bowl on top of the saucepan. Make sure the bottom of the bowl doesnโt touch the water.
.
Reprinted with permission fromย Simple Cakeย byย Odette Williams,ย copyright ยฉ 2019. Publishedย by Ten Speed Press, a division of Penguin Random House, Inc. For more Odette, follow her on instagram.
Gorgeous! I love a good cake.
BTW, I was at dinner with a close friend who Iโve known for 13 years โ we met in prenatal yoga โ and we were talking about meal planning and she mentioned that her husband was friends with you in college! I was like, I LOVE HER โ well, Iโve never met Jenny, but I love her blo and books, and it took you 13 years to tell me this?
Haha. Thatโs so funny.
Jenny!!! Ahhhโฆ Iโm SO touched! xx
This post feels like an old-school DALS post (in a good way). The simply decorated cake, the birthday gifts strewn on the table, the bright red chair in the backgroundโฆ. so comforting. Baking cakes is one of my favorite things in life and this book looks so good.
Whatโs the cake in the cover photo of the book? It actually looks a lot like Russian kulich, a sweet yeast bread a little bit like panettone, but that is made at Easter.
Itโs the Very Vanilla Cake with โNanaโs Simple Syrupโ ๐
This looks lovely. I am definitely adding Simple Cakes to my list of books to purchase!
oops โ Simple Cake (no s). My apologies!
i baked the cake last night, wrapped it and tossed it in the freezer to finish off (icing, eating) for a dinner party saturday night. i loved that it was created with pantry/fridge ingredients and came together very quickly (under 15 minutes). thanks for the recipe and inspiration!
impressive @awads! wasnโt it amazing? I could go for a slice right now.
oh this looks so yum!
I finished the cake today and served it at a dinner party. OMG!! That icing!! I canโt believe I made that! The whole thing was amazing, and took very little effort or exotic ingredients. I wish I could post a pic here, but I posted it to my Instagram (awadsie). Thanks again! I will buy the book!
Made this lovely cake and divine icing with my daughter Saturday, and then promptly ordered the book. The cake was even better on day 2. We made 2 round 8 -inch cakes, with the icing perfect for 1. I froze the other cake and am looking forward to trying another frosting recipe from the book to top it.
I saw this book at my local bookstore, leafed through it, and had to buy it. I was fascinated by the many ways to morph a simple cake into something spectacular.
Once I got the cookbook home, my 6 year old daughter and I baked the Very Vanilla cake, and since bedtime was drawing near by the time it was done cooking, and we couldnโt wait for the cake to cool before frosting it, we ate the cake with a dusting of confectioners sugar. It was delicious and easily the best vanilla cake Iโve ever made.
Up next is the Olive Oil cake, which I suspect will taste a lot like a simple (and delicious) cake my husbandโs Greek grandmother used to make with olive oil and just a splash of orange juice.
Thanks so much for drawing my attention to this book! I suspect there will be many mother/daughter baking adventures inspired by this book, and flour strewn around my kitchen, for years to come.
How can this cake possibly be chocolatey enough with just that amount of cocoa?
Can you just double the icing recipe for a two layer cake?
I made a 2-layer cake without doubling the recipe for icing. I had plenty! I wound up not icing the sides, so tossed out a good bit (which Iโm sitting her mourning a week later! )
I am going out to purchase this today!! Yum!
Thank you for this! My very picky eater turned 10 this week and her two favorite sweets areโฆ chocolate cake and marshmallows!! This was a winner with both kids and adults. In fact, as he was leaving my neighbor reminded me that his birthday is coming up next month โ and heโd be a-okay with me making this cake for him!
Do you know if this amount of cake batter would fit in (and not overflow from) a 9ร3 inch round cake pan? I mistakenly tried to bake it once in a 9ร1 inch pan and ended up making a giant mess in my oven.
I want to try this cake and frosting for my daughterโs 4th birthday. Can I frost it the night before? Or wait until the day of? If frosted before, can/should it go in the fridge? Or leave out on the counter?
My family absolutely loved this cake! The more chocolately the better. And your silky marshmallow frosting, OMG! so yummy. Thatโs a frosting Iโll use on other cakes as well.