Justice is Served: Guilty Pleasure Cake
I have finally muted the TV, after watching since I first got a text from my brother saying “the verdict is in.”
I want to be clear, I’m not celebrating Trump’s guilty verdict, as much as I’m celebrating that a jury of Trump’s peers listened to all the facts and made a decision. Justice was served.
Laugh at me, sure, but I am too superstitious a person to have worked on a recipe in advance of the verdict. But cake was needed and it had to be quick and easy. I doctored up my one-bowl Victoria sponge, threw in chocolate chips, fresh raspberries and yes, yes, yes, I added sprinkles. Rainbow sprinkles.
You can toss in whatever additions brings you delight. I sprinkled a layer of chocolate chips over the top when the cake came out of the oven, let them sit for 5 minutes or so to let them completely soften so you can spread them over the top for an impromptu icing. The chips will still hold their shape, thanks to lecithin in the chips, but after 5 minutes, they’ll be shiny and as you’ll find, magically spreadable.
(make an algorithm happy today, click the “like” heart above)
Cake tonight, but tomorrow you’ll find a recipe for easy weeknight salmon that also dresses up nice if you find yourself with guests.
How are you feeling tonight? Let me know in the comments!
Guilty Pleasure Cake
Makes one 9-inch cake
What You’ll Need:
1/2 cup (4 ounces) granulated sugar
8 tablespoons (4 ounces) butter, softened
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup (4 ounces) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt (or 1/4 teaspoon regular sea salt)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract (don’t sweat it if you don’t have it, but put it on your shopping list. it’s a great addition to vanilla cakes)
1 tablespoon milk (nut milks are fine)
additions of your choice (I added 1/3 cup chocolate chips; a generous handful of raspberries, and sprinkles)
Extra chocolate chips for “frosting”
What You’ll Do:
Heat the oven to 350 °F. Grease and flour a 9” round cake pan, or 9” square pan.
With a hand or stand mixer, blend the sugar, butter, eggs, flour, baking powder, salt, vanilla and lemon extracts and milk until creamy and smooth. Be sure to scrape down the bowl at least once.
Fold in your additions of choice, ie, the chocolate chips, raspberries and sprinkles.
Smooth the top of the cake and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until light golden, the top springs back when touched and/or a toothpick comes out clean.
Rest the cake on a cooling rack. After 10 minutes, invert the cake onto a cooling rack. Sprinkle chocolate chips over the top. Let sit for 5 minutes or so, then spread the melty chips over the top.
Enjoy.
This substack is a reader-supported publication. I cannot do it without you. If you’re able, paying for a subscription helps pay for the groceries necessary for recipe-testing and recipe development. For about the same cost as a cookbook, it gives you access to an index over 170 recipes, plus new ones every week. Also, it supports me—a freelance writer—and ad-free journalism.
The pay scale for journalists and writers has not kept up with the cost of living. That’s why having a substack newsletter has become such a terrific venue for so many writers. Best of all, it puts me, Bosco, Calvin and Clyde in touch with our readers like never before. And: Now Bosco has expensive rotisserie chicken habits.
Can’t afford a subscription? Do the next best thing and give free subscriptions to all your friends. The more the merrier. And now, there’s a discount for subscriptions. Thank you!
·
I’m drinking. I’ll bake tomorrow
Let us eat cake! Let him eat crow!