Spice Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting
Published Nov. 19, 2024
- Total Time
- About 1½ hours
- Prep Time
- 15 minutes
- Cook Time
- 40 minutes, plus 30 minutes’ cooling
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- ¾cup/180 milliliters vegetable or canola oil, plus more for the pan
- 1½lightly packed cups/300 grams light brown sugar
- 3large eggs
- 1½cups/360 milliliters buttermilk
- 4teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1tablespoon ground ginger
- ½teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- ¼teaspoon ground allspice
- ¼teaspoon ground cloves
- 1½teaspoons kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal)
- 2½cups/320 grams all-purpose flour
- 1½teaspoons baking powder
- ½teaspoon baking soda
- Cream Cheese Frosting
Preparation
- Step 1
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Oil a 9-by-13-inch metal baking pan and line it with a piece of parchment paper that hangs over the two long sides.
- Step 2
In a large bowl, whisk to thoroughly combine the oil, brown sugar, eggs, buttermilk, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, cloves and salt.
- Step 3
Add the flour, baking powder and baking soda and whisk until smooth. A few small lumps are OK.
- Step 4
Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and spread it in an even layer. Bake until the cake is golden brown and a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes. Let the cake cool in the pan for 15 minutes before using the parchment paper to lift it out and set on a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Step 5
While the cake cools, make the frosting.
- Step 6
Top the completely cooled cake with swoops and swirls of frosting and serve immediately, or cover and store at room temperature for 2 days (or a little longer in the fridge).
Private Notes
Comments
Perfect spice cake! Quick and easy, great texture. A half recipe fits well in an 8X8 pan. I had some salted caramel buttercream in the freezer so I topped it with that, but cream cheese frosting would also be delicious.
For a half recipe, one whole egg plus a yolk works well. (Can use the extra egg white for something else or freeze for later.)
I baked it in a glass dish and it turned out great.
Any thoughts on adding raisins?
Great taste and texture, and extra points for how easy it is. I cut the cake in half the long way to make a rectangular layer cake. I put some leftover cranberry relish in between the layers with the cream cheese frosting. I think this cake would also be good with a cinnamon spiced whip cream as frosting.
Wasn’t sure what to make of “lightly packed” brown sugar, so I tried to measure with cups while also weighing it with my scale. My lightly packed 1 1/2 cups was way under the 300 grams, which makes me wonder if those saying it’s bland just didn’t add enough brown sugar.