Hey sweet friends! Are you about ready for fall to kick in yet?
Because I decided to start rolling out some of my favorite fall recipes. I know, I know, it’s still August. But I just can’t wait for the wonderful spices and flavors that are traditional to fall inspired recipes. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not one of those crazed PUMPKIN SPICE ALL THE THINGS!!! people. No pumpkin spice soap or air fresheners for me! But I do love me some aromatic spices to get that fall feeling going on. I may be jumping the gun a little but in my opinion
It’s never too early to enjoy some fall flavors!
So I am going to start with my wonderful Spiced Sponge Cake recipe. This is a deeply spiced and flavorful sponge cake. This is not a dense and heavy cake like a carrot cake base, but a light and fluffy version that has a full, pungent spice flavor.
I start with my wonderfully moist Vanilla Sponge Cake recipe and add a TON of warm fall spices. The usual spice culprits are involved but I like to punch it up a notch with ginger & cardamom as well as a pinch of fine ground black pepper for just a little kick.
This Spiced Sponge Cake is AWESOME topped with my fluffy & lightly tangy Cream Cheese Swiss Buttercream. This is a light, fluffy & PIPEABLE cream cheese frosting!
Another of my favorite things to do with this cake is to fill it with a fresh bourbon caramel apple compote filling (the next fall recipe on my to do list!) and top with a Salted Bourbon Caramel Swiss Buttercream. Talk about fantastic fall flavors! I will be posting my recipe for the compote soon!! So be sure and check back here or better yet, sign up for my newsletter and get notifications when I have new recipes and tutorials posted. You can get my Salted Bourbon Caramel Sauce recipe <<< here. It’s fantastic to flavor your Swiss buttercream or to just drizzle over your cake just like it is, YUMMY!!
Now, lets get to this cake recipe!
Have A Sweet Day!
| Prep Time | 10 minutes |
| Cook Time | 25 - 30 minutes |
| Servings |
people
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- 2.5 cups all purpose flour 313 grams
- 2.5 cups granulated white sugar 494 grams
- 2.5 teaspoons baking powder
- .5 teaspoon salt
- 2 Tablespoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 2 teaspoons ground cardamom
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
- .5 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon allspice
- .25 teaspoon fine ground black pepper
- 1.25 cups whole milk alternately use coconut or hazelnut milk
- 3 ounces salted butter
- 5 large whole eggs room temperature1
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- .5 teaspoon orange extract or use 1 tablespoon fresh orange zest
Ingredients
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- Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees
- Prepare three 8 inch cake pans by greasing then lining the bottom with parchment paper. I also like to use a rose nail in the center of the pan for more even baking
- pour milk into a microwave safe container had heat for one minute. You want to milk to be slightly warm, not hot
- melt the butter in the microwave then add to the warm milk and mix
- stir in vanilla extract & orange extract. Set aside
- Beat eggs in electric mixer in large mixing bowl with paddle attachment for 4 minutes. Do not skip this step!
- While eggs are beating, In a separate bowl, mix together flour, salt, all spices and baking powder. Add orange zest if using.
- When eggs have been beating for 4 minutes add sugar then continue beating for another 4 minutes until light and the batter streams off the beater in ribbons
- Add dry ingredients and mix on low until just combined, scraping the bowl once. Do this step as quickly as possible. Do not over mix.
- Pour in warm milk/butter mixture and continue to mix on low until just combined, scraping the bowl once. Do this step quickly also and do not over mix. These last two steps should take less than a minute
- divide your batter evenly into the 3 pans and bake for 25-28 minutes until the middle springs back when touched, or a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and let stand in pans for 10 minutes before turning out onto wire racks to cool completely
Recipe Tips: 1: Make sure to whip your eggs and then your eggs and sugar long enough. If you don't get enough air whipped into the mixture your cake will not rise as nicely and thus have a more dense, gummy texture.
Wow this looks absolutely delicious!!! so fluffy! I am definitely going to give it a try. Ps I need some more of your amazing caramel sauce!
Wow this looks amazing! My mouth is watering!
Saving this one for sure!!! Is it sweater weather yet????
Yummm!! I need to try this one asap
I want to ask what a rose nail is in your pan and how it works .I have never heard of that before,..This is such a beautiful cake!?
It is the nail that you use to make rose’s and other flowers
will regular beaters work? I don’t have a paddle attachment
I have tried with the whip attachment for the kitchenaid and it’s not as consistent. If you are using a hand mixer you can use the regular beaters for whipping the eggs and sugar then hand mix in the dry and wet mixtures.
Thank You for sharing Shani. I love the Recipe♡
This looks absolutely delicious. I will be making it for sure!
Where’s the icing recipe?
Hi Clai, there are several links in the post to my cream cheese frosting and my Swiss Meringue buttercream recipe. Happy caking!
This cake looks delicious! What did you use for the drizzle?
Hi Claire, I used my Salted Bourbon Caramel sauce. You can find the recipe under the recipes tab or linked within this post. Happy Caking!
I have one word to describe this cake…Amazing!! I also made the salted bourbon caramel sauce and it was delish! Thank you for making my Thanksgiving that much better, everyone loved this cake 🙂
This is the best spice cake I have ever had, let alone made. I made it for my best friends small elopement, and frosted naked with layers of Italian meringue buttercream with a shot of Brandy, and it was so amazing. I love how the sides of the cakes have a slight crunch, the texture is fantastic. Seriously the best cake ever.
Would this cake work well in a roll? I made the original cake layers, but would love to make this in a spiced roll cake!
Hi Kayla, I have not tried to use this recipe for a roll cake. I suspect it will be a bit difficult to roll, but you could give it a shot. I think you would have more luck using a Genoise recipe and add the spices. If you do try toes it let me know how it works!
I am not a baker by any stretch but this sounds amazing. Can you put this in a rectangular pan instead of layers?
Can this be made in a Bundt pan?
Didn’t like it at all. More of a dense muffin than a sponge. Took almost 40 minutes to bake at 325 degrees in three 8 inch pans.
Sorry to hear that Lynn. Sounds like you over mixed the batter. When mixed properly this cake is light and fluffy. Over mixing the batter results in a dense, gummy cake that takes much longer to bake. I encourage you to try again and when incorporating the dry ingredients and then the liquid, mix until just barely incorporated. Takes about 10-15 seconds for each of these steps. Good luck!
For beating the eggs, what speed do you use on the stand mixer?
Highest it will go
Hey Shani!
I love your blog and I appreciate all the awesome recipes you have on it but this cake recipe really disappointed me.
Let me tell you what I did and maybe you could help me figure out exactly what went wrong… I have a tiny oven thermometer so I knew my oven was exactly at 325F.
I weight everything on my scale and brought everything to room temperature, has a new baking powder and set a timer on my phone for each mixing step…even the addition of flour mixture and butter+milk mixture took less than a minute (30-40 sec) as you mentioned. But the end result was absolutely awful. The cakes all sank in the middle and fell apart completely.The top of the cake has a thick sugary crust on it.
I used UNBLEACHED All-purpose four and since my paddle attachment of my KItchenAid stand mixer was missing, I resorted to using the Balloon whisk but do you think thee 2 minor changes could lead to such disastrous end results?
Please help me…I really want to get it right.
Hi Sara, it’s hard to say where the problem occurred but I suspect it was the whisk. It may have incorporated too much air into the egg sugar mixture at first. And it will certainly mix the flour and milk mixture into the batter much differently that a paddle would. You may also have under baked. I would suggest trying again with the paddle attachment. When you mix in the flour then the milk your batter should emulsify and be creamy and homogeneous. If it is liquid and oily looking the batter is broken and will bake very dense and gummy. Also make sure it is done all the way. Before removing from oven. I always press my finger in the middle of the cake and if it doesn’t feel firm and spring back up then I bake a few more minutes. Good luck, let me know how it goes!
How do we see comments?
Can you make this in 1 rectangle cake pan and if so how long should I bake it for?
Just made your spice cake and it was a big success. Topped it with some bourbon-caramel Swiss meringue buttercream and some cinnamon apples. Will definitely use this recipe again and again!
What paddle attachment was used to beat the eggs for 4 mins? Whisk attachment or the flat beater?