Photo: Buttermilk Spice Cake with Roasted Walnut Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups brown sugar
- 1 stick butter, softened
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 5 large eggs, separated
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
- Pinch salt
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 recipe Roasted Walnut Cream Cheese Frosting, recipe follows
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Lightly grease 2 (9-inch) cake pans. Cut 2 (9-inch) parchment paper rounds and line the pan bottoms. Grease and flour the parchment rounds.
In a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer, cream the brown sugar and butter. With the mixer running, add the oil in a steady stream. Add the egg yolks, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder, spices and salt into a medium-size mixing bowl. Alternately add the flour mixture and the buttermilk to the batter, mixing well. With the electric mixer, in another large mixing bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form, then fold them into the cake batter. Pour the batter evenly into the prepared pans. Bake until the center springs back when touched, about 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool on wire racks. After the cakes have cooled, invert them onto sheets of parchment paper. Slice each cake in half and set aside.
Spread a layer of the frosting over 3 layers of the cake. Place the layers of cake on top of each other and top with the fourth layer of cake. Frost the top and sides of the cake with the remaining frosting. Slice the cake into individual servings.
Roasted Walnut and Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 1/2 stick butter, softened
- 3/4 pound (about 3 cups) confectioners' sugar, sifted
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon milk
- 1 cup roasted walnut pieces
In a large mixing bowl, with an electric mixer, cream the cheese and butter. Add the sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, mixing after each addition. Add the vanilla and milk, if needed to thin consistency, and mix well. Fold in the walnut pieces.
Yield: about 3 cups
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By sarahvarner
on December 19, 2012
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This is, hands down, the best spice cake I've ever had. The beaten egg whites make this cake airy and perfectly light, and the amount of spice called for results in a delicately spiced cake -- nothing like the overly spiced cakes you get from the box mixes.
Rather than use the frosting called for in the recipe, I use the Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting from Joy the Baker's website, and it complements the cake perfectly.
One tip that I have found in my baking: I have been using three 8-inch or 9-inch cake pans instead of two, as the amount of batter looks as though it would overflow out of two pans. And if you use the aluminum pans with the plastic lids, you can keep them in the pans as they cool, frost them, pop the lid on and give them as a gift!
By Chermosillo
Commerce City, CO
on November 30, 2012
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I have found my new cake flavor! and I made it Gluten Free! Thank you Emeril!
By alyssampickerin...
West Covina
on November 25, 2012
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This recipe is fantastic. I made it for Thanksgiving and it was a big hit. I did add more cinnamon than the recipe called for and a little less ground cloves but that is all the changes that I would make. Definitely worth the effort of the some what difficult recipe, not for first time bakers.
Read all 34 reviews