For the next year I am doing a project - a different cake each week for an entire year - following the book All Cakes Considered: A Year's Worth of Weekly Recipes Tested, Tasted and Approved by the Staff of NPR's All Things Considered. You can read about the start of my project here and look at each week to date here.

The recipe: The Naughty Senator (Peppermint and Chocolate Rum Marble Cake)

Week 18 is a little late to the party. These last 3 weeks were really busy with lots of newborn sessions, a couple really great family sessions and then our own family photo session and Grace's baptism. So baking cakes just wasn't high enough on my list of priorities.

But I whipped up this one this weekend and I'm hoping to crank out another one in the next couple days to get myself caught up (which means lots of cake for whoever stops by your house this week).

This week's technique was marbling and, as you can see, I think I nailed it. The cake itself is delicious. One of the options on this cake was to leave out the rum, so the two flavours are actually just chocolate and peppermint.

Recipients: No one. This is our first relaxing weekend in a while so we're staying in, just the four of us.

Verdict: Good, I'd make it again. The mint part was a little too minty - it left you feeling a little bit like you'd just brushed your teeth - so I'd probably only put in 1 teaspoon of peppermint extract next time instead of two.

Up next: Paula Deen's Almond Sour Cream Pound Cake

For the next year I am doing a project - a different cake each week for an entire year - following the book All Cakes Considered: A Year's Worth of Weekly Recipes Tested, Tasted and Approved by the Staff of NPR's All Things Considered. You can read about the start of my project here and look at each week to date here.

The recipe: Butter Rum Cake

Despite not liking boozy cakes, this one is actually really good. Light and moist all at the same time. And maybe I like it because it only has a bit of rum in the cake and even less in the glaze. And combining it with butter reminds me of some sort of candy I had as a child and just can't put my finger on.

Recipients: No one, yet. :) I got this one in just under the wire. It's been a crazy couple weeks and we just got back from Seattle yesterday. I'm usually a week ahead of my posts just for times like this but last week was so crazy that I used up my week in reserve. So if you're reading this and want some day-old butter rum cake, come on over.

Verdict: Good. I probably won't make it again just because I'd rather I have cake on hand that I can feed any one of any age at our table but it's still yummy.

Up next: The Naughty Senator (Peppermint and Chocolate Rum Marble Cake)

For the next year I am doing a project - a different cake each week for an entire year - following the book All Cakes Considered: A Year's Worth of Weekly Recipes Tested, Tasted and Approved by the Staff of NPR's All Things Considered. You can read about the start of my project here and look at each week to date here.

The recipe: Tunnel of Fudge Cake

Note the lack of tunnel in the picture. I was so disappointed!

There isn't really a way to check if a tunnel of fudge cake is cooked since inserting a cake tester isn't going to come out clean. But the directions said to cook for 45-50 minutes or when the cake pulls away from the edges of the pan. At 50 minutes it didn't really look like it was pulling away to me so I put it in for another 5 minutes. My mistake.

Recipients: Thankfully it was my family. I was a little scared to serve this one to guests and thankfully I followed my instincts.

Verdict: Obviously this one was a fail. I'm tempted to make it again just to see if I can make it work. The flavour was really great, though I'd make it without the almonds next time.

Up next: Butter Rum Cake

For the next year I am doing a project - a different cake each week for an entire year - following the book All Cakes Considered: A Year's Worth of Weekly Recipes Tested, Tasted and Approved by the Staff of NPR's All Things Considered. You can read about the start of my project here and look at each week to date here.

The recipe: Cocoa Bread with Stewed Yard Peaches

I wasn't really sure what made this cocoa bread instead of chocolate cake but it was definitely different from a regular chocolate cake. Think gingerbread, except with cocoa instead of ginger. I didn't decrease the sugar in the cake but did drop the sugar in the stewed peaches by 1/2 cup and I think it turned out great.

My mom put me into a bit of panic by asking where I was going to find yard peaches the day before I planned on making it. Yikes! A quick google search turned up nothing for yard peaches so no idea where the recipe name comes from. The ingredient list calls for peaches so I went with good ol' BC peaches.

Recipients: My sister's fiance's family who were visiting from Toronto. I was nervous about this one. Nothing like serving a dessert you've never tried making to people you've never met before who don't actually know anything about your cake-a-week project.

Verdict: Everyone seemed to like it (or they were all just being polite). The cake had a great texture - more moist than I thought it would be - and the stewed peaches went well with a gingerbread (but not) type cake.

Up next: Tunnel of Fudge Cake

For the next year I am doing a project - a different cake each week for an entire year - following the book All Cakes Considered: A Year's Worth of Weekly Recipes Tested, Tasted and Approved by the Staff of NPR's All Things Considered. You can read about the start of my project here and look at each week to date here.

The recipe: Mary Carole Battle's Mother's Wacky Cake with Seven-Minute Frosting


Yum. This one definitely had a bit of a different texture but it was still delicious. Except I forgot about my resolution to drop the sugar in each recipe.

The amount of sugar in the cake itself was great but the icing was way too sweet. I realize I'm sounding like someone who doesn't like sweets but I swear, I have a huge sweet tooth. And I don't know if you can decrease the sugar in a meringue-type icing recipe. Does it change the texture and consistency?

Plus I'm still unsure of when it's okay to leave an iced cake out of the fridge. The seven-minute frosting has egg whites in it but it is made over a double boiler so does that make it okay? I did a bunch of google searching and the consensus seemed to be that it's okay to leave on the counter but I still worry. Anyone know for sure?

Recipients: I wouldn't say this iced one would travel very well so it just sat on our counter and was fed to whoever dropped by.

Verdict: I'd make it again, maybe with a different frosting though.

Up next: Cocoa Bread with Stewed Yard Peaches

For the next year I am doing a project - a different cake each week for an entire year - following the book All Cakes Considered: A Year's Worth of Weekly Recipes Tested, Tasted and Approved by the Staff of NPR's All Things Considered. You can read about the start of my project here and look at each week to date here.

The recipe: Chocolate Pound Cake


In Jim's words "finally a chocolate one". And not just a chocolate one, a really good chocolate one.

I decided to try using the fancy (well, fancier than the plain tube pan I've been using) stoneware bundt pan I've had for years and rarely use. Unfortunately, I neglected to measure the bundt pan before hand to make sure it was big enough.

Or maybe I should say fortunately since someone had to eat the scraps of warm cake that I had to cut off the top of the pan so I could turn it over and un-mold it to cool. This cake is amazing. The perfect amount of chocolate-ness and just the right texture.

Recipients: I made this one the day before me and the kids headed up to the lake for a week so half came with us and half stayed home with Jim.

Verdict: Delicious and easy. Definitely a keeper.

Up next: Mary Carole Battle's Mother's Wacky Cake with Seven-Minute Frosting

For the next year I am doing a project - a different cake each week for an entire year - following the book All Cakes Considered: A Year's Worth of Weekly Recipes Tested, Tasted and Approved by the Staff of NPR's All Things Considered. You can read about the start of my project here and look at each week to date here.

The recipe: ATF Gingerbread


I was really looking forward to making this one even though this was the second gingerbread cake I was making in two weeks. The combination of crystallized ginger and dark beer really intrigued me. And as I mentioned last week, I'm a sucker for cream cheese frosting.

I'm actually a week ahead of my blog posts, just in case something comes up and I'm not able to bake a cake one week. I considered pushing this one off a week since my usual baking day fell in the middle of one of our heat waves and there was no way I was cooking a cake in 30+ degree heat. But we ended up moving to my parents (air-conditioned) place for a couple days so I decided to take advantage and bake it there. A little tricky since my mom, who is a great cook, doesn't like to bake and therefore doesn't own a stand mixer, but I made it work.

And I actually quite liked it when I first tried it. But Jim hated it. He though the chunks of ginger were weird and that it was way too gingery in general. And then I got to wondering if it was the cream cheese frosting that made me like eating it more than the taste of the actual cake.

Recipients: No one, since Jim's reaction to it was so negative. I was kind of scared of foisting the cake on anyone else.

Verdict: I think we've established it's weird. And not getting made again.

Up next: Chocolate Pound Cake

For the next year I am doing a project - a different cake each week for an entire year - following the book All Cakes Considered: A Year's Worth of Weekly Recipes Tested, Tasted and Approved by the Staff of NPR's All Things Considered. You can read about the start of my project here and look at each week to date here.

The recipe: Gingerbread



I had to post a before and after photograph of this one. I wanted to make sure it was moist so I was checking it regularly but by the time the middle of the cake was set, the edges seemed a little well done. Nothing a bread knife won't fix. :)

I trimmed off the edges and sprinkled a little icing sugar over the top to make it pretty. I hadn't been grocery shopping yet but if I'd had some fresh berries I would have piled a small handful of them in the middle to hide my "testing to see if it's done" marks.

Recipients: Another of Jim's cousins who came by to see the kids.

Verdict: Pretty good. I didn't play with the sugar on this one since there's only half a cup but it was just right as is. The only gingerbread I've ever made is gingerbread cookies at Christmas time and it did feel a little odd to be eating gingerbread in the middle of summer but the fact that it was a rainy day helped.

Up next: ATF Gingerbread. This one looks weird but good - dark beer and crystallized ginger. And it's frosted - I'm a sucker for cream cheese frosting.