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.

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: Dorie Greenspan's Rum-Drenched Vanilla Cakes


Not bad at all. I'm not a huge fan of boozy cakes so I went a little easy on the "rum-drenching" but it seemed to get pretty good reviews all the way around. I added a 1/3 cup less sugar than the recipe called for and I think the sweetness was just about right.

Recipients: My family up at the lake this past weekend.

Verdict: They liked it but I think I'd make it sans rum next time.

Up next: Gingerbread

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: Dorie Greenspan's Swedish Visiting Cake



After not loving the last few cakes, I was determined we were going to like this one. And we actually did. It was definitely still on the sweet side but I think the fact that this cake is a lot thinner than most (it has no baking soda or baking powder and was only about an inch high) made us not mind the sweetness as much.

That being said, I'm going to deviate from my original plan to follow the recipes exactly. Starting next week I'm going to decrease the sugar slightly. I think we'll like the cakes that much more if they don't give us a stomach ache after we indulge.

Recipients: We cut into this one not long after I pulled it out of the oven and then picked away at it over the next few days. This one was all us.

Verdict: Good. I'd make this one again, minus some of the sugar.

Up next: Dorie Greenspan's Rum-Drenched Vanilla Cakes

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: Miss Saigon Cinnamon Almond Coffee Cake



So how many times can I say a cake was way too sweet? I'm really surprised that I haven't been loving these cakes. I have a major sweet tooth. When someone else finds a cake or candy too sweet, 9 times out of 10 I love it. But these cakes have all been over the top sweet.

I'm having a bit of a dilemma. One of the reasons I wanted to do this project is because I always change recipes before I've ever tried them. So I really wanted to bake every cake exactly according to the directions. But is it worth it if they're all turning out too sweet?

I actually made a minor substitution on this one. The recipe called for Saigon cinnamon. I took a half-hearted looked for it in stores and when I couldn't find it, decided to go with regular cinnamon instead. Saigon cinnamon is spicy and we are not a family that loves spice. Plus, I would have hated to bake a cake, pull it out of the oven and then tell Angelo he wasn't allowed to have any.

I did have another little problem with this cake. Usually when I'm making my weekly cake I bake it all by myself so I can really read through the steps and enjoy the process (don't worry, Angelo gets to bake other stuff with me during the week). Not this time. Angelo pulled up his chair to help me and Grace was sitting in her bouncy seat right next to us. So I wasn't totally paying attention when I poured in the vanilla extract. And then remembered it was supposed to be almond extract. This was the very last step and I wasn't about to start the whole thing over. So I just added the almond extract too. Vanilla extra is pretty mild so it couldn't make that big a difference, right?

But it was the streusel layer that was this cake's downfall - too sweet once again. Next recipe with a streusel layer is getting half the sugar.

Recipients: A friend I haven't seen in ages who stopped by for a visit.

Verdict: Okay, but like all the rest, too sweet.

Up next: Dorie Greenspan's Swedish Visiting 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: Argroves Manor Coffee Cake



Wow, this one was sweet. The actual cake part was good but there was a stewed fruit syrup that you cut through the batter. It should have been great but it was so sweet it actually gave us each a stomachache.

Recipients: No one, thankfully. :) We each ate a couple slices thinking it had to be better than we imagined. Nope, this cake ended up finding the trash bin.

Verdict: Way too sweet. If I do ever make it again I'll use 1/4 of the sugar required for the fruit.

Up next: Miss Saigon Cinnamon Almond Coffee 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: The Barefoot Contessa's Sour Cream Coffee Cake



Nothing much exciting to say about this one. Good taste, a little on the dry side (likely because I overcooked it in my attempt to not under cook yet another one. Not my favourite one of the bunch so I probably won't make it again. If I did I'd definitely leave out the salt from the streusel, it didn't need it.

Recipients: Finally my husband got to eat cake! This one we kept for ourselves and whoever was passing through over the week.

Verdict: Good to snack on with coffee but nothing special.

Up next: Argroves Manor Coffee Cake.