It's Friday

Hi All,

It's Friday and do you know what that means? It means you have the lovely weekend to relax and cook! I hope you all are enjoying Eating Heaven by Jennie Shortridge. Although this book does not contain recipes in the book itself, Jennie did post some recipes on her website. Below is the recipe for Benny' Favorite Spice Cake. Like I said, with the weekend stretching out in front of you there should be no reason not to try this delicious cake :)

Benny's Favorite Spice Cake

There's something about spice cake that seems old-fashioned and out-of-date, yet make one and peoples' eyes light up. As a metaphor for the relationship between Benny and Eleanor, I think spice cake is just about the perfect food.

2-1/3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
2 tablespoons fresh or bottled minced ginger
1 cup vanilla yogurt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 13 x 9-inch cake pan with oil, butter or cooking spray.

In a large bowl, mix together the first eight dry ingredients (flour through pepper) and set aside.

With an electric mixer, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and mix well, then stir in ginger. Add dry ingredients one cup at a time, mixing until smooth. Fold in yogurt by hand or using the mixer's lowest speed so that the yogurt doesn't "break," or lose its consistency. When well blended, pour batter into the prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Let cool, then frost with cream cheese frosting also found on Jennie's website: http://www.jennieshortridge.com/creamcheesefrosting.php