Cuisine: Cake

Rosalynn Carter’s Strawberry Cake

Rosalynn Carter's Strawberry Cake is more than just a dessert; it's a piece of history and a comforting classic. This moist strawberry cake is one of her family recipes. The recipe is simple and made with a box cake mix, a box of strawberry gelatin, vegetable oil, chopped nuts, eggs, flour and strawberries. Just mix all the ingredients together and bake in a bundt pan.

By Leslie Blythe

Watergate Cake

Watergate Cake is a classic American dessert, with its vibrant green color and pistachio flavor, is a popular retro dish, especially associated with the 1970s. The precise history of Watergate Cake remains a bit of a mystery. This pistachio-flavored dessert, distinct from the similarly named Watergate Salad (which is also packed with nuts), predates the salad's popularity.

Desserts made with convenience ingredients such as gelatin and pudding mixes, like Watergate Cake, were at their most popular in the mid-20th century, long before the Watergate scandal that ultimately led to President Richard Nixon's resignation. It is NOT on the dessert menu at the upscale Watergate Hotel!

By Leslie Blythe

Neiman Marcus Cake

The Neiman Marcus Cake is widely believed to be a variation of the St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake. This Midwestern dessert, reputedly created by accident during the Great Depression by a baker who added too much butter, sugar, or shortening to a standard cake, has a distinct gooey center and a crisp crust. The "Neiman Marcus" moniker is that the dessert is simply seen as being as "rich" and "luxurious" as the department store itself. This recipes uses a yellow cake mix for the base, combined with melted butter and eggs, and then topped with a sweet cream cheese mixture. I had never had it or heard of it before and when I served it, I cut the pieces too big. It's SO rich and luxurious that a little goes a long way!

By Leslie Blythe

Venetian Carrot Cake

This Venetian Carrot Cake is thought to originate with Venetian Jews in the original ghetto. Established in 1516, the Venetian Ghetto was the first enforced Jewish ghetto in Europe. The word "ghetto" itself comes from the Venetian word for the area, which previously housed metal foundries. Jews were forced to reside within the designated area, separated from the rest of Venice by canals and only accessible through two bridges with restricted opening hours.

This cake is quite different from the American version. It's denser, uses olive oil instead of butter (making it potentially kosher for meals with meat), and lacks the cream cheese frosting. Oh, it also has the added bonus of being gluten-free.

My favorite Nigella-ism in the instructions — “I use my freestanding mixer, but it wouldn't be much of a faff by hand”. Faffing is one of my favorite British terms, which basically means - To spend time doing unimportant things instead of focusing on the main task.

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Limoncello Cake

Limoncello Cake is flavored with limoncello, which is an Italian lemon liqueur. I'm not much of a baker, so I prefer to make bundt cakes rather than layer cakes. This recipe starts with a box of yellow cake mix. I basically copied the Harvey Wallbanger Cake, but used lemon as the flavor profile. I have to say, it's spectacularly lemony and delicious. The cake is garnished with powdered sugar and fresh lemon slices.

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Orange Kiss-Me Cake

The Grand Prize-Winning Recipe from the 2nd Pillsbury Bake-Off in 1950 was “Orange Kiss-Me Cake.” Mrs. Peter Wuebel (Lily) of Redwood City, California came up with a classic winning recipe and won $25,000 for her idea. That is a hell of a lot of money in 1950! I wasn't actually born yet, my parents were about 12 years old... The reason I made this cake was because we had a spontaneous dinner party for about 10 people (at someone else's house) and we happen to have an enormous orange tree that produces a ridiculous amount of the juiciest oranges. The recipe is very bizarre, in that you grind up an orange with walnuts and raisins and make a sort of paste to stir into the cake batter. I made this cake with a raised eyebrow and it turned out to be the hit of the party. Who knew such a blast from the past vintage recipe could cause so many rave reviews?

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Mojito Cake

This Mojito cake is one of my absolute favorite cakes. It's refreshingly light and captures the essence of the classic Cuban cocktail. It combines an angel food cake base with crushed pineapple, lime juice, and rum. The topping features a creamy blend of softened cream cheese, frozen limeade concentrate, powdered sugar, rum extract, and cool whip (yes, cool whip!). It's then adorned with coconut, lime zest, and fresh mint.

I recently catered a Cuban themed dinner party, which is one of my favorite menus and this was the cake I served, which got rave reviews.

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Tortuga Rum Cake

I made this Tortuga Rum Cake. It has a combination of almond and all-purpose flours, which makes the cake moist. You pour rum syrup over the cake while it's warm so the syrup soaks into the cake. Rum cakes are very popular in the Caribbean and were made available by the Tortuga Rum Company, Ltd, which was the first rum maker in the Cayman Islands in 1984. They then used their rum to make the famous Tortuga Caribbean Rum Cake in 1987. You can order them online, but it's easy to make your own.

By Leslie Blythe

Almond Ricotta Cake

This Almond Ricotta Cake is a traditional Italian dessert that originated in Sicily. It's soft, light, delicate, and absolutely divine. The almond flour makes it gluten-free and perfect for breakfast, brunch or dessert!

By Leslie Blythe

Simple Summer Peach Cake

I made this Simple Summer Peach Cake for my friend's birthday. There's nothing quite like fresh summer peaches. This cake only takes 15 minutes to prepare. You could serve it with some whipped cream or ice cream, but it's delicious on its own.

By Leslie Blythe