Sunday Night Cake: Club Baked

I'm really glad I joined Club Baked.  I like knowing that on or around the 1st and the 15th of the month, I'm going to be baking something, and it's likely something I haven't made before, even though I've owned the book we are baking from, Baked Explorations by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito, since it was published.  I also enjoy the glee in my kids' eyes when they ask, "Is this for us?"  Because I'm a cake decorating teacher, I often have to bake cakes or cupcakes to take to class to help me illustrate the decorating techniques I'm teaching, and I also bake treats for various meetings and things I attend.  Ryan's and Katie's eyes light up when they realize a baked treat isn't leaving the house.....it's all for us.

This time, the Club Baked selection was hosted by Julie of Little Bit of Everything and we baked Sunday Night Cake.  My husband Dave teased me because I was supposedly being conformist by actually baking the cake on a Sunday night.  (I was not in the mood for such teasing and told him that because of his sarcasm, he wasn't getting any cake!)

Sunday Night Cake is a pretty simple cake lightly flavored with cinnamon, topped with a pudding-like chocolate frosting.  The cake is very simple to make; the frosting requires a little more work, but the end result is a wonderful cake that's perfect for family dinners, potlucks, etc.

After mixing the cake ingredients together, I had a wonderful, smooth and silky batter.  The scent reminded me a lot of oatmeal cookie dough, probably because of the cinnamon.

I filled my square cake pan with batter.  (Oops, looks like I got a little bit on the island!)

While the cake was baking in the oven, the kitchen was filled with a wonderful aroma, which was soon overpowered by the chocolate aroma when I made the frosting, which begins similar to a pudding cooked over the stove, then gets whipped with a mixer and butter is added to it.  I probably whipped my frosting a little longer than needed, because I wanted a lighter, less pudding-like frosting.

The end result was a light spice cake topped with rich chocolate frosting.  When I read the recipe, I wasn't sure about this cake, because I am not a huge fan of combining the flavors of cinnamon and chocolate.  Still, I enjoyed this cake.  (So did Ryan and Katie.  I believe they both said OMG when they took their first bites.)  I think the next time I make this, I will follow a suggestion in the recipe and top the cake with powdered sugar instead of the chocolate frosting.  Even better, I think it would be good with the Honey Buttercream featured in another recipe in this cookbook, or with a cream cheese frosting.