Today is National Sponge Cake Day.

This cake is a great base for a shortcake or trifle.

You need:

Preheat your oven and lightly grease and flour your loaf pan.

Sift together the flour and baking soda into a medium bowl.

In a larger bowl beat the eggs until thick and light.

Add the sugar and beat together well.

Fold the flour into the egg until  well combined.

In  a small saucepan over low heat combine the lemon juice, vanilla and milk.  Cook until just hot.

Pour the hot liquid into your batter and beat on low until smooth.

Pour the batter into the loaf pan.  Don’t worry if it doesn’t look like enough. As it cooks the cake rises almost double in size.

Cook until a tester inserted in the centre comes out dry 30-35 minutes.

As you can see this is why it’s called a sponge cake with all it’s holes and pockets.  Perfect for absorbing juices and sauces.

Of course now that I have this wonderful cake I had to do something with it.  Here’s what I did.

I cut the loaf in half on the horizontal.

One one side I spread melted white chocolate.

One the other side strawberry jam.

I finished it off with a layer of fresh strawberries. Then put it back together.

See the wonderful centre with its gooey fruit and chocolate.

Finally I finished it by covering the whole thing with a marshmallow icing.  Yum!

Sponge Cake

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and lightly flour a loaf pan.
2. In a large bowl sift together the flour and baking powder; set aside.
3. In another bowl beat the eggs until very thick and light. Gradually beat in sugar.
4. Fold in the flour mixture until blended. Combine milk, lemon juice and vanilla in a small bowl and heat in small saucepan on low until hot.
5. Add the hot milk mixture to the batter and beat on low until smooth.
6. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until tester inserted in centre comes out clean.

Today is National Pecan Torte Day.

Pecan Torte

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F . Grease two 8 inch round cake pans.
2. Beat egg whites in mixing bowl until stiff. Set aside.
3. In another bowl beat egg yolks. Add 2/3 cup of the sugar and vanilla. Beat well.
4. Fold the egg yolk mixture into egg whites.
5. Gently fold in flour, ground pecans and cocoa.
6. Spread the batter into the two pans and bake for 25 minutes or until tester inserted in centre comes out clean. Let cool. from pans.
7. In another bowl beat together the sugar, whipping cream and cocoa until stiff. Spread 1/3 of the cream on top of one of the cake.
8. Place the second cake on top of the whipped cream and finish spreading the remainder all over the top and sides.

Today is National Raspberry Cake Day, National Cotton Candy Day and Jump of Jelly Beans Day.

Serve this with a dollop of whipped cream and raspberries for garnish.

You need:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.   Coat a 9×9 inch baking pan with cooking spray.

In a large bowl beat the egg white until stiff.

Add 1/4 cup of the sugar and beat until smooth.

In another bowl combine the butter,vanilla, salt and remaining sugar.

Beat in the egg yolk.

Add 1 1/2 cups of flour, baking powder, milk and the egg white. 

Beat together well.

In another bowl add the raspberries and 1 tbsp of flour.

Toss together well.

Fold the raspberries into the batter.

Spread the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake for 40 minutes or until tester inserted in centre comes out clean.

Cut into squares and serve with whipped cream.

Enjoy!

Raspberry Cake

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a 9×9 inch baking pan with cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl beat the egg white until stiff.
3. Add 1/4 cup of sugar and beat until smooth.
4. In another bowl beat the butter, vanilla, salt and remaining sugar until creamy. Add the egg yolk and beat well.
5. Add 1 1/2 cups of the flour, baking powder, milk and egg white. Beat well until combined.
6. Toss the berries with the remaining flour and fold into the batter.
7. Pour into the prepared pan.
8. Bake for 40 minutes or until tester comes out clean.

Today is National Cheesecake Day.

Caramel Apple Cheesecake

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Stir together the graham cracker crumbs and butter until it forms a coarse crumb. Press into the bottom of a 9″ spring form pan.
3. Bake in oven for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.
4. Reduce oven to 325 degrees F.
5. In a bowl over a pot with simmering water melt the caramels into the whipping cream. Stir until smooth. Reserve 1 cup for the filling and refrigerate the remainder.
6. In a large bowl beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the sugar and beat until combined.
7. Add the vanilla and sour cream and beat well.
8. Add the eggs one at a time and beat until smooth.
9. Fold in the caramel sauce then the apples.
10. Pour the mixture into the pie crust and bake for 15 minutes.
11. Reduce the temperature to 275 degrees F and continue to bake 70-90 minutes longer or until set in centre.
12. Let cool then place in the refrigerator until ready to eat. Serve it with the caramel sauce.

Today is Eat Beans Day and National Chocolate Wafer Day.

Here’s a cake that is easy to assemble and will wow your guests. You can make any size you wish depending on how much of each ingredient you have.

Chocolate Wafer Cake

1. On a serving plate lay out the wafers to make a base, overlapping once.
2. Spread the top with the whipped topping.
3. Add another layer of cookies, then topping and continuing until you have a cake the size you want.
4. Use the whipped topping to ice the top and sides of the cake and sprinkle it with the chocolate chips.
5. Let it set in the fridge before serving.

Today is National Strawberry Shortcake Day.

Another great way to enjoy all the strawberries that are in season.  This cake is almost biscuit like in texture and heaviness.  I think it’s great because it really absorbs the strawberry juice and flavour.

You need:

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F and grease and flour your pan.

In a large bowl combine the flour, baking powder, 2 tbsp of sugar and salt.

Add the cubes of butter.

Using an pastry blender or two knifes cut the butter into the flour mixture until it begin to look like coarse crumbs.

Make a well in the centre of the bowl.

Add your beaten egg.

Then add your milk.

Combine the flour into the egg and milk.  The dough will be very sticky.

Spread the dough into your prepared pan.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden and cake tester inserted into the centre comes out clean.  Let cool.

Slice up all your strawberries into a microwave safe container.

Toss them with the rum and sugar.

Place the strawberries in the microwave and cook for 2-3 minutes or until juices are bubbling. 

Place a slice of cake on your plate and top with some strawberries, their juice and a dollop of whipped topping. Enjoy!

Strawberry Shortcake

1. Slice the strawberries and toss them with 1/2 cup of white sugar and the rum. Set aside.
2. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Grease and flour one 8 inch round cake pan.
3. In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking powder, 2 tablespoons white sugar and the salt. 4. With a pastry blender cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
5. Make a well in the center and add the beaten egg and milk. Stir until just combined.
6. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool partially in pan on wire rack.
7. Heat the strawberries in the microwave for a couple of minutes. This will burn off the alcohol as well as produce some more juices.
8. Slice the cake into serving pieces. Top with strawberries, drizzling with some of the juice and a dollop of whipped topping.

Today is National German Chocolate Cake Day.

German Chocolate Cake

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease two 9-inch layer cake pans and line bottoms with waxed paper.
2. In a bowl sift together flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
3. In another bowl cream the butter. Add the flour mixture, 3/4 cup buttermilk, and vanilla. Beat at medium speed of electric mixer for 2 minutes, scraping bowl from time to time.
4. Add the melted chocolate, eggs, and remaining 1/4 cup buttermilk. Beat 1 minute longer.
5. Pour batter into prepared cake pans and bake for about 35 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean.
6. Cool in pans on rack for 15 minutes. Remove and cool completely on racks. Frost with chocolate icing.

Today is National Hazelnut Cake Day.

This recipe requires is completely flourless.

Hazelnut Cake

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9 inch pan.
2. In a small bowl combine the baking powder and the ground hazelnuts.
3. In a large bowl, whip the egg yolks with the sugar until smooth. Beat in the ground hazelnut mixture.
4. In another bowl whisk the egg whites until stiff.
5. Quickly fold 1/3 of the egg whites into the yolk mixture, then add the remaining whites and fold in until combined.
6. Pour into your prepared pan and bake in 60 to 75 minutes, or until tester comes out clean when inserted in the centre of the cake. Cool on wire rack.
7. Using your icing of choice, spread it over the top and sides of the cake. Sprinkle chopped hazelnuts on top for decoration.

Today is National Cherry Dessert Day and National Blueberry Cheesecake Day.

Use different pie fillings to broaden your dessert options.

Blueberry Cheesecake Recipes

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Lined a 10 inch pie pan with foil.
3. In a bowl combine graham crackers, butter and ¼ cup of sugar. Press into bottom and sides of pan to make a crust.
4. Beat together the cream cheese and remaining sugar. Beat in the flour.
5. Beat in the eggs one at a time.
6. Finally beat in the sour cream ,milk and vanilla.
7. Pour the mixture over the crust and place in a large baking pan. Add one inch of water to the pan.
8. Bake until set in centre about one hour. Top should be puffed and golden.
9. Turn off the oven but leave the pie in the oven for another hour.
10. Let cool about 6 hours then top with pie filling.

Today is National Devil’s Food Cake Day.

This is the recipe for the base cake. Since it makes two cakes you can layer them with a fruit jam or ganache or custard centre and they can be iced anyway you wish. You can even make them into cupcakes.

Devil’s Food Cake

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease and flour 2 9” cake pans.
2. In a bowl over boiling water melt together the butter and chocolate. Set aside to cool slightly.
3. In another bowl cream together the sugar and eggs. Beat in the cooled chocolate mixture.
4. Add the boiled water (it should be still warm but not super hot) and blend together well.
5. In another bowl combine the flour, baking soda and salt. Add this to the chocolate and combine well.
6. Stir in the buttermilk.
7. Pour evenly into both pans and bake for 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean.