Karen Bell's Spice Cake

Recipes

Spice Cake

By Karen Bell

Once you make Grandma Bell’s spice cake, you’ll understand why it’s beloved. When Karen Bell’s grandparents would drive to Wisconsin from their Michigan home, they’d bring a spice cake. This was for the holidays and Bell’s dad’s birthday. “And then sometimes she might ship one throughout the year. And she’d always make it [when] we went to visit in the summers.”

It does take some practice to make. When Bell ran a restaurant in Spain, she offered it on her menu – “When they turned out, they were great.” When they didn’t, well, that made it too hard to offer consistently, so she stopped. The tricky part is not making the cake, but rather the way she bakes it, cooking the icing, and getting the layers frosted at the right moment. “There is definitely a timing element to it with that frosting [needing] to be at the right temperature. If it’s too hot, it’s going to run off the cake; if it’s too cold, it’ll seize up too quickly.”

In spite of – or perhaps because of – its precariousness, it has won hearts. “Everyone loves it. It’s started fights between sisters,” Bell laughs.

Ingredients

Serves 12

Ingredients for the cake:

2 eggs

2 cups sugar

3/4 cup softened butter

3 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

2 teaspoons allspice

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon cloves

2 cups buttermilk

1 teaspoon baking soda

Ingredients for the icing:

2 cups sugar

2/3 cup melted butter

1/3 cup boiling water

1 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Take 2 eggs out of the refrigerator to warm.

3. In a bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, salt and spices.

4. In a large liquid measuring cup or another bowl, stir together the buttermilk and baking soda until dissolved.

5. In the mixing bowl of a KitchenAid, or a bowl if using an electric hand mixer, beat the sugar and butter together, until mixed well and then add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition and scraping down the sides.

6. Add about a third of the flour mixture, alternating with half of the buttermilk mixture, mixing continuously and finishing with the flour mixture.

7. Spray or butter and flour two heavy 8-inch cake pans (my grandmother used cast iron, but a cake pan gives straight not slanted sides).

8. Divide the batter among the two pans and place one pan in the oven, with the other following five minutes later and bake each one for 25 minutes or until a toothpick poked in the middle comes out clean.

9. While the cakes are baking, make the icing by mixing the melted butter, boiling water and sugar in a small saucepot. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and boil for about two minutes. Remove from heat and add the vanilla.

10. When the cakes are done, remove them from the oven and, as quickly as possible, turn them out onto a cooling rack and then back onto a serving platter. You want the cakes and the icing to both be hot.

11. Ice the first layer completely by slowly pouring the hot icing onto the still very warm cake. It should be like syrup and soak into the cake a bit. You can use a knife to ice the sides with the icing that has run over.

12. Repeat with the second layer, placing it directly on top of the first after removing it from the pan. You can keep the icing warm on a very low heat in the interim.

Bio

Karen Bell is a Milwaukee native with over 27 years of culinary experience around the world. She has lived and worked in Chicago, San Francisco, Paris, Madrid and Caracas, with each place adding to her culinary identity. Along the way and as her career progressed, she became more interested in where our food comes from and how it gets to our plates. After opening and successfully running her restaurant in Madrid, Spain, she decided to move back to Milwaukee to embark on a new chapter. Opening a butcher shop and restaurant was her way of carrying on a dying craft, honoring time-old culinary traditions, as well as providing a direct link from farmer to consumer. Bell was honored to be a three-time James Beard Awards Best Chef: Midwest semifinalist and a two-time finalist in that category. When not in the kitchen, Bell has a passion for travel, food and wine and spending time with her family.

Karen Bell

Bavette la Boucherie

Karen Bell

Bavette la Boucherie

About Bavette la Boucherie

Discover More!

Craving more delectable desserts? Dive into our full collection of sweet treats and discover your next favorite recipe! Select a recipe below to explore a world of irresistible options and satisfy your sweet tooth today.