Coffee spice cake

As the weather gets cooler nothing satisfies quite as much as a warm piece of cake enjoyed with a steaming mug of coffee. Adding mouth-watering, heartwarming spices to the mix will help to heat you up from the inside out. I have adapted a traditional spice cake recipe to do just that. If you sample this cake with your preferred coffee by a roaring fire, the approaching winter may seem a little less frosty. Enjoy!

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Ingredients

• 1/2 teaspoon Allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cardamom
• 1 teaspoon of clove*
• 1 & 1/2 cups flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 6 tablespoons melted butter
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup strongly brewed coffee

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Directions

1.) Preheat oven to 350F. Grease an 8-inch baking pan and set aside.

2.) Combine the dry ingredients (spices*, flour, sugar, and baking soda) in a bowl and mix.

3.) Add in the coffee, melted butter, vinegar, and vanilla extract and whisk until smooth and well combined.

4.) Pour the batter into the baking pan and bake for 30 minutes. Your cake is done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry. If it needs more time to bake, do so in 5 minute increments.

5.) Frost with the icing of your choice. For this recipe, I used a traditional cream cheese frosting — recipe below. The tarty sweetness of the cream cheese frosting is a lovely compliment to the zesty spice of the cake. A dollop of whipped cream or sour cream frosting would also work well on this cake.

6.) Enjoy!

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Cream Cheese frosting

Combine 2 tablespoons unsalted butter (softened and cut into small pieces) with 3 ounces of softened room-temperature cream cheese, 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract, 2 tablespoons of milk, and a pinch of salt into a mixer and beat until smooth. Add powdered sugar 1/4 cup at a time and mix. The frosting is ready when the desired consistency for spreading is achieved. (Approximately 2 cups of sugar should do it!)

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*I tend to go heavy on the clove. I would even increase this recipe to use 1 & 1/2 teaspoons. If clove is not to your taste, you can decrease the clove to 1/2 of a teaspoon.

Recipe inspired by and adapted from the following recipes:
https://www.justapinch.com/recipes/dessert/cake/easy-cardamom-spice-cake.html
https://prettysimplesweet.com/spice-cake/
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/76964/moist-tender-spice-cake/