Is it cake? It's cake.

December 14, 2022 8:32 PM

In search of a recipe for sturdy (layerable, cake-mold friendly), non-chocolate sponge for a holiday cake. No restrictions on allergens.

I have this Christmas tree cakelet mold that I use to create a little forest scene on top of a single-layer cake. Typically I've just used a straight-up chocolate cake or a white cake, but this year I am looking for something with a little more interest to it.

Goals:

-Takes shape well and can hold up under the weight of, well, more cake
-Not fruit-filled (but can be fruit flavored)
-Flavor ideally not too...fancypants? sophisticated? Audience are only medium-adventurous, especially about Christmas foods. And there'll be kids.

Thanks MeFi!

posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese to Food & Drink (6 answers total)

Gingerbread.
posted by fluffy battle kitten at 1:08 AM on December 15, 2022 [3 favorites]

I still haven't made Nigella's clementine cake but it's recommended here often and I think would work well in this case.

Abusing the edit function to say: it somehow didn't occur to me that you were going to make the trees out of the same cake, and someone else will have to speak to how well this one takes a mold!
posted by babelfish at 6:37 AM on December 15, 2022 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Ha as it happens, I meant to include as a postscript: I actually make the clementine cake all the time. It's much too moist and crumbly for these purposes unfortunately!
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 6:53 AM on December 15, 2022

Ann Reardon How To Cook That Channel This is a link to Reardon's YouTube channel. She specializes in desserts and can make a cake shaped like almost anything. She did an Oreo cake tutorial that might be a nice match for your project. She works with a lot of different flavors and textures as well. I hope you find some helpful information there.
posted by effluvia at 8:03 AM on December 15, 2022 [1 favorite]

Preppy Kitchen has tasty & reliable layer cake recipes -- I've made several of their cakes and I've been happy with them all. In particular, I've made this Lemon Blueberry Cake for two different weddings (3-tier cakes) and it held up perfectly, while still being moist and toothsome. In your shoes, I'd probably just swap out the lemon/blueberry for orange/raspberry (it just feels more winter-appropriate). Note that frozen fruit works just fine. Their Spice Cake and Christmas (Gingerbread) Cake also seem delicious, holiday-appropriate, and suitable for stacking.
posted by ourobouros at 10:51 AM on December 15, 2022

OK. This breaks your fruit rule, as it has raisins (and optional other fruits), but Lane cake is a classic southern US cake that gives me all sorts of nostalgia. The booze is not really optional, so if you’re not into a boozy cake, look elsewhere. I also add coconut (but none of the other suggested fruits)

Lane Cake Recipe
posted by Fritzle at 12:05 PM on December 15, 2022 [1 favorite]