Dede’s Ararby Spice Cake Recipe

Today marks an important holiday for the Wilson family!  It’s Aunt Dede’s birthday!  Aunt Dede was my dad’s sister, the baker of every family birthday cake for as long as she lived, and the patron saint of The Bakehouse.  Today we’re celebrating Dede’s birthday and celebrating the ever present smile on her face with Dede’s Araby Spice Cake recipe.

Dede had a few tried and true recipes that we still hold dear.  This Gingerbread Swirl Pound Cake is based off of Dede’s Pound Cake and this Araby Spice Cake first appeared in Joy the Baker Cookbook.  To be fair, Araby spice might seem like a bit of a head scratcher.  The recipe comes from Dede’s 1950’s Better Crocker cookbook.  You know the one? That three-ring binder of a cookbook just about every American family owned.

The flavors of this cake are a mix of cocoa, cinnamon, cloves and citrus.  It has depth and spice and a lift from lemon zest. It’s very particular but deeply comforting as the days shorten and lean towards chilly.

I love this cake as a loaf.  It makes it feel like more of an everyday snacking cake- the kind you eat in slivers as you pass through the kitchen. Put this recipe in your back pocket for Autumn afternoons that call for a sweet bite.

Happy Birthday Dede.  You live on at The Bakehouse with every cake we make.

See also: Dede’s Doberge Cake.

Here’s what you’ll need for this Araby Spice Cake recipe:

• melted butter, and if you’re going to melt it you might as well brown it.

•  large eggs.  Here’s why we use large size eggs in baking.

•  cocoa powder, ground cinnamon, ground cloves, and ground allspice to flavor the cake with depth and spice.

•  salt, baking powder and baking soda to balance and leaven the loaf.

•  granulated sugar

•  all-purpose flour

•  lemon zest to brighten the flavors.

•  buttermilk because it’s my favorite baking liquid.

Start by whisking together the flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.  These are our dry ingredients. I know this is a baking step that adds an extra dirty dish to the sink. It’s important to evenly combine the dry ingredients – especially the cocoa powder, salt, and leavening so they’re sure to combine evenly into the batter once the dry ingredients hit the wet ingredients.

In a large bowl combine eggs and sugar until the mixture is pale in color and just beginning to thicken.

Add the spices and lemon zest and whisk until thoroughly combined and fragrant.

Stir in the slightly cooled browned butter.  It should all smell absolutely divine.

Add the dry ingredients all at once to the egg, sugar and butter mixture.

Whisk until a smooth and thick batter emerges.

This Araby Spice Cake recipe calls for buttermilk though, if you’re out, you can hold fast to one of these buttermilk substitutes.

Whisk in the buttermilk until you reach a glossy, thick, but still pourable batter.

Bake in a 9×5-inch loaf pan.  I like to line my loaf pan with greased parchment paper that hangs over the side a few inches so it makes the baked cake easy to remove.

Allow the cake to cool to warm room temperature before slicing into thick slices.

This Araby Spice Cake recipe makes for a soft and tender yet sturdy loaf. It’s the kind of cake that’s perfect for breakfast dessert, or afternoon coffee. I love this cake served with soft whipped cream and orange segments to compliment the lemon zest in the cake.

It’s a little delight. I hope this cake brings you joy!

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Photos with Jon Melendez.