Cake question

[woolymonkey]

Spidermonkey's birthday is coming up, so I need a weird and wonderful cake/pie recipe. Can anyone help? This is for a normal-sized family cake. I'll do a big chocolate guitar shaped thing later when his friends come round, but I have a recipe for that already. What I need is an interesting yet yummy cake to eat on the day--emphasis on yummy rather than novelty presentation. Spider is very adventurous with food, so suggest away. It doesn't have to look like a birthday cake. US Thanksgiving foods welcome. (Why yes, I have been reading penknife's poll.)

Spider likes:
chocolate
fruit
moist, gooey, sticky cake,
carrot cake
hot chocolate
chilli
cinnamon
syrup
strangeness
weird evil-looking food
really fancy-looking food
bananas
chocolate
things he hasn't tried before
(last time he asked for a Nigella Lawson recipe where you boil up whole clementines for hours to make a gooey syrupy cake thing--it was good)


He's not so keen on
coffee
walnuts
(not a problem in subtle quantities, but don't feature as main ingredients, please)

I can cope with:
hunting down strange ingredients
small amounts of alcohol in recipe
US, UK or metric units

Things I cannot cope with:
piped icing/frosting
complicated finishing touches just before serving
ingredients with US brand names and no description to help me substitute

Comments

[bugshaw.livejournal.com]

Lindt do a good dark chilli chocolate which might come in useful.

[woolymonkey.livejournal.com]

Sounds right up his street. If I don't use it for the cake, I'll certainly get some as a prezzie, or for his Christmas stocking.

[ms-cataclysm.livejournal.com]

What about a traditional baked cheesecake -Jane Grigson has a recipe for John Farley's cheesecake which is very nice and not too sickly .

[woolymonkey.livejournal.com]

That's a thought, though maybe it appeals to me more than it would to spider. (But I have birthdays too!)

[woolymonkey.livejournal.com]

Oh, I remember reading that and thinking I should try it. Thanks for the reminder because this could be just the time for it. If I make it, I'll let you know how it turns out.

[geekmama.livejournal.com]

Here's one that's really fruity, very moist, and could hardly be easier.

Granny Cake

2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 eggs, beaten
No. 2 can crushed pineapple
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

Sift the flour, 3/4 cup sugar, soda, and salt into a bowl, stir in the eggs and undrained pineapple. Pour into a 9x13" pan, sprinkle with pecans and brown sugar, and bake at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes. While it is baking, bring the milk, butter, 1/2 cup sugar, and the vanilla to a boil, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. When the cake is done, remove from oven and pour the milk mixture all over it. Cool.

Edited repeatedly as I'm still apparently half asleep.

[woolymonkey.livejournal.com]

Now that is MY kind of cake! If I can get my act together, I'll be making this one for family on the day (because I want to eat it) and desperance-tamaranth's aztec beetroot cake for the party.

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

Fabulous Aztec choc cake -- basically your standard chocolate cake I use packet mix but don't tell anyone with a teaspoon of chili powder, a pinch of ground cloves and some cinnamon dusted on top. (Actually, honey and cinnamon topping works wonderfully but is ever so rich.)

Still-twitching blood sacrifices optional. Though zil_n_fruitcake may be able to oblige.

[woolymonkey.livejournal.com]

Think I'm going to combine that with desperance's suggestion below.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Chocolate beetroot cake is very good. You could certainly spice that up for added weird/attractiveness. And then call it an Aztec cake, dribble some scarlet beetroot juice across the plate and say that's the blood from the human sacrifices...

[woolymonkey.livejournal.com]

I remember now! In fact, I think I've already stashed the recipe somewhere on my computer.
If it doesn't have too many stages, then I reckon I'll try it for the party, replacing my planned boring old cake modelled into guitar shape with sweetie detailing. Could even go for more of a banjo shape*, with beetroot cake body and bought cake neck--that way his more timid friends can admire the bloodbath from a safe distance while nibbling on Mr Kipling.

*I'm guessing your recipe produces a cake so yummy and moist that any attempt to carve it into novelty shapes will quickly end up as a soggy pile of crumbs.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Recipe here, in case you can't find where you've stashed it. It's very straightforward; there are many other variations on the web. And, as others have said, you can always add spices. I'm not sure about carving it into exotic shapes; I suspect probably not, though it did slice quite cleanly.

Let us know what you do, and how it goes...?

[woolymonkey.livejournal.com]

Thank you! If I make it for the party, it won't be for a couple of weeks. In the meantime, I offer my current favourite beetroot recipe by way of trade. Actually, it's not so much a recipe as a list of things to put in a blender.