Cake always makes life better.

I love that they can make anything seemingly ordinary feel more like a little celebration. And we should never need an excuse to add more of that in our lives, right?

Okay, yes there’s more science, even an extra bit of precision compared to cooking but it doesn’t mean you can’t still infuse some creativity and flow into your cake baking practice. This is how I want all things in the kitchen to feel - that there’s always opportunity to make it what you want, let the creative juices flow, use what you have and make it as fun as possible.

How do you do that?

Take some basic cakes that can be blank canvases for you to put your mark on with different fruit, experimenting with new flavour combinations using spices, fillings syrups and more.

Let’s dive into a few of my favourites, plus a little inspiration to get you thinking about all the things you could fill/flavour them with and fingers crossed, even experimenting with your own ideas.

What’s Cooking This Week: 3 Cakes To Get Creative With

Here’s 3 basic cakes that I come back to time and time again and am always getting endlessly creative with. Mix it up with different flavour additions, spices, fruit, syrups, fillings and so much more!

Classic Genoise

This recipe is adapted from The Cake Bible, which is a book I’ve had for years and is well worn with what I’m sure is butter and chocolate. It’s the book I turned to the couple of times I made wedding cakes for friends (yes I did that - one was ski/snowboard themed the other, dirt bikes so yeah, my friends are fun) because there’s formulas for making cakes to serve larger groups and all kinds of other resources.

As I read it, this recipe is originally from 1981 which just goes to show you the classics really do have staying power. This is a simple cake base you can use for so many things. It’s light and perfectly textured and the best part, uncomplicated to make - just a little bit of a gentle touch.

If you want it to taste a little richer, use browned butter instead of the melted butter. It can handle buttercream, brush it with syrup or a liqueur to flavour it and keep it nice and moist, layer with whipped cream, maybe some lemon curd (or rhubarb, or any kind of curd), or keep it super simple with fresh fruit and powdered sugar or cocoa on top.

This makes 1 - 9 inch cake, you can easily double the recipe if you’d like to make a layer cake.

Classic Genoise

• 37 g (3 tablespoons) melted butter, room temperature

• 4 g (1 teaspoon) vanilla

• 200 g (4 large) eggs, room temperature

• 100 g (1/2 cup) sugar

• 50 g (1/2 cup) sifted pastry flour

• 50 g cornstarch (1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon)

Preheat the oven to 350*.

In a small bowl, mix the flour and cornstarch. In a separate bowl, mix together the butter and vanilla. Set aside.

In a stand mixer, combine the eggs and sugar and beat on high speed until tripled in volume, about 5 minutes.

Sift half of the flour mixture over the egg mixture. Using a spatula, gently fold until the flour is just combined. Repeat with the remaining flour mixture. When the flour mixture is just incorporated, fold in the butter mixture and mix until just combined.

Pour immediately into prepared baking pans. Bake for 25-35 minutes or until the cake is golden brown and starts to shrink slightly from the sides. Remove from the cake pans as soon as possible and allow the cake to cool completely on a wire rack.

Trim the cake as you like then fill, decorate as you like.

Rhubarb Syrup - just for fun!

Yes, I’m using rhubarb here because of course I’m taking advantage of it this time of year (as you’ll see when you scroll down) but you can use this as a guide for other fruit syrups as well, the process is the same. You can also try edible flowers like lavender or elderflower, just scale the amount of flowers back to 1 cup. I’m patiently waiting for the local strawberries that should arrive any day now which I’ll be piling in a cake brushed with this syrup and maybe even a rhubarb curd! How good does that sound?! And syrups aren’t only good for cakes but try them in cocktails, on pancakes, or drizzled over ice cream.

Rhubarb Syrup

• 2 cups rhubarb, sliced

• 1/2 cup sugar

• 1/2 water

Combine the rhubarb, sugar, and water in a heavy-bottomed saucepan and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to a simmer and cook gently, stirring occasionally, until the fruit is soft and the liquid has thickened slightly, about 20 minutes.

Set a fine-mesh strainer (or a coarse strainer lined with cheesecloth) over a large bowl. Pour the rhubarb through the strainer until most of the liquid is in the bowl. Press the solids a little with the back of a spoon to extract more syrup.

Carefully pour the syrup into a clean bottle. Cover or cork the bottle and refrigerate. It will keep for quite some time in the fridge.

Rhubarb Almond Coffee Cake

I usually make some version of this cake multiple times around this time of year with all the beautiful rhubarb but the base of this cake is great to add any kind of fruit that’s in season; blueberries, raspberries, peaches, plums, whatever you like. Switch out the almonds for other nuts or try different spices. If I don’t have sour cream, I’ll use buttermilk or yogurt - they do the same thing for the cake, you just might have to adjust the baking time so use your senses to watch it.

Rhubarb Almond Coffee Cake

• 1 cup + 1 tablespoon sugar, divided⁣

• 1/2 cup butter, room temperature⁣

• 2 eggs⁣, room temperature

• 1 cup sour cream⁣

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract⁣

• 1 teaspoon almond extract⁣

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour⁣

• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour

• 1 teaspoon baking powder⁣

• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda⁣

• 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom

• 1/4 teaspoon salt⁣

• 2 heaping cups sliced rhubarb (cut into 1 inch slices)⁣

• 1/2 cup sliced almonds⁣

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Spray a 10-inch springform pan with non-stick spray. Line the bottom of the pan with a round of parchment paper. Spray the parchment paper as well. Set aside.⁣
⁣
In the bowl of a stand-mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream 1 cup of the sugar and the butter together until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Turn the speed down on the mixer and add the eggs one at a time, followed by the sour cream, vanilla, and almond extract. ⁣
⁣
In another bowl, stir together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt until combined. With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients gradually, scraping the bottom and sides of the bowl as needed, until everything is combined. The dough will be thick and sticky.⁣
⁣
Using a spatula, spread half of the batter evenly into the prepared springform pan. Distribute half of the rhubarb over top of the batter in a single layer. Spread the remaining batter over the rhubarb. Arrange the remaining rhubarb evenly on top of the cake. Sprinkle with almonds, then sprinkle everything with the remaining 1 tablespoon of sugar.⁣
⁣
Bake until browned and set in the center, about 60-70 minutes. Allow the cake to stand on a cooling rack on the counter for at least 10 minutes before releasing from the pan. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Citrus Olive Oil Cake

I love the simplicity of this cake. Something that all you have to do is sprinkle some powdered sugar on top and add some fresh fruit and you’re done. I use flavoured olive oil but of course you can just use what you’ve got and go for lemon zest instead of orange - or yes, get creative and try grapefruit or a mix of all of them.

Citrus Olive Oil Cake

• 1/2 cup blood orange olive oil or regular olive oil

• 3/4 cup sugar⁣

• 1 cup all purpose flour⁣

• 1/2 cup semolina flour, substitute all purpose if you don’t have it⁣

• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder⁣

• 1/4 tsp baking soda⁣

• 1/2 tsp kosher salt⁣

• 3 large eggs at room temperature⁣

• 1/2 cup buttermilk⁣

• 2 tsp orange zest ⁣

• 1 tsp vanilla extract⁣

Preheat the oven to 350*⁣
⁣
Combine the flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl. Set aside.⁣ In an electric mixer, beat eggs with the sugar until well combined, about 2-3 minutes. Add yogurt, oil, zest and vanilla and beat for one minute. Add flour mixture and mix until just combined. Transfer batter to a prepared loaf or cake pan. ⁣
⁣
Bake for 40-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Cool and serve with fresh orange slices and a sprinkle of icing sugar.

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