Snacking Cakes
A snacking cake is an easy-peasy cake, typically assembled in a single bowl with ingredients you likely already have in your pantry, or can easily find at your local grocery store, and baked in an 8 or 9-inch square pan [or round cake pans]. Snacking cakes are the kind of cakes you make when a sweets craving hits and needs to be satiated, stat (ie: assembled and baked in less than an hour). A snacking cake is not an all-day “project bake,” but a spontaneous, “I need cake,” weeknight bake.
Often they call for oil, which will ensure your cake is moist, and also means you don’t have to wait for your butter to soften or worry about creaming it with sugar in a stand mixer until fluffy. Snacking cakes are also frequently prepared in a single bowl, at most two, and require nothing more than a whisk and a flexible spatula.
FMM: While I haven't seen this as a requirement, I would add that a snacking cake is not one that requires you to make frosting and frost the cake in any elaborate way. A drizzle of frosting is okay, or a quick glaze or drizzle, as long as not too much time is spent on it. Here are some of the easy-to-make toppings that I have seen used for snacking cakes. Ok, maybe you could put a chocolate frosting on Mom's Quick Chocolate Cake, but leave it in the pan and just frost the top.
- No topping needed: Some cakes do not need any topping at all, such as the Apple (Snacking) Cake. I would add Ozark Pudding to this list also.
- Confectioner's sugar: Mom made a chocolate cake, called Quick Chocolate Cake, in a 9x9 inch pan when we were young that was just dusted with confectioner's sugar once it had cooled. Another cake using a confectioner's sugar dusting once baked is Powdered Donut Cake.
- Sugar and cinnamon: Granulated sugar and cinnamon is another idea. Betty Crocker's Sweet Cream Cake suggests adding a cinnamon sugar topping and baking it on the cake during the last three minutes of baking time. And the Apple Cider Donut "Snack" Cake is drizzled with a glaze of reduced cider, butter, sugar, and salt, then dusted with cinnmon sugar.
- Berry or other fruit topping: The Raspberry Almond Snack Cake adds raspberries to the top of the cake before baking. As the cake bakes, they settle somewhat into the cake. The Plum Cake also has you add the fruit to the top of the cake rather than mixed in the batter. This cake also uses a confectioner's sugar dusting once cooled.
- Almond topping: Some cakes have a simple sugar and sliced almond topping that bakes right onto the cake. The Swedish Visiting Cake is one (this one also adds egg white to the almond mixture to help it to adhere), as is the Almond (Snacking) Cake.
- Streusel ttopping: If you want a little more sweetness, a simple streusel topping is quick and easy. It is used in the Rhubarb Sour Cream Snack Cake recipe.
- Coconut topping: Along the same lines, the Toasted Coconut Snack Cake has a coconut streusel-like topping baked on top of the cake.
Apple (Snacking) Cake (or pear)
Made in a 9-inch round cake pan. An 8×8 square baking pan could be used instead.
The batter of this apple snacking cake is flavored with brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Besides the apples, this cake is studded with walnuts. No topping is needed for this cake, but you could add a dusting of confectioner's sugar, if desired. The recipe author also suggests whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.
Ozark Pudding looks very similar to this cake, although it uses about half the flour as the Apple (Snacking) Cake and has no oil or butter in the batter, just eggs, brown sugar, flour, baking powder, salt, and vanilla. And of course, apples and walnuts. and in a higher proportion. Although it is called pudding, it bakes up more like a cake. It is made in a pie plate.
Mom's Quick Chocolate Cake
Made in a 9" square cake pan.
The batter for this cake is made with coffee to accent the chocolate flavor. According to the King Arthur website, this cake was born back in WW2. It was popular because it didn't need rationed items like eggs, milk, or butter. The coffee is used as the liquid, and oil is used in place of butter. It's leavened with the baking soda and the vinegar, and it's usually very reliable.
Mom always dusted this cake with confectioner's sugar.
Made in 9x9 inch pan.
This cake is from the 1950s Betty Crocker Cookbook. She suggests sprinkling sugar and cinnamon over top of cake 3 minutes before removing from oven. Or you could dust it with confectioner's sugar once it comes out of the oven.
Uses heavy cream in the cake batter, thus "cream cake." The recipe uses vanilla in it for flavoring.
Made in an 8-inch square baking pan. To make a cake in a 9x9 inch pan, multiply the ingredients by 25%. So 1 cup of flour will be 1 1/4 cups of flour, for instance. Or use a 9” round pan. An 8-inch squaare pan and a 9 inch round pan have the same capacity (64”) and the pans can be substituted for one another in any cake or bar recipe.
The recipe uses sour cream, and adds nutmeg to give it the donut flavor. Once cool the top is brushed with melted butter, then dusted with the confectioners’ sugar for a Sugar Donut finish.
Apple Cider Donut "Snack" Cake
Made in an 8-inch square metal baking pan. To make a cake in a 9x9 inch pan, multiply the ingredients by 25%. So 1 cup of flour will be 1 1/4 cups of flour, for instance.
This cake is made with reduced apple cider to give the cake the apple flavor; no chopped apples are added. It is flavored with nutmeg and dusted with with cinnamon sugar to give it a Cinnamon Sugar Donut flavor.
Made in a 9-inch round cake pan. An 8×8 square baking pan could be used instead.
Raspberries are laid on top of the batter before baking and they sink down in while baking. Once done, the cake can be dusted with confectioner's sugar, although this is purely optional; the cake can be eaten plain. Requires almond flour.
The author suggests that other berries could be used, although it seems many other fruits could be used, such as rhubarb (enough sugar?), plums, apples, and pears. Peaches might be too juicy when they are perfectly ripe.
Made in a 9-inch round cake pan. An 8×8 square baking pan could be used instead.
This plum cake is made with sour cream and flavored with cardamom and cinnamon. It is somewhat unual in that it used 3 eggs in the batter, rather than 2, which most snacking cakes call for. The plums are not mixed in the batter, but are placed on top before baking.
Made in a 9-inch cake pan, the cake is topped with sliced plums and a sprinkle of granulated sugar before baking, then dusted with confectioner's sugar once cool.
Made in 9x9 inch pan.
This is a vanilla cake made with sour cream and flavored with vanilla extract. The cake batter is added to the pan and is covered with rhubarb mixed with sugar. A streusel topping made with brown sugar is then layered over the rhubarb, and the cake is baked.
Made in a 8×8 square baking pan. To make a cake in a 9x9 inch pan, multiply the ingredients by 25%. So 1 cup of flour will be 1 1/4 cups of flour, for instance. Or use a 9” round pan. An 8-inch square pan and a 9 inch round pan have the same capacity (64”) and the pans can be substituted for one another in any cake or bar recipe.
The topping is similar to a streusel topping. Coconut is mixed with sugar, flour and butter, and is baked on top of the cake.
Swedish Visiting Cake (almond flavors)
Made in a 9-in. round cake pan. An 8×8 square baking pan could be used instead.
Swedish Visiting Cake mixes egg whites with sliced almonds and sugar to make a topping that bakes right on the cake. Both almond extract and vanilla extract add flavor to the batter.
Made in 9-inch springform or cake pan.
Another Almond Snacking Cake. This one has almond flour in the batter and uses sour cream as the liquid. Almonds and powdered sugar are mixed and added to the top of the cake before baking.
