Banoffee Bread-and-Butter Pudding

March 30, 2023 Sandra DennisLeave a comment

Do you ever get the fancy for something a bit different for dessert? I did, yesterday. It would have to be something that I could make using things that we had in the house, though-I couldn’t actually go and buy something, that would be cheating too much. We are trying not to eat too many desserts.

I thought about a crumble, but that was a bit ‘samey’, but then I came across a variation on bread-and-butter pudding. I don’t make them very often, even though Mark likes them very much, so it would be quite novel. The variation was that it included banana, and a bit of a caramel-y custard due to the inclusion of brown sugar. It sounded nice!

I had most of the ingredients. I was a bit short on white bread, but I did have sliced light rye bread and I thought that would probably do the job. I also wondered about variations. Bananas go really nicely with caramel (like in my Banoffee Pavlova (see Got Egg Whites?-Banoffee Pavlova), so I thought I might boost the caramel by adding some Dulce de Leche. I had bought a tin of this when I suddenly found it in my local supermarket-I had looked for this previously when making my caramel cake (see Quick but Impressive-Caramel Cake) but had failed to find it, so I was sure to pick one up when I did. So clearly I had to use it! I also thought I’d add a handful of raisins, which are more traditional additions to bread-and-butter pudding. I’ve also seen a version that uses halved and buttered hot cross buns as the basis-that sounds yum!

I’m giving the recipe for the original form, and for my alternative form; the photos are all of the alternative pudding but I don’t think it would vary greatly in looks. It’s an old-fashioned hot pud, warming and comforting. Considering that it had just snowed here (we thought we’d done with that!) perhaps I should have made it for tonight…

Original recipe, for 4

4 thick slices white bread

50 g butter, softened

85 g soft brown sugar, plus 1 tbsp to sprinkle

2 eggs

1 large banana, peeled and sliced

Large pinch cinnamon

450 ml milk

1 tbsp cornflour (cornstarch)

Alternative recipe, for two

2-3 slices light rye bread

Sufficient spreadable butter to thickly butter the bread

30 g soft brown sugar, plus 1 tbsp to sprinkle

1 egg

1 smallish banana, peeled and sliced

Pinch ground nutmeg

225 ml 2% milk

½ tbsp cornflour (cornstarch)

Handful sultana raisins

Drizzle of Dulce de Leche or caramel sauce

Grease a baking dish of appropriate size.

Butter the bread, cut into pieces and lay half, butter side up, on the bottom of the baking dish.

Cover with the banana slices. Add the raisins, if using, drizzle with Dulce de Leche, if using. Top with the remaining bread, butter side up.

Bottom layer of bread, topped with fruit and caramel

In a bowl, combine the sugar (except the tbsp), milk, egg(s) and cinnamon/nutmeg. Whisk to combine.

Put the cornflour/cornstarch into a separate small bowl. Add a small amount of the milk mixture and stir well until it is smooth, then add this back into the bulk milk mixture. Whisk to combine, then pour over the bread, pushing the pieces down into the liquid. Set aside to soak for 30 minutes, or until the oven heats to temperature.

Preheat the oven. 350˚F/ 325 ˚F convection/180˚C/160 ˚C fan/Gas 4

When ready, sprinkle the top of the dish with the remaining tbsp. of sugar.

Bake, 30-40 minutes, until the egg mix has set and the top is golden-brown. Allow to stand for 5 minutes when out of the oven, before serving. Serve with ice cream, cream, custard, etc., as preferred.

It was a tasty pudding with a light caramel taste-it could possibly have used more Dulce de Leche even. I served it with a little cold cream and it hit the ‘something different’ spot-can’t ask for more!

Nicely Autumnal-Caramel Apple Crisp Cheesecake

November 15, 2022 Sandra Dennis1 Comment

Last month, for Canadian Thanksgiving, we were invited to take part in a ‘Friendsgiving’ dinner-a really nice idea. One couple provided the turkey, beautifully roasted, one all the trimmings (and the venue) and we provided the desserts. It was a lovely evening.

Now Mark and I are still Thanksgiving newbies (even after 19 years in Canada!) and we have never got used to pumpkin. Pumpkin pie is a total no-no, as far as we are concerned, even if it is traditional. So, what to serve instead of this. I cast around for ideas and came across this recipe for an apple- and streusel-topped baked cheesecake, lightly spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg. That sounded suitably autumnal! It’s a bit of a faff to prepare, so definitely in the ‘celebration’ range rather than the everyday pud, but it turned out very nice and was a hit. It’s very filling so a little goes a long way.

I think it might actually be a recipe from back in the UK as it likes digestive biscuits as the base, rather than Graham cracker crumbs (although I have no doubt that those would work, too). I highly recommend using a springform cake tin for this one, it really will be far easier to release it from the tin after baking. Luckily I had treated myself to a set of springform tins (8″, 9″ and 10″) quite recently. The 8″ tin was perfect for this.

The recipe is made in portions. First the caramel sauce, as this needs to cool. Then the biscuit base as this is baked, then cooled. Next the crumble topping, followed by the apple mix. Finally the cheesecake mix. Ingredients are as follows:

Caramel Sauce

1 cup/200 g granulated sugar

⅓ cup water

½ cup/ 120 ml whipping or double cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp unsalted butter

1 tsp salt

Biscuit Base

200g/7 oz digestive biscuits or graham crackers

30 g/2 tbsp granulated sugar

60 g /¼ cup unsalted butter, melted

Crumble Topping

⅓ cup/70 g brown sugar

½ cup/50 g rolled oats

½ cup/ 63g all-purpose flour

1 tsp ground cinnamon

¼ cup/ 60 g unsalted butter, melted

Apple Mix

3 medium apples (Granny Smith, for preference), peeled and diced

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp ground cinnamon

¼ tsp ground nutmeg

2 tbsp /30 g brown sugar

Cheesecake Mix

700 g/25 oz cream cheese, softened

45 g/3 tbsp granulated sugar

½ tsp salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

Zest from 1 lemon

3 eggs, at room temperature

1 tsp vanilla extract

1½ tbsp. (15 g) all-purpose flour

⅓ cup/ 80 g 14% sour cream

⅓ cup/ 80 g caramel sauce (made earlier)

To make the caramel sauce:

Place sugar and water in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Cook, without stirring, until the sugar has dissolved and turned a dark golden colour. Remove from the heat. Carefully add the cream (it will bubble up), return to heat and stir constantly until smooth (about 1 minute) remove from heat, add vanilla, butter and salt and stir until smooth. Transfer to a bowl and set aside to cool.

To make the biscuit base:

Preheat oven to 350˚F/180˚C/Gas 4

Grease and line the base of an 8” cake tin, preferably springform.

Process the biscuits to crumbs, either in a food processor or by putting them in a plastic bag and beating them with a rolling pin. I used digestives, although I couldn’t get hold of my favourite McVities digestives and had to make do with WalMart ones. They were ok.

Transfer the crumbs to a bowl, add in the sugar and mix well. Add the melted butter and mix well. Press into the base of the cake tin and bake, 10-13 minutes. Allow to cool in the tin on a rack.

To make the crumble topping:

Place all the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Pour in the butter and mix. Set aside.

To make the apple topping:

Place the peeled and chopped apples into a bowl. Drizzle lemon juice over the apples, then add the sugar and spices, and mix well. Set aside

To make the cheesecake filling:

Preheat oven to 300˚F/150˚C/Gas 1-2

Beat the cheese until light and fluffy. While beating, add sugar, salt, cinnamon and lemon zest. I found it easier to use the stand mixer for this bit, but remember to keep cleaning down the sides of the bowl.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating between each addition.

Add the vanilla, flour and sour cream, beat until smooth. I swapped to the hand mixer for this bit as my stand mixer isn’t particularly powerful, and it’s a thick mixture. A better stand mixer would probably power through this.

Add the caramel sauce and beat until incorporated.

Place the cheesecake filling on top of the biscuit base and smooth the top.

*Cheesecake layer on top of the biscuit base.*

Place the apple mixture on top of the cheesecake. Note that there may be liquid associated with the apple, I left this in the bowl.

Place the oat crumble on top of the apple.

Bake the cheesecake for 1 hour, then turn off the heat and leave the cheesecake in the oven for a further hour.

After removing the cake from the oven, leave to cool in the tin on a rack, then refrigerate, in the tin, overnight.

Remove the cheesecake from the tin, remove the base and the parchment lining and place on a serving plate. Pour the remaining caramel sauce over the cake, allowing some to drizzle over the sides.

I served this with a choice of thick pouring cream and/or good quality french vanilla ice cream. Highly recommended as a ‘different’ Thanksgiving dessert, and not as complicated to make as it might seem.

Keeps in the refrigerator for several days.

Christmas Spice-Applesauce Spice Cake

December 26, 2021 Sandra DennisLeave a comment

I’ve been on a bit of a cake hiatus-well, the trouble with baking is that we eat the results and regular cake blogging was doing nothing for our waistlines. So the ‘occasional baker’ decided to hang up her cake tins and keep the cake baking for special occasions only, the first of which would be Christmas.

Now I wanted to try something new. No-one round here really goes for the traditional dark fruitcake, and I’d have had to start that a month or so ago to get the requisite amount of soaking in alcohol done. No, it would be something fairly quick. Spices might feel quite seasonal, and I had a recipe in one of my books that I’d jotted down a while ago but never made, for Applesauce Spice Cake. It also used a bundt pan, and I had one that I’d never actually used yet. It sounded like a plan.

It used two types of sugar, three spices I already had in and some applesauce that I bought in a jar from the local supermarket. Seemed simple enough.

A pristine bundt pan. I guess you could probably use a standard cake tin, or a larger tin with a ramekin placed upside down in the centre, as I have done previously, if you don’t have one. Anyway, the first job was to liberally grease and flour the tin, or which I used a soft margarine (Imperial). I was concerned that all those ridges and swirls might hold onto my cake!

2 cups/250 g/ 8 oz all-purpose (plain) flour

1½ tsp baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)

2½ tsp ground cinnamon

1 rounded tsp ground ginger

½ rounded tsp ground cloves

1 tsp salt

2 large eggs

1 cup/250 g/8 oz granulated sugar

½ cup/ 90 g/ 3 oz packed brown sugar

1½ cups/ 375 ml applesauce

⅔ cup/ 170 ml canola oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

Set oven to 350˚F/180˚C/Gas 4

Put the flour, spices, salt and baking powder into a large bowl and whisk until well mixed and free from lumps. Set aside.

*Whisking the dry ingredients makes sure that they are well mixed and removes any lumps.*

Put both sugars into a bowl with the eggs, beat until light in colour.

Add the applesauce, canola oil and vanilla extract, and mix until smooth.

Fold in the dry ingredients, using a spatula. Do not overmix.

Pour into the prepared tin.

Bake for 45 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a rack to cool completely.

Well, what do you know, the cake came out of the bundt pan perfectly! There really was a nice spicy, christmassy smell in the kitchen, too.

The cake needs a glaze, and a caramel glaze sounded perfect.

Glaze

4 tbsp/½ stick salted butter, cubed

½ cup/ 90 g/ 3 oz packed brown sugar

⅓ cup/ 85 ml whipping or double cream

¼ tsp salt

¾ to 1 cup/155 g/5 oz icing sugar (confectioner’s or powdered)

Wait until the cake is cool to start the glaze.

Place the butter in a saucepan with the brown sugar, cream and salt. Bring to the boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil for 1 minute then remove from the heat.

Leave the pan to cool for a couple of minutes, then start to slowly whisk in the sifted icing sugar, using a balloon whisk, until the glaze is thick but pourable (or thicker if you prefer). If it goes too thick, thin with a splash of cream or milk.

Pour or layer the glaze on the cake and allow it to set. I probably did mine too thick but, extra-thick butter caramel glaze, who’s complaining! I finished my cake off with a sprinkle of icing sugar snow to add to the christmassy vibe.

The cake is moist and tastes a little like gingerbread, so spicy, certainly.

It’s nice served with whipped cream or, for even more sugar, I made a salted caramel sauce.

1 cup/250 g/ 8 oz granulated sugar

6 tbsp salted butter RT, cut into pieces

½ cup/ 125 ml heavy, double or whipping cream

1 tsp salt

Heat the sugar in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly. the sugar will satrt to form lumps and will eventually melt into a thick amber coloured liquid. be careful not to burn it and continue to stir.

When completely melted, add the butter, The caramel will bubble rapidly. Stir until completely melted, using a balloon whisk if the butter starts to separate (2-3 minutes).

Slowly drizzle in the cream, whilst stirring. It will bubble and/or splatter. Allow to boil for 1 minute.

Remove from the heat, stir in the salt and transfer to a storage vessel. This sauce is a thick one that will store refrigerated for 2 weeks. I added additional milk or cream (to taste) to bring it to a pouring consistency.

*Salted caramel sauce, before adding additional milk.*

So the spice cake is very nice when eaten with additional caramel sauce on the side-who knew!

Applesauce Spice Cake, Caramel Glaze and Salted Caramel Sauce

Merry Christmas!

Got Egg Whites?-Banoffee Pavlova

May 7, 2021April 30, 2021 Sandra Dennis1 Comment

I was a bit surprised to find, a year or so ago, that pavlova, as a dessert, wasn’t well-known here in Nova Scotia (well, this bit of it, anyway). We had friends over for an alfresco dinner on the deck, and I thought a light, fruit-filled pavlova would be just the thing as dessert. They had never heard of it!

To step back a bit, a pavlova is basically a meringue (or meringue-like) round, filled with whipped cream and fruit, and was supposed to have been ‘invented’ in the 1920s, in Australia (or maybe New Zealand, there are arguments about that!) in honour of the ballerina Anna Pavlova. The difference between the pavlova and a true meringue is that the true meringue is crisp all the way through whilst the pavlova has a softer, marshmallow-y centre. Neither of them resemble the topping of a lemon meringue pie, the only sort of ‘meringue’ that our friends had experienced.

I’ve made pavlovas for years, it is one of my favourite desserts, and I’ve become a dab hand at making the meringue bases. The secret of the perfect chewy centre is to leave the meringue in the oven once the baking is complete, for several hours or even overnight. The surface will be crispy but the centre will be soft. The meringues can be stored in an air-tight container for a couple of days, without the filling, but will lose their crispiness once cream is added, so I usually fill and decorate shortly before serving. However, even left-over pavlova, the next day, is still good!

Anyway, the reason for this digression is that I had 5 egg whites remaining from my Portuguese Custard Tart baking (see Exotically Eggy-Portuguese Custard Tarts) and I wanted to use them up. Rather than a full pavlova base, I thought that maybe individual small meringues would be useful to have as a garnish with ice cream, or fill with cream. I found recipes for ‘Snowballs’ and ‘Caramel Meringues’, so that might work.

The Recipes:

Standard meringues (Snowballs)

2 egg whites

115 g/4 oz/½ cup caster sugar *

15 ml/1 tbsp cornflour/cornstarch

5 ml/1 tsp white wine vinegar

¼ tsp vanilla essence/extract

Caramel meringue

115 g/4 oz/½ cup muscovado sugar**

2 egg whites

5 ml/2 tsp very finely chopped walnuts (optional)

*I used standard North American granulated sugar
** Muscovado sugar is unknown here. It is a form of brown sugar, but is actually unrefined, rather than the soft brown sugars, which are white sugar with varying amounts of molasses added back. The best substitute for muscovado is dark soft brown sugar. I didn’t have any in and decided to opt for brilliant yellow sugar. This will have reduced the caramel taste of the final meringue.

*Brilliant yellow sugar-dark soft brown sugar would be a better choice for a caramel taste.*

Preheat the oven to 300˚F Convection/150˚C fan/Gas 2. I used convection because meringues should ideally be placed at the top of the oven in a standard oven, but I had 4 trays. If no convection (fan) oven, use the same temperatures but place your baking trays on the top shelf only.

Line four baking sheets (two for each meringue type) with baking parchment.

For the standard meringues, beat the egg whites in a grease-free bowl until very stiff peaks are present.

Add the sugar, a little at a time, whisking between each addition, until the meringue is stiff and glossy. Whisk in the vinegar, cornflour and vanilla.

Spoon onto the prepared sheets: I made about 14. Bake for 30 minutes. Preferably cool in the oven. if not possible, remove from the oven and leave to cool on the baking sheets.

For the caramel meringue, beat the egg whites, as above. Push the brown sugar through a metal sieve and add to the beaten egg whites, a mall portion at a time, whisking until thick and glossy.

Bake and cool as for the standard meringues.

*Caramel (front) and standard meringues, after baking.*

When cool, remove from the parchment, using a palette knife and store in an air-tight container.

I’m also including here my very favourite recipe for a pavlova base. This one works for me every time.

6 egg whites

350 g/12 oz caster sugar*

10 ml/2 tsp cornflour/cornstarch

10 ml/2 tsp vinegar**

* over here I use standard granulated sugar
** any type, malt vinegar, white vinegar or white wine vinegar would work. I probably wouldn’t use balsamic!

Preheat the oven to 300˚F/150˚C/Gas 2.

Grease and line the base of an 8 ” cake pan or, preferably, line a baking sheet with parchment and draw a 8″ circle, in pencil.

Whisk the egg whites until stiff and standing in peaks.

Add half of the sugar and whisk until glossy.

Fold in remaining sugar, cornflour and vinegar with a large metal spoon.

Spoon into the tin or pile into the circle on the parchment (note the edges of the circle can be a little raised, compared with the centre, to make a ‘bowl’). Cook for 45 min in the top of the oven, then switch off and leave to cool in oven, or overnight. This bit is very important for a good result, so try to plan that you won’t need the oven before the pavlova is cooled.

So, I had a lot of meringues and wanted to do something with them. A pavlova would work, because I had whipping cream left over from my Portuguese Custard Tarts, but normally this had a fruit filling, such as strawberries or kiwi fruit (although I do have a recipe that uses a white chocolate mousse filling, which is to die for!). I had a thought, what about a sort of banoffee?

What is banoffee? It’s another one of those things that I don’t see over here, but it certainly used to be very popular back home. ‘Banoffee’ itself is a portmanteau word combining banana and toffee, usually in the form of a pie with a crumb base (made with crushed chocolate digestives for preference), a layer of toffee sauce made with condensed milk, bananas and whipped cream, usually with chocolate shavings to decorate. I have actually never made one as it used to be the signature dessert of one of our friends, and she would always bring one to our ‘do’s’-and very delicious it was, too. Maybe I should consider it for my next dinner party? Anyway, it contains bananas, so healthy and full of potassium!

I didn’t have any condensed milk in, so the real toffee sauce wouldn’t be possible, but maybe a caramel sauce could be made. Maybe even salted caramel? That would go nicely with the super-sweet meringues. I found a nice recipe and got to work.

2 tbp/30 ml water

½ cup/125 g granulated sugar/caster sugar

⅓ cup/80 ml whipping cream

1½ tbsp unsalted butter, cut into cubes

½ tsp vanilla extract/essence

½ tsp salt, or to taste

This made about ⅔ cup of sauce, plenty for the pavlova.

Have all your ingredients measured out in advance because this recipe can move quickly!

Place the water and sugar into a heavy-bottomed pan, heat over a medium heat and stir constantly until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture starts to bubble slightly. Use a pan larger than you think you need because, later, the mixture will bubble up quite a bit.

Increase the heat to high and bring to the boil, do not stir. Continue to boil until the syrup takes on an amber colour. This took about 2-3 minutes, but could take up to 12 minutes. Do not leave it because it can turn from amber to black (and burned) very quickly. (Ask me how I know-getting rid of burned hot toffee is no fun!). Remove from the heat.

Slowly whisk in the cream. This will cause the mixture to bubble up. Then mix in the butter, in small pieces, followed by the vanilla and then the salt. Note, for a standard caramel sauce reduce the salt to just a pinch. I found I had to reheat the sauce slightly, at this point, as some of the sugar had crystalized out into a lump. A gentle heat re-dissolved it without damaging the sauce. This is probably because I chose to half the quantities for my purposes, a slightly larger batch (and bigger pan) would probably retain more heat.

Transfer to a container and refrigerate until cold. This makes a very nice sauce for ice cream.

6-7 meringue pieces

1 cup/250 ml whipping cream

1 banana

1 portion caramel sauce (see recipe)

To assemble the pavlova, I filled a 9″ pie dish with standard meringue pieces. Depending on the size this would need 6-7 pieces. I whipped the cream and covered the meringue, then sliced the banana and placed it on top of the cream. Finally I poured over the caramel sauce, making sure to cover each piece of banana to prevent any blackening.

The dessert will keep for a couple of hours in the fridge without losing crispness, and will be fine the next day, if a little less crisp.

Quick but Impressive-Caramel Cake

April 5, 2021March 18, 2021 Sandra Dennis1 Comment

Another birthday, another cake. This time it was my own birthday and so I wanted a tasty cake, but not something too complicated. Also I wanted to try something new, and something a bit different. When I came across a caramel cake recipe that was described as ‘easy’, I thought that would hit the spot.

It is a British recipe, so it uses things like “self-raising flour’, which we can get here but it seems a bit of a mystery to most. Also ‘golden caster sugar’ and ‘golden icing sugar’, which definitely wouldn’t be available. Lastly, the ingredients are in grams, not cups. I’ve tried to convert to imperial, for those who prefer it, but I dare not convert to cups, I’d be bound to get it wrong.

The recipe gave a option for a chocolate sponge, which I thought might be nice with the caramel, so I followed that, although I have no doubt that the original sponge would also be nice.

The Recipe:
Cake
225 g/8 oz softened salted butter (additional for greasing tins)
125 g/4 oz golden caster/superfine sugar *
100 g/3.5 oz light soft brown sugar
5 ml/ 1 tsp vanilla essence/extract
4 large eggs
225 g/8 oz self-raising flour
OPTIONAL 3 tbsp cocoa powder**
30 ml/2 tbsp milk

Frosting
200 g/7 oz softened salted butter
400 g/14 oz golden icing (powdered/confectioners) sugar***
70 g/2.5 oz caramel sauce, Dulce de Leche or caramel spread****, plus extra to serve
A drop of milk, cream, or boiling water, if needed

To decorate
Toffee, chocolate or caramel pieces and caramel sauce

* golden caster sugar would impart additional caramel flavour. I have never found caster or superfine sugar of any variety here. Normal American granulated would work. I decided to try golden yellow sugar, which is closer in texture to soft brown sugar. It worked ok but maybe the sponge was a little drier than ideal.
** if choosing to make a chocolate sponge, as I did, incorporate the cocoa powder with the flour.
*** golden icing sugar would again add additional caramel flavour. If not available (definitely wasn’t here) use standard icing sugar
**** of the three options, I only found caramel spread.

Preheat the oven to 350˚F/325˚F convection/180˚C/160˚C fan/gas 4. Grease and line 2 loose-bottom or springform 8* cake tins.

Beat together the butter and the two sugars, until lighter in colour and fluffy.

Add the vanilla and the eggs, one at a time. Add a spoonful of the flour after each egg and beat in, before adding the next egg. Add the remaining flour, the cocoa powder (if using) and the milk. Spoon into the prepared tins.

Bake, 25-30 minutes, until the cakes spring back when pressed and a skewer/cake tester comes out clean. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tins for a few minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the buttercream, put the butter and icing sugar into a bowl and beat until smooth. Add in the caramel. I found this got very stiff, so add a dribble of milk, cream or boiling water to loosen it, as needed. Set aside until the cakes are cool.

To assemble the cakes, place one layer on a plate, put about half of the buttercream on the top. At this stage I also dribbled on some of the remaining caramel spread. This had later seeped out onto the sides of the cake and into the upper sponge, making it pleasantly sticky. Place the top layer on the cake and then the remainder of the buttercream on top, roughly smoothed. No need to be too fastidious with this!

To decorate, I used some mini Skor pieces, chocolate-covered butter toffee, roughly crushed and pushed into the buttercream topping and then drizzled over warmed caramel spread, allowing it to dribble over the edges of the cake.

It certainly lived up to being easy to bake. I’d say that the sponge was maybe a little on the dry side, which might have been a function of using the golden yellow sugar or of adding in the cocoa powder, but it was pleasant, irrespective of that. The buttercream icing, after being left to stand in a cool place whilst awaiting the cooling of the cake, became very stiff and difficult to spread. A little more liquid, in the form of additional milk, cream or boiling water, might have helped with that. It certainly stood up to being spread, though, and tasted very nice. I think I’d consider this cake again, when looking for a simple but effective celebration cake, and it disappears fast enough, too!