Cake - the Objective Best Holiday Dessert
In my family, we always say that my dad is the chef, and my grandmother is the baker. When it comes to family cooking, my dad brings the dinner and my grandmother brings way too many desserts. There are three she’s been making a lot recently: Chocolate-Peppermint, Apricot Nectar, and Hummingbird cake.
I take a lot of credit for our tradition of eating chocolate-peppermint cake because it was me who begged my grandmother to bake it for my birthday a few years ago. It was the combination of my two favorite desserts, chocolate cake and peppermints, but my grandmother evolved it into something even more delicious. Picture it: two layers of classic chocolate cake, spongy and light, filled with fluffy peppermint buttercream. On top, a creamy chocolate ganache and crushed mints. The cake is made for Christmas and my birthday, the two most important family holidays. I’m kidding about the second one, but it has become a Christmas dessert tradition that I look forward to every year. Unfortunately, it’s not always baked for my birthday. The recipe itself is also quite self-explanatory. It requires devil’s food cake mix, chocolate pudding mix, sour cream, milk, vegetable oil, water, eggs, chocolate chips, and of course, butter to make the base. The peppermint buttercream is made with powdered sugar, unsalted butter, crushed peppermint candies, vanilla extract, whole milk, red food coloring, and a pinch of salt. The ganache is just semi-sweet chocolate chips. While I don’t have clear and professional pictures (my grandmother is not very good with technology or photography), I do have copies of the recipes for anyone who wants them. Just reach out via email!
Another family favorite recipe is Apricot Nectar cake. It's a lot denser than the chocolate cake, believe it or not, but is based on citrus rather than the classic chocolatey-sweetness. There isn’t a specific holiday that my family associates with it. Instead, it’s more something my grandmother makes whenever she feels like it. It’s a more casual dish which makes it a pleasant surprise on holidays. Unlike the chocolate peppermint cake, it’s never something we expect to see which makes it all the better when we do get to eat it. Typically it’s made like a bundt cake; the citrus flavor is light in the cake itself, but a delicious lemon glaze is poured over the top. My grandmother pokes toothpicks into the cake to pour in the glaze, and with the light citrus in the cake and the use of the small hole, it makes it so the flavor in the cake isn’t overpowering. Yellow cake and lemon jello mix along with vegetable oil, apricot nectar, egg yolks and whites (separated), and lemon extract make the cake’s base. The topping is made with confectioner’s sugar and lemon juice, super simple!
The third recipe is Hummingbird cake, which sounds very weird at first, but relates to a joke that we tell guests. We joke that it’s hard to make due to a lack of bird feet and beaks. The cake is sort of similar to Italian Creme Cake that uses bananas and pineapples rather than coconut. It’s a recent favorite, especially with my mom and sister. My grandmother dug up an old recipe during quarantine and just started making it. My mom isn’t a big fan of citrus and prefers lighter cakes. She tends to stay away from big portions of the apricot nectar and chocolate peppermint cakes. but she adores Hummingbird cake. It’s probably because the layers are a lot smaller, and the cake itself is a lot lighter thanks to its use of bananas. My sister will eat anything that has nuts or bananas, so instantly this cake became her favorite.
The base of this cake is made with a yellow cake mix, crushed pineapples, 2 medium overripe bananas (peeled and mashed), water, vegetable oil, 3 large eggs, vanilla extract, and ground cinnamon. The frosting is made with cream cheese, butter, confectioner’s sugar, vanilla extract, and chopped pecans.
Baking always sounds simple enough but is really complex. It’s something I can’t do at all because the precision of both time and measurements has never really clicked with me. I’m much better at cooking, but I’ll never complain if someone bakes me a cake. Maybe I’ll start teaching myself the next time I visit home. The chocolate peppermint will be my first project since it’s my favorite, but I’m determined to bake all three of these… eventually.