LAMORINDA WEEKLY | Thoughtful Food


Election Night Spice Cake. Photo Susie Iventosch

This spice cake is just perfect for crisp autumn days as well as spicy (and tense) election parties! Actually, I'd never made a cake for election night, but someone tipped me off that it might be a fun idea. So, I took an old family recipe that my great aunt Clara used to make, and added apples, raisins and lots of extra spice for a cornucopia of flavors.

If you plan to make it for a holiday gathering instead of election night, and I would not blame you; for that and given this year's fascinating election, you might want to double the recipe and make it a two-layer cake. It will feed twice as many people and would be attractive perched upon a festive cake plate.

Should you decide to make it for the election and you don't have black in your food coloring repertoire, just mix blue and lots of red and a dash of green, then more red, and eventually you will come up with the black color for the letters. (That's how I did it!)