Tuesdays with Dorie DAC: Baked-in-a-Skillet Gingerbread
December 16, 2025 at 4:16 pm | Posted in cakes & tortes, DAC, groups, simple cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 5 CommentsTags: baking, cake
Gingerbread is one of my most favorite holiday treats. It can come in many forms, not just cookie versus cake, and I’m here for all of them. On the cake side, I’m used to gingerbread being dark and moody, heavy on the molasses, and sometimes even boosted with coffee. This Baked-in-a-Skillet Gingerbread is less molasses-forward and more spice-forward, zippy with bits of candied ginger.
The batter contains a surprise ingredient that threw me for a loop, especially since I didn’t bother to read the recipe until I was just about to make it! Apple butter isn’t a pantry staple for me, and I didn’t really want to go and get it just for this, nor did I feel like making it. I was contemplating substituting it with banana-data puree, but then as I was rummaging through my cabinet looking for last year’s jar of molasses, I found something else I bought last year– a seasonal pumpkin spice spread from Bonne Maman that I had big plans to use, and then, of course, never did. Problem sorted– I used that. (Now I have 3/4 of an open jar left to contend with, however.)
Sometimes I think the “skillet-baked” sweets thing is mostly a gimmick, but here I think baking it this way gives a nice crust to the gingerbread. This is a dense cake, not dry, but certainly not damp, and it lasts for days. It reminds me of some Scandinavian-style gingerbreads I’ve had, and it’s only as I type this that I wonder if that’s why Dorie suggests topping it with Swedish pearl sugar…
If you don’t have the book Dorie’s Anytime Cakes by Dorie Greenspan, get it and join us as we bake through it every third Tuesday of the month. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll and all the other participation deets over on Tuesdays with Dorie!
Tuesdays with Dorie DAC: Fall Harvest Cake
November 18, 2025 at 9:55 am | Posted in cakes & tortes, DAC, groups, simple cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 8 CommentsTags: baking, cake
The most fun thing about making this Fall Harvest Cake is that you get to choose what you “harvest” to put in it. Pick some fresh fruit, pick some dried fruit, pick a nut, pick a glaze– it’s like the ultimate “playing around” cake, and I think you’d have to try hard to choose a combo that didn’t work well.
The base for this bounty of fruit and nuts is a sturdy but moist olive oil cake. It’s easily whisked together by hand, and I made it even easier by making it a one bowl affair. A couple of days before I baked this cake, I happened to have devoted a few hours to poaching several quince. Rather than apple or pear, I used slices of sweet, deeply rosy quince that I cut into chunks. For my other add-ins I used seedless red grapes, candied orange peel, dried cranberries and the last dregs from bag of sliced almonds. Quince has a lot of natural pectin, and its poaching liquid basically gels into a glaze when it cools, so I just used that to add some shine and extra fall fruitiness to the top of my baked cake.
Wow, was this good. I don’t do too much baking with grapes, but Dorie’s right that they are a surprise treat here. This cake stayed soft and delicious for four days on my counter (my kitchen has basically zero climate control and is as cold as a root cellar in the fall and winter, else I may have chosen to refrigerate it if keeping it that long).
If you don’t have the book Dorie’s Anytime Cakes by Dorie Greenspan, get it and join us as we bake through it every third Tuesday of the month. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll and all the other participation deets over on Tuesdays with Dorie!
Tuesdays with Dorie DAC: Cocoa-Swirled Pumpkin Bundt
October 21, 2025 at 12:01 am | Posted in bundt cakes, cakes & tortes, DAC, groups, simple cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 6 CommentsTags: baking, cake
Dorie must have sensed that we’ve almost polished off the cake section of BWD, because she’s come out with a whole new book of simple cakes with interesting flavors to keep us TWDers busy for another few years. Dorie’s Anytime Cakes is out today, and we are celebrating with a festive bundt! This Cocoa-Swirled Pumpkin Bundt is our first recipe from the new book, and also the first real fall vibes recipe I’ve made this year.
This bundt is a moist, spiced pumpkin cake with a sweet cocoa swirl running through the middle like a little smile. I made the Glossy Chocolate Glaze to drizzle over the top, but then accidentally let it rest in the bowl until it cooled more to a spreadable consistency than a pouring one. Still tasty, no worries. It’s a perfect cake to keep on the counter for a few days, helping yourself to a slice here and there. Dorie intends all the recipes in the book to be “kitchen cakes”…easy to make, good to eat, comforting to have around…just like this one. Maybe I need to get a cake dome?
If you don’t have the book Dorie’s Anytime Cakes by Dorie Greenspan, get it and join us as we bake through it every third Tuesday of the month. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll and all the other participation deets over on Tuesdays with Dorie!
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