Aww look, it’s fun-sized!
Spice up your life
I was in fourth grade when the Spice Girls hit the scene. My friend Jackie got their album for Christmas, and we’d dance around the house to it, wearing crazy outfits and hairdos. (One of the songs was called “Naked.” Jackie’s mom made sure we always skipped over it!)
Fun-sized Spice Cake
Today’s recipe was inspired by my Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bars.
Initially, I’d aimed to make a maple version of the bars. However, the first attempt lacked any maple flavor whatsoever, and so I decided to make spice bars instead. In reaching for a new baking dish (for attempt #2), I happened upon a mini springform pan. And thus, this little spice cake was born. As I tried to think of a name, I kept going back to the fact that it’s a baby spice cake—just like the singer! (For those of you who weren’t teens in the 90s, that would be Emma Bunton, also known as “Baby Spice.”)
What singers or bands were popular when you were growing up?
I was a teen in the 90s, so groups like Blink 182, N’Sync, and the Backstreet Boys played at my middle-school dances. Oh, and Britney Spears, Hanson, and the Spice Girls.
I never got caught up in the Hanson craze, but a few of the girls in my class wanted to marry those boys! And my friend Robin actually bought the Spice Girls movie. (One of only three copies sold?) She made me watch it with her; as expected, it was awful! Aliens abducting the main characters? Really?? Someone thought that was a good idea?
Many of you will appreciate that this recipe is fat-free.
I didn’t actually set out to make it that way. But the batter looked too gooey, after I put in all the applesauce, to add any more liquid. Luckily, this doesn’t taste fat-free (especially when it’s frosted). But you can always replace some of the applesauce with oil if you so desire.
Eggnog “Baby Spice” Cake
(Makes 2-4 servings)
- 1/2 cup spelt or all purpose flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- pinch stevia or 2 tbsp sugar
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1 1/2 tbsp agave or pure maple syrup
- 2 tbsp milk of choice, such as almond milk or even vegan eggnog!
- 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup applesauce
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1/8 tsp ground cloves
- optional: raisins, walnuts, pecans, etc.
Combine dry ingredients and mix very well. In a separate bowl, mix wet ingredients (including applesauce), then pour dry into wet. Stir until just combined, then pour into a greased pan (I used a mini springform, but a 4×7 would also work), and cook at 350 F for 20-25 minutes, depending on the depth of your dish. Allow to cool for 10 minutes before removing the springform.
Frost with: Creamy Dreamy Frosting.
For fun, I added a tiny bit of rum to the frosting. But you can opt to leave it out or even use rum extract. And feel free to use a different frosting recipe if you’d prefer. Or you could always opt to pay tribute to the UK, home of the Spice Girls, and top this cake with Marmite. But I wouldn’t recommend that. No, not at all!
I LOVE YOUR RECIPES, KATIE!!!!!!! <3 <3 <3 <3 <3
I made this yesterday using whole wheat pastry flour and instead of 2 T sugar, 1 1/2 T syrup, and 2 T milk, used 1/4 c maple syrup and added 1 t lemon juice (I also doubled the spices because I like SPICY spice cake!), and baked it in a 4″x7″ loaf pan. It tasted incredible and I would make it again, but only for myself since it barely rose at all and was less than 1″ tall. It was also definitely on the dense undercooked side vs. light and cake-y, but it was MOIST! Moist moist moist moist moist (since I know how much people like that word 🙂 ). Do you think it actually rose too much and then fell because of the lemon juice-baking soda reaction? Or do you think using all maple syrup weighed it down? I figured that if you used stevia instead of sugar then the wet-to-dry ratio wasn’t a major issue. I also only baked it for 20 minutes in a toaster oven but when I pulled it out when I started being able to smell it so it wouldn’t get too dry, so maybe cooking a few minutes longer would give it more time to rise?
Sorry, I know you aren’t a chemist, but wondered if you had any tips or had heard of anything from other readers! Thank you!
Yeah, I really have no idea about the chemistry behind recipes! Sorry I can’t be more helpful!
P.S. I love the word “moist”! Dunno what’s wrong with people ;).
I would love love to make this right now except I don’t have applesauce in my kitchen. Does anyone know what I can use to replace the applesauce?
Oh I don’t mind if the substitute makes the cake unhealthy. Just as long I I get to make this cake I’m happy! 🙂
Pumpkin puree? Oil? Mahsed banana? 🙂
Lol I grew up with the same wonderful / awful 90s groups as you, Katie. We had a school band trip to London between Christmas and New Year’s in Dec. 1996 (I think) and heard the Spice Girls there for the first time, and it seemed like they followed us home because suddenly they were popular in the US, too!
Just made this cake tonight and had it with your 4 ingredient vanilla ice cream for dinner (it’s been one of those days, haha). I ended up splitting it to 2 mini springform pans because I didn’t think there would be enough room to rise in one, but it worked out well and now I have the other half for tomorrow! I’m going to try that when I get the ingredients for your carrot cake — no need to cut to make the two layers! 🙂
Oops – realized after posting that the carrot cake recipe is done in the microwave, not the oven! I still like the idea of a layered, frosted spice cake, though. (c:
Can all your cakes, muffins, and cupcakes be baked in the microwave cuz there’s no eggs? That would make my life so much simpler.
I want to try this cake JUST because of the name! Spice Girls fan forever!
If you added in chopped apples and did half apple sauce half oil would it work okay to do more of an apple spice cake?
Want to try with your cream cheese frosting.
I doubled this recipe and made cupcakes for Thanksgiving. The cake turned out SOOOO good even my father (a hunting meat eater) loved them. And went back for more after I told him they were VEGAN and healthy. 🙂 I tried a different icing I found on your site… the pumpkin and coconut milk one. It turned out UBER runny…. So I had a pumpkin glaze on top. 🙂 It was a hit!
Thank you so much for making them!
For the frosting, it just sounds like you got a can of coconut milk with not enough fat in it… try coconut cream if you can find it :).
This cake was so good! Great job, and thanks for the recipe! My husband loved it. I made a variation today to make it a chocolate cake, and it turned out great. I used whole wheat pastry flour, and subbed the 3 spices for 2 Tbsp. cocoa powder (1 dutched, 1 natural). Give it a shot! Great base recipe, very excited to keep trying variations!
Great recipe! I made it into 18 mini cupcakes, since I didn’t have a small cake pan. My family loved them!