Baked Sunday Mornings: Sunday Night Cake

I was feeling a little emotional about making this week's Baked Sunday Mornings recipe, the Sunday Night Cake. It's just that this was the final cake recipe I had yet to try from Baked Explorations, and I guess it's finally sinking in that I'm almost done baking my way through every single recipe in the cookbook (I've never missed a week of Baked Sunday Mornings, and after this week, there are only six recipes from Baked Explorations that I haven't tried yet). The cookbook says the cake is derived from an Edna Lewis recipe and describes it as a gently spiced sour cream cake with a puddinglike chocolate frosting. It sounded terrific.

The Sunday Night Cake is a sheet cake, so it requires less fuss than many of the other cakes from Baked. For the cake portion, you beat butter, sugar, and brown sugar until fluffy, add in eggs one at a time, and alternately add in the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon) and sour cream. You pour the batter into a pan, bake, and cool.

For the frosting, you make what is essentially a chocolate pudding on the stove from sugar, cornstarch, cocoa, unsweetened chocolate, and boiling water. You cook the pudding until it's thickened, and then transfer it to the bowl of a mixer and beat it until cool.  Then you add softened butter and beat until the frosting is light and puddinglike. I know that the frosting is supposed to be runny, because the recipe instructs you to let the frosting drip down the sides of the cake. But I was going to serve this cake at an office party, and I needed to cut it into slices and transport it neatly to work on the subway. So I beat the frosting until it was a bit fluffier and also chilled it until it was firmer before spreading it onto the cake. I kept the cake in the refrigerator overnight and the frosting held its shape just fine.

I did not like this cake at all. The cake portion was alone was okay. It was dense and slightly dry, and because of the sour cream and the strong flavor of cinnamon, it reminded me of coffeecake. The frosting portion alone was also okay. It was quite chocolate-y and borderline bitter. In fact, when I made it and tasted it, I checked several times to make sure that the recipe really called for unsweetened chocolate, because it did not seem sweet enough. While either the cake or the frosting alone would have been fine, I did not like them together in the slightest. If you imagine a sour cream coffeecake with cinnamon, would you ever think of putting chocolate frosting on it? Well neither would I, and that is basically what this cake is.

Several people at the party told me that they enjoyed this cake and I'm going to take them at their word. But I would definitely not make this cake again, and Tom opined that it is one of the worst recipes I have ever made from Baked. Thankfully, there are so many other wonderful cakes from the guys at Baked that I'm not going to miss this one at all.

Recipe: "Sunday Night Cake" from Baked Explorations: Classic American Desserts Reinvented, by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito. Recipe available here at Baked Sunday Mornings.

Comments

Louise said…
It sounds like this time the BAKED guys went astray. In Richard Sax's "Classic Home Desserts", there's a recipe for Edna Lewis' Sunday Night Cake, and it's described as a plain yellow cake with burnt sugar icing.
Anonymous said…
Wow! Your cake looks lovely, actually - and I feel like you captured that thinner, puddinglike frosting that alluded me (mine was thick like a typical frosting). I'm sorry you didn't like the flavor combo... I thought it was wonderful! I totally get that you can't love them all though... I thought the past few weeks were lousy (I won't be making the banana fitters or lemon pistachio muffins again any time soon!).
Susan said…
Sorry this wasn't a hit for you. I was just remembering some of the really complicated desserts that we used to make, too. It's been a while since we've done one.
Rebecca said…
Sorry you didn't like this. I actually really enjoyed it. Perhaps it is because I used bittersweet chocolate in the frosting. I didn't realize, until I read your post, that I had misread the recipe.
Unknown said…
Sorry to hear you didn't care for this one. Your picture certainly looks like the cake is delicious! Mine didn't come out quite as dense, probably because I substituted buttermilk for the sour cream. It came out light and fluffy and really delish. I passed on the frosting.
Your cake looks great. Sorry you didn't like it. We whipped our frosting longer, so it would be fluffy and it worked well.
Kris' Kitchen said…
I agree that this cake is dry and needs a cup of something...you are right, it is like a coffee cake. It looks like you did a great job on the baking and on the frosting...your photo is lovely, however I agree on your cake assessment.

I do like the frosting. I did not use unsweetened chocolate, however. So, I suppose I'm happy I have a new type of frosting that my family enjoys, but it would have been nice to say we also loved the cake.
Sheri said…
Your cake is so pretty, but yeah, I wasn't too crazy about it either!

I'm a little sad about finishing Explorations too! I think you and I might be the only two that have never missed a week? I love our group!
Anonymous said…
I agree with you on the frosting, it really would be better with a sweetened chocolate! I loved how easy it was to make though, and thought the texture of it was great. I wasn't super crazy about this recipe either, but thought it was ok overall. Probably wouldn't make it again unless I really modified it.
Chelly said…
The combination is a little bit strange but I really enjoyed it! Sorry that you didn't. Your cake sure does look great!!!