is a wonderful book. Buy it now.
The design is outstanding, the instructions and additions clear, and I tabbed half of the recipes the first few days I had it. Oh, and it just happens to contain the formula for one of my absolute favorite cakes: the Brown Sugar Lightening Cake.
It's a simple, easy-to-prepare cake that tastes lovely plain or with a light snow of powdered sugar. But what is so miraculous about this recipe is, as the book title suggests, how you can improvise it.
For this past Cake Thursday, I wanted something with coconut. Initially, I was going to make a different cake, one that I've had on my mind for two years. I bought all of the ingredients, separated the eggs, mixed and baked the cake.
It came out of the oven chewy and scary-sweet and I gave it to the garbage can. Classic.
So there I was Wednesday night, 8 pm, craving coconut and needing to bake something for CT, when I remembered that glorious, simple cake Sally Schneider gave to the world.
And so I improvised and made a Brown Sugar Lightening Cake with Whipped Cream Frosting and Toasted Coconut.
The basic recipe is here.
As I did not have any buttermilk or yogurt on hand, I used whole milk and sour cream. I also substituted almond extract for the bourbon.
After the cake had cooled, I split it in half, smeared a generous amount of whipped cream between the layers, and covered the whole cake in more whipped cream and a delicate crust of toasted (unsweetened cause that's how I like it) coconut.
It was utterly delightful, not terribly sweet and incredibly fragrant. I was a little worried that the almond extract would overwhelm as I did a straight substitution (1 tsp.), mixed it in, and then remembered how potent that extract can be.
Thankfully, no harm done.
The basic recipe is one to memorize, share, and bake. Often.
Yes, it is that good.
P.S. I once tried the recipe with buttermilk and orange flower water and after the first bite swooned like a damsel in need of a fainting couch.
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