Dorie's Recipes from "Dorie's Anytime Cakes"
1 1/2 cups (204 grams) all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/2 cup (100 grams) sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1/2 cup (120 ml) honey (see below)
1/4 cup (60 ml) neutral oil
1/4 cup (60 ml) strong black coffee, at room temperature, or flat cola (see below)
About 1/3 cup (33 grams) sliced almonds
A word on the honey: The honey you use is up for grabs; just know that even a mild honey will give you great flavor.
A word on the coffee: You can use either brewed coffee or make the coffee with instant. Ellen told me that the cake is often made with flat cola (I can’t imagine what my grandmother would have to say about this), but not any cola — according to Ellen, it has to be Coke.
Center a rack in the oven and preheat it to 325 degrees F. Butter or spray an 8 1/2 - inch loaf pan and run a piece of parchment paper across the bottom and up the long sides, leaving enough of an overhang to use as lifters when the cake is baked; give the paper a swipe of butter or a spritz of spray.
Whisk together the flour, baking powder, allspice, cinnamon, baking soda and salt.
Working in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, beat the sugar, eggs and honey together on medium speed until well blended, about 2 minutes, scraping as needed. With the mixer on medium-low speed, drizzle the oil down the side.of the bowl and beat until incorporated. Do the same with the coffee (or cola). Turn off the mixer, scrape the bowl and beater(s) and add the dry ingredients. Pulse the mixer on and off to get the blending started, then work on low speed, beating only until everything is worked in and the batter is homogeneous. Pour the batter into the pan, level the top if needed and scatter over the sliced almonds — I like a single(ish) layer of almonds paving the top of the cake.
Bake for 48 to 53 minutes, or until the cake feels springy to the touch and pulls away a bit from the sides when lightly tugged; a tester inserted into the center of the cake will come out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and let the cake rest for 15 minutes, then run a table knife around the edges of the cake, lift it out of the pan and peel away the paper. Allow it to cool to room temperature on the rack.
This cake is good as soon as it’s cooled, but it’s even better after a day. If you can wait, wrap the cake, set it aside overnight and then treat yourself to a slice. Lovely on its own, it’s also nice with butter and honey, jam or even a soft cheese like mild cream cheese or a more flavorful chevre. And of course it’s nice toasted — but wait until it’s a bit stale to do that.
Storing: Wrapped well, the cake will keep at room temperature for about 5 days — it makes great toast after that. It can be wrapped airtight and frozen for up to 1 month; thaw in the wrapper.
Simplest, Plainest, Most Old- Fashioned—and Best-Tasting—Marble Cake
1/3 cup (28 grams) unsweetened cocoa powder, preferably Dutch-processed
1 1/2 cups (300 grams) sugar
2 ounces (28 grams) semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
2 cups (278 grams) all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
16 tablespoons (8 ounces; 226 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
4 large eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup (120 grams) full- fat sour cream, at room temperature
* A word on marbling: Have fun! I like to use a cookie scoop to alternate and layer mounds of chocolate and vanilla batter. But you can be more random or more precise. The only caveat is that when you dip your knife into the batter to swirl it, don’t multi-swirl— one or two passes will do the trick. Too much swirling, and the flavors and colors will be over blended and you’ll have defeated the work you did to make a cake with two distinctive flavors and an equally distinctive look.
Center a rack in the oven and preheat it to 325 degrees F. Coat the inside of a 10-cup Bundt pan with baker’s spray or butter it, dust it with flour and tap out the excess.
Bring the water to a boil in a small saucepan. Turn off the heat but keep the pan on the hot burner. Whisk the cocoa powder into the water, followed by 1/4 cup of the sugar. When the mixture is smooth, drop in the chocolate and stir until it melts. You can either move the pan to a trivet or a cool burner or scrape the mixture into a medium bowl and set aside.
Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.
Working in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, beat the butter and the remaining 1 1/4 cups sugar together on medium speed for about 3 minutes, scraping the bowl and beater(s) often. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each one goes in and scraping regularly. The mixture may seem on the verge of curdling—don’t be discouraged. Beat in the vanilla and then the sour cream. By now the mixture might be in full curdle, which is ugly but not fatal. Working on low speed, add half the dry ingredients, and when they’re almost incorporated, add the rest, mixing to blend and scraping as needed. The batter will have regained its smoothness.
Scrape about one-third of the batter into the pan or bowl of chocolate and use a spatula to thoroughly blend the two mixtures together.
It’s marbling moment! And the moment to decide if you’d like to simply make a layer of white batter topped by a layer of chocolate batter or use a cookie scoop or a soupspoon to transfer the batters to the pan before you marble them. If you’re going to scoop—it’s what I do—I think it’s nice if you alternate mounds of chocolate and white batters. Depending on the shape and depth of your pan, you’ll have enough batter for two or three layers of scoops. However you got the two batters into the pan, grab a table knife or a skewer, dip it almost to the bottom of the pan and draw it through the batter, making a full circle. You can swirl the batters again, if you’d like, but two times around is really the max—the sparer the swirling, the more striking the marble pattern will be.
Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, or until the cake has risen, is golden and pulls away from the sides of the pan when gently tugged; a tester inserted into the center of the cake will come out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and let it rest for 5 to 10 minutes, then unmold it onto the rack and allow the cake to cool to room temperature.
Storing: Wrapped well, the cake will keep for about 4 days at room temperature. It will get a little dry, but it will still be delightful. You can freeze the cake for a month; thaw in the wrapper.
Caramel-Nut Chocolate Upside Down Cake
½ cup (100 grams) brown sugar
3 tablespoons (11/2 ounces; 42 grams) unsalted butter
¼ cup (60 ml) heavy cream
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
About 1 ½ cups (6 ounces; 170 grams) pecans or walnuts, coarsely chopped, at room temperature
12 tablespoons (6 ounces; 170 grams) unsalted butter, cut into chunks
6 ounces (170 grams) semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
¾ cup (102 grams) all purpose flour
1 teaspoon instant espresso powder
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
2/3 cup (134 grams) sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
Center a rack in the oven and preheat it to 325 degrees F. Coat the inside of an 8-x-8-inch baking pan, one with at least 2-inch- high sides, with baker’s spray (it’s better than butter and fl our for this cake) and then line the bottom and sides of the pan with two pieces of parchment, crisscrossing them so that all four sides are covered with paper; spray the parchment.
To make the nut layer: Put the sugar and butter in a saucepan over medium heat and cook, stirring, until the sugar dissolves, the butter melts and the mixture boils. Cook, stirring, for a minute or two, then add the cream, salt and cinnamon, bring back to a boil and cook and stir for another 2 minutes. Add the nuts and stir until they are coated with the caramel.
Turn the mixture out into the baking pan and use a flexible spatula to spread it into the corners and to even the layer. Set aside.
To make the cake: Put the butter and chocolate in a small saucepan and set it over very low heat. You want to melt the butter and chocolate slowly so that they blend beautifully and don’t get so hot that they separate. (If your stovetop doesn’t have a very low setting, melt the butter and chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of gently simmering water—the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water—or do this in a microwave.)
Whisk the flour, espresso powder, baking powder, salt and cinnamon together.
Put the sugar in a large bowl, drop in the eggs and immediately start whisking, then continue to whisk energetically for a couple of minutes. Pour in the melted chocolate-butter—it might still be a little warm, and that’s fine—and whisk to incorporate completely. Add the dry ingredients and, continuing with the whisk or trading it for a flexible spatula, mix them in until there’s no trace of flour. Scrape the batter into the pan and smooth the top.
Bake for 34 to 37 minutes, or until the top looks dry, the cake starts to pull away from the sides of the pan and, most important, a tester poked into the center of the cake comes out clean or with a few dry crumbs. Transfer the pan to a rack and let it sit for 10 minutes.
Very carefully—the caramel will be super hot—turn the cake out onto another rack and peel away the parchment. If a few nuts and some caramel have stuck to the paper, use a table knife to scrape them off and onto the cake. Let the cake cool to room temperature. It’s tempting to eat the cake when it’s only just warm—and I wouldn’t stop you—but the texture of both the nuts and the cake is better after a few hours. In fact, I think this cake really comes into its own the next day.
Storing: You can’t freeze this cake, but it keeps surprisingly well at room temperature. Wrap it well, and it will be good for about 4 days.
Recipes from Dorie’s Anytime Cakes by Dorie Greenspan. Copyright 2025 by Dorie Greenspan
Used with permission by Harvest, an imprint of HarperCollins. All rights reserved. Illustrations by Nancy Pappas