I first ate syrup cake in the deep, piney woods of East Texas with a boy I once dated. We were visiting his grandma. She served squirrel stew with biscuits and syrup cake. I don’t eat squirrel now and I didn’t then, but I got that recipe for syrup cake. I later found out the simple cake is a Cajun country favorite, typically made with cane syrup. It seems that almost everyone in Louisiana swears by Steen’s brand. If you can’t find cane syrup, substitute molasses, maple syrup, or Lyle’s Golden Syrup.

　　

Ingredients

serves 10 to 12

　　3/4 cup vegetable oil

　　1 cup sugar

　　3/4 cup cane syrup, plus more (optional) for drizzling

　　3/4 cup buttermilk

　　2 large eggs

　　2 cups all-purpose flour

　　1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg

　　1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

　　2 teaspoons baking soda

　　1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

　　Powdered sugar, for garnish

　　

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease an 8 by 8-inch pan with butter or cooking spray. In a large bowl, whisk together the oil, sugar, 3/4 cup syrup, buttermilk, and eggs. In another bowl, mix the flour, nutmeg, ginger, baking soda, and salt in another bowl. Stir the dry ingredients into the oil and sugar mixture. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve it straight out of the pan you baked it in. Provide extra syrup for guests to drizzle over the cake, if desired.

　　

do it early

Step 2

The cake can be made up to 24 hours in advance and kept at room temperature or it can be wrapped and frozen for up to 3 weeks.

　　Pastry Queen Parties by Rebecca Rather and Alison Oresman. Copyright © 2009 Rebecca Rather and Alison Oresman. Published by Ten Speed Press. All Rights Reserved.A pastry chef, restaurateur, and cookbook author, native Texan Rebecca Rather has been proprietor of the Rather Sweet Bakery and Café since 1999. Open for breakfast and lunch daily, Rather Sweet has a fiercely loyal cadre of regulars who populate the café’s sunlit tables each day. In 2007, Rebecca opened her eponymous restaurant, serving dinner nightly, just a few blocks from the café.  Rebecca is the author of THE PASTRY QUEEN, and has been featured in Texas Monthly, Gourmet, Ladies Home Journal, Food & Wine, Southern Living, Chocolatier, Saveur, and O, The Oprah Magazine. When she isn’t in the bakery or on horseback, Rebecca enjoys the sweet life in Fredericksburg, where she tends to her beloved backyard garden and menagerie, and eagerly awaits visits from her college-age daughter, Frances.Alison Oresman has worked as a journalist for more than twenty years. She has written and edited for newspapers in Wyoming, Florida, and Washington State. As an entertainment editor for the Miami Herald, she oversaw the paper’s restaurant coverage and wrote a weekly column as a restaurant critic. After settling in Washington State, she also covered restaurants in the greater Seattle area as a critic with a weekly column. A dedicated home baker, Alison is often in the kitchen when she isn't writing. Alison lives in Bellevue, Washington, with her husband, Warren, and their children, Danny and Callie.