Ayelet’s Maple Syrup Cake

So, I’m delighted to say that our youngest son, Netanel, has become engaged to be married. We are thrilled with his choice, although we never doubted him, and have started taking turns with her parents in hosting him and his fiancee Ayelet, only fair.

As her future MIL, I’m doing my best to start off on the right foot and part of that is cooking foods that she likes. So I have a list which I got from both of them of things she likes and then I asked, what cake is her favorite? One was banana cake, something Netanel eschews and I personally do as well, so he said, give me another option. She chose Oogat Mayple, or Maple cake.

I’ll be honest, I’ve never made such a cake in my life but said, hey! we go with the flow and got right on it. I figured I’d expand my repertoire and make her happy at the same time. What could be bad? So I researched this in cookbooks and the internet and (not surprisingly) found a bunch of Canadian recipes (Vermont, where are you?) and finally found one that is a fairly basic pound like cake which uses maple syrup as its primary liquid, on the Food Network by Gesine Bullock-Prado * which I changed up a bit.

Eureka, I said and set to work.

First you cream the butter/marg and sugar till light and fluffy, almost white in color.

Then add the eggs, one at a time till each one is separately incorporated. It’s important to do it this way since otherwise you are “flooding” the creamed mixture, it won’t incorporate properly and you’ll get pockets of fat in your cake which is nasty and it won’t turn out well.

Make sure to scrape the sides and all over bowl so that it doesn’t leave clumps behind and then beat those eggs in one at a time, really. Till it looks like this:

See how the color goes from white to light yellow. That’s what it should do and still be fluffy. And then scrape, scrape, scrape down with spatula or a dough scraper. Add the maple syrup and beat. Then mix together the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and add half to the mixture, beat briefly. Add the milk or soy milk and beat then second half of flour and beat just till incorporated but no more or you will toughen the cake. You should have a silky texture and it should pile beautifully into your sprayed and floured pan. I’ve discovered the oil/flour spray – Baker’s Choice for cakes and it’s awesome and releases the cake even from bundt pans like a charm. I bought a batch of them to take home with me to Israel and am a happy girl using them.

This is how the batter should look when completed. Fluffy and high piling. Then put the cake in your preheated oven for about 50 minutes to an hour on 350 and check to see if done with a toothpick (where we would be without them) that it’s just got a few crumbs clinging to it but not wet.

Let cool on rack and turn out carefully, first gently prying at the sides and center to make sure it really didn’t stick and will unmold nicely. Then delight your daughter in law or family or guest or anyone really. It’s a great cake. The big joke is, after she had a slice and said how yummy it was, I asked if this was the Oogat Maple she meant. She giggled sheepishly and said no! but she liked it anyway and we all had a good laugh. 🙂

Ayelet’s Maple Syrup Cake

1 cup (225 grams) butter or margarine, leave it out till softened a couple of hours should do it

1 cup white sugar

4 large eggs

3/4 cup maple syrup

2 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

a pinch of salt

1/2 cup of milk or soy milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat together the butter/marg with the sugar in mixing bowl till almost white and nice and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl till fully incorporated and no chunks are left unbeaten. This can take about 5 minutes or so.

Incorporate the eggs, one at a time, beating thoroughly till fully incorporated into the mixture. Scrape down the bowl to make sure you get all the bits. Add the maple syrup and beat again.

Mix together the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and shake half into batter and beat briefly. Add milk or soy milk with vanilla and beat and add last half of dry ingredients and beat just till mixed.

Spray and flour a bundt pan and gently pile the batter into the cake pan. Put in hot oven and bake 50 minutes to an hour, check to make sure it’s done (yes, you can peek after 45-50 minutes) with toothpick to make sure it’s fully baked. Let cook on wire rack, when cold, gently detach with blunt knife from sides and middle to make sure it really didn’t stick and unmold onto a lovely platter. Serve to daughters in law or any other beloved guests.

*https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/maple-bundt-5244135