A couple of weeks ago, I posted a photo tour through the magical, mysterious souqs of Syria and Egypt. One of the most captivating areas for me in every souq was the spice area. Some vendors have their spices in big bins, and others get more creative with their spices, building beautiful pyramids of fragrant powdered spices.

This pyramid, from a souq in Aleppo (Al-Halab), is Syrian Seven Spice.

A Middle Eastern spice blend like this is commonly called baharat, which just means “spice” in Arabic. The problem is that like a masala, a curry, or other category of spice blends, each and every home cook and spice vendor has their own way of putting spices together to make the blend the way they like it. So saying exactly what’s in this spice and how much of each ingredient is impossible to do. A Syrian baharat may include cinnamon, allspice, cloves, cardamom, black pepper, white pepper, coriander, nutmeg, and more.

Aleppo is a fascinating and beautiful ancient city in the north of Syria with a rich culinary history. Aleppo’s souq is one of the oldest in the world, over 3,000 years of commerce in the same spot. Aleppan (Halabian) dishes are known throughout the Middle East for their refinement and uniqueness. One of their secrets is their Seven Spice blends, which they use in all kinds of dishes.

For example, kebab karaz is a well-known Aleppan dish of ground lamb meatballs in a spiced sour cherry sauce. (You can see a little Seven Spice sprinkled on top there!)

Sujok is a delicious appetizer that’s like a pinwheel of fried dough, cheese, and sausage (that I’d kill for right about now).

In my San Francisco kitchen, I find my Seven Spice is perfectly suited to toe the line between sweet and savory. It sings in pumpkin pie and gingersnaps and soars on pork tenderloin or sweet potatoes. In this cake, I used Seven Spice in both the cake and the icing. Although it’s a spice cake, a bit of dark cocoa powder punches up the depth, and browned butter–well, that makes everything better, even icing. I got that technique tip, and the bones of this recipe, from Sunset magazine. The cake is moist, flavorful, surprising, and quickly becoming a favorite.

Of course, I realize not everyone can get their hands on Seven Spice from Syria, and in fact my research on finding a reasonable recipe or source for it has all been unsuccessful. This recipe calls for a total of 4 teaspoons of Seven Spice. Try combining the following to make 1 tablespoon to use in the recipe: 1 tsp ground allspice, and 1/2 tsp each  cinnamon, ground coriander, ground cardamom, finely ground black pepper,  nutmeg, and ground cloves. If you don’t have all of those things in your spice rack, tweak the ratios to your personal preference.

Seven Spice Cake with Browned Butter Frosting

makes one 9 inch square or round cake

Ingredients:

for the cake:

• 1/2 cup soft butter
• 1 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• zest of 1 large orange
• 1 1/3 cups flour
• 2 Tblsp cocoa powder
• 2 tsp Seven Spice
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 cup lowfat buttermilk
• large pinch salt

for the icing:

• 10 Tblsp butter
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 tsp Seven Spice
• 2 Tblsp half and half
• juice of 1 large orange
• 3-4 cups powdered sugar

Method:

• In a saucepan over low heat, melt the 10 Tblsp butter needed for the icing. Cook butter, swirling pan, until foam has subsided and butter is nut brown and smelling nutty. Pour melted butter into a mixer bowl and put into the fridge to harden while you make the cake.
• Preheat the oven to 350 and spray a 9 inch square or round pan with nonstick spray.
• In a mixer with a paddle attachment, combine the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition to mix in. Add zest and beat to combine.
• In a separate bowl, combine flour, cocoa, spices, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add half the flour mixture to the butter and mix at low speed just to combine. Add half the buttermilk and mix again. Repeat with remaining dry ingredients and buttermilk.
• Pour batter into pan and spread to even out. Bake about 20-30 minutes, until a knife in the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes. Loosen around edges with a knife, then invert on to a rack to continue cooling.
• When you’re ready to frost the cake, remove the butter bowl from the fridge. Add honey, spices, half and half, and orange juice and beat with the butter until smooth.
• Add about 2 cups of powdered sugar and beat on low to combine at first, then move to a higher speed to get some air in it. Add powdered sugar gradually until icing is spreadable and holds its shape.
• Ice cake with a knife or spatula. You can store this in the fridge for up to 24 hours, but bring it back to room temperature before serving.

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This recipe combines two delicious things: wine and cake! This cake is moist and flavorful, with a tender crumb and rich flavor- thanks in part to the “secret” ingredient: red wine in both the cake batter and the glaze.

Red Wine Coffee Cake
Makes 1 bundt cake

Ingredients:
•    1/2 cup butter, melted
•    3/4 cup sugar
•    1/2 cup brown sugar, loosely packed
•    2 eggs
•    1 teaspoon cinnamon
•    1 teaspoon allspice
•    1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
•    2 1/4 cups flour
•    large pinch of salt
•    3/4 cup red wine

Method:
•    Preheat oven to 350. Grease a bundt or tube pan liberally with spray, butter, or vegetable oil.
•    Using a mixer, combine melted butter and sugars and mix until well blended.
•    Add eggs and beat for about 3-5 minutes, until mixture is fluffy.
•    Combine orange zest, cinnamon, allspice, baking powder, flour, and salt in a bowl. Add about 1/3 of the dry ingredients and 1/3 of the wine and mix gently. Repeat twice until all ingredients are added and thoroughly mixed together.
•    Spoon the batter into prepared pan and spread to even out. Bake for 30-40 minutes. Cake is done when a toothpick in the center comes out clean.
•    Let cool in the pan for about 15 minutes. Flip onto baking rack and let cool to room temperature.

For the glaze:
Combine 1/2 cup red wine and 2 cups sifted powdered sugar in a small saucepan with a whisk over medium heat. Bring to a boil then turn off the heat and continue whisking until there are no lumps. Let cool 15 minutes then pour or spoon over the cake.

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Divine! Although I did dump it out and realize it wasn’t done yet, so I had to re-upside-down it, cook it some more, then re-un-upside-down it. It worked surprisingly well in the end although there was a period of severe swearing that involved liquid hot caramel magma all over the kitchen and my pants, but the cake looked good after all that so no big deal in the end.

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So the deal is that you make a caramel sauce, put it in a pan, put fruit in the pan, cake batter on top, and then when it’s hot from the oven you have to flip it over right away or else the caramel part hardens and you can’t flip it out. One time I made two of these- one in a square pan with mangoes, and one in a round pan with bananas. I flipped the banana one out OK, but the square pan made it really hard to flip. I solicited my big sister’s help and before you knew it, there were sticky mangoes and cake on the floor and I was trying to pin the blame all on my sister despite her loud protestations. But it was TOTALLY her fault.

Caramel-y Banana Upside Down Cake

Ingredients:

• 3 bananas, cut in slices (I like them sliced lengthwise for the look of it, but you can slice them however you like)
• about 3/4 cup sugar (more if you want more caramel action)
• 1/2 cup (1 cube) butter
• 1 tsp vanilla or a splash of bourbon
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp powdered ginger or 1 tsp fresh grated ginger
• 1 tsp allspice
• big pinch salt
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup milk

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 375.
• Arrange cut fruit in the bottom of a pie plate.
• Combine 3/4 cup (or more) sugar with equal parts water in a pan. Put over high heat and wait until the sugar turns amber colored. When it does, turn off heat and add 3 Tablespoons of the butter and the vanilla (or bourbon) and swirl the pan to melt and combine. Immediately pour the mixture over the fruit.
• In a mixer, combine the flour, 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder, spices, and salt (If you like more spice, feel free to double the spice amounts.)
• Cut up the remaining 5 tablespoons butter into small pieces and carefully mix into the dry ingredients, on low speed. Don’t get the butter all incorporated or the cake will be chewy, not tender. Leave the butter in smallish pieces (around the size of peas.)
• Stop the mixer and put the egg and milk in. Mix just until incorporated, still being careful about keeping the butter in discernible pieces.
• Spread the dough over the fruit/caramel action. Cook for about 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.
• When it comes out, flip it over within about 5 minutes or it will stick. It should come out super easily. Put a plate on top of the pan, grip it with potholders and flip it quickly.
• Don’t ask your sister to help you or it might fall on the floor.

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I know the icing isn’t perfect here- that’s the beauty of making something for a person who is only 5. Perfection is not what they’re after. They are after copious amounts of frosting and candy on a cake that’s shaped like something other than a cake, which makes them pretty easy to please. I think the biggest compliment came when, after admiring the cake for several minutes, my nephew turned to my Dad and with saucer eyes and his jaw hanging open, and said- “GRAMPA- do you realize this CAR is EATABLE?!?!?”

Eatable indeed! I made this somewhat nasty hot pink strawberry cake in a 9×13 pan and then cut a third of it off, lengthwise. Then I cut the long skinny piece I had in half perpendicular. Like this:

I flipped the 2 pieces 90 degrees and set them next to each other on top of the remaining large cake and stuck them on with frosting. They were kind of slope-y which actually made it look more like a car. I wanted really sturdy, fluffy frosting for this, so I used a fluffy meringue frosting (my mom made it so I’m not sure how- something about like this) and tinted it blue to attach the cake pieces and cover the whole thing in gobs and gobs of icing. I made a little bit of white royal icing for the windows, doors, and writing. Tic-tacs for lights and blinkers, oreos for wheels, sour belts for racing stripes and windshield wipers, some weird white tootsie rolls for the bumpers, and voila! A car that any 5-year-old would love.

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Apple Upside Down Cake

Ingredients:

• 3 apples, peeled, cored, and sliced
• 2 T soft butter
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• big pinch of cinnamon
• 1 c flour
• 2/3 c sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 cup shortening
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup milk (I actually didn’t have enough milk, so I used a little milk and the rest plain yogurt, with no discernible difference.)

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
• Spread butter into bottom and sides of a pie plate. Sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon.
• Layer the sliced apples in the pan. You can lay the apples in the pan all pretty and layered so that when you flip it out it looks professional, OR you can just throw them in which is a lot quicker.
• Put all of the rest of the ingredients in a bowl, and mix them in an electric mixer for about 2 minutes.
• Pour batter over apples and bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes.
• Remove from oven and cool for 5 minutes. Run a knife around the side of the plate, and carefully dump over onto the serving plate.
• Serve hot or at room temp with ice cream or whipped cream.

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I made it as a dessert, which was OK, but I think it would be an absolute knock-out for brunch. Next time I’m going to cover the entire top with berries. I used big smooshy blackberries and wished I had one in every bite!

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