You Should Bake a Cake (or Two!) This Weekend

Five delicious reasons to turn baking into a weekend-long project.

I don’t know about you, but whenever I get bored on the weekend my mind always goes towards baking—and I’m not even much of a home cook. And though my plans don’t always come to fruition, my cake cravings are never-ending. So yes, this post is for you, but it’s also some motivation for me to whip something up in the kitchen this weekend—a tried and true test because I actually did make risotto after rounding up these recipes last Friday. (Bonus: All of the cakes listed below have some sort of fruit or vegetable in them—basically that means they’re kind of healthy, right?)

1. Grapefruit, Mezcal and Burnt Honey Cake

“Smokey” isn’t normally how you’d describe a dessert, but one bite of this burnt honey cake, topped with mezcal-caramel-soaked grapefruit will have you singing a different tune.

2. Parsnip Cake

“For me, the carrot cake has now reached a level of banality where I would rather saw off an appendage than submit to a piece,” says Australian chef Mark Best. “It was from this dark emotional place that the parsnip cake had its inception.” Topped with a simple lemon icing, it’s sweet, nutty and delicate—the perfect accompaniment for afternoon tea.

3. Tomato Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Tomato soup cake (or “mystery cake”) was popular in the 1930s, when tinned soup was still a novelty. As it turns out, those early adopters were on to something; tomatoes paired with warm spices, raisins and walnuts make a delicious snacking cake, particularly when slathered with cream cheese frosting.

4. Banana Cake with Caramel Buttercream and Dark Chocolate Glaze

This cake is decadent, and though the caramel buttercream and dark chocolate glaze (that’s right—there are two toppings) may sound intimidating, Wendy Boys’s recipe is super easy to follow.

5. Strawberry Soufflé

The best thing about Dale MacKay’s fruit-filled soufflé? It’s a one-serving-only kind of dessert, so you can’t be tempted to take an extra slice—but really, we wouldn’t judge if you were to put a few extra ramekins in the oven.

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