Grown-Up Birthday Cake

Author Notes

I had already started to make my mom's go-to birthday cake—a yellow cake made with white wine that she cribbed from the Chicago Tribune eons ago—when I realized I didn't have the 1 cup of vegetable oil the recipe called for. So, hello olive oil substitute! I did worry that it would overwhelm the delicate taste, but it actually turned out beautifully—richer than the veg oil version and very moist. —Midge

Test Kitchen Notes

"We've wanted to award this beauty a Wildcard win for some time but Jenny beat us to it. Olive oil and wine make the cake fruity and complex (do use good ones, as you will taste all of their delicious nuances); the jam layer swings in with a little flash and tartness; and the thin coat of creamy chocolate icing seals the deal. It's altogether very grown-up, but with all the pleasure of a sweet, spongy cake. Tips: Line your cake pans with parchment circles to make sure the layers turn out without a hitch. And if you run into any trouble with lumps in the frosting, just whisk like mad till it smooths out." –A&M

"For weeks, I have been eyeing Midge's Grown-Up Birthday Cake, trying to come up with an excuse to make it. There were no birthdays in my house, and the holidays were so full of cookies, toffee, and brittle that I didn’t see where it would fit in. I couldn’t even justify it for this blog, as suggesting cake-making on a weeknight seemed a stretch.

So I clicked. I longed. I moved on.

But then, things began happening all around me. First, MrsWheelbarrow randomly stopped by with some delicious homemade raspberry jam. Then my friend Daniel generously sent me a bottle of McEvoy Ranch olive oil, which is the elixir of the gods. Next, my mother-in-law finally gave me her mother’s Foley sifter, which I have been eyeing for the better part of a decade, because it is 100 times better than modern sifters with their sticky, mercurial and ultimately maddening arms.

In short, the universe seemed to be telling me: make grown-up birthday cake right this second!

Of course, this is the same universe that told me I should take advice about a $200 pair of jeans from a 19-year-old sales girl at Fred Segal, even though my behind was giving me quite a different narrative, the same universe that told me that it would be a good idea to tell the incipient pescatarian and bacon girl if they did not stop bickering in the back seat of the car, “I will take you with me to the Virginia quilt museum!” I mean, good people don’t demonize quilts.

But anyway, I could no longer resist, and so this cake came to being in my kitchen recently, with all those aforementioned ingredients and a fairly nice bottle of white wine and four eggs. Olive oil! White wine! No butter! I giggled madly as I mixed it all up, and when I tasted the batter I was quite excited, barely able to wait for it to finish baking.

I think you should treat this cake like a savory dish, because you truly taste every ingredient, and the jam does a fruit dance with the wine and olive oil, which you will want to be something closer to a waltz than a two step, if that makes sense. The chocolate icing pulls it all together: chocolate + fruit + depth – cloying sweetness = delicious adult dessert that children will actually find divine, as well.

Here were my two bads: I had a hard time turning my layers out, even though I gave the pans a nice greasing, which may have to do with the fact that my nine-inchers are not as high quality as I would like; I might use buttered parchment next time just to make life easier. Also, I under-mixed the frosting–perhaps in my almost unhealthy haste to get this confection into my pie hole–so it was not as smooth looking as that in lovely photo posted by Midge. So don’t do that. (Amanda noted that when they made the cake for the photo, the food52er's icing looked curdled. But once she hand whisked the hell out of it, it turned smooth. It's such a small amount that Amanda thinks the mixer whisk just didn't reach it enough. So do what she did. Okay?)

Finally, is this a classic weeknight recipe? Not really. But it is actually easier and quicker than many birthday cakes that require lots of butter beating, some of them less worthy of praise than this one. You can always leave work a little early, declaring a cake emergency." –Jestei

—The Editors