Molasses Cakeletes

It never fails.  Whenever there is a recipe with multiple components which requires

intense concentration, as in The 4th of July Cheesecake, the following week's easy recipe always gets bungled.

In this cake, the Molasses Cakeletes.  

It has to be one of Rose's easiest recipes with the fewest ingredients.

So what was my mistake on the first go around?

I forgot to pull out a portion of the crumbly flour mixture

before adding the molasses mixture.  

I also used very dark molasses.  It's been in the cupboard

since one of Roses's last recipes which was heaven only knows how long ago.

It made them too heavily flavored and the littlest minis downright gummy.

For today's do over, I went in search of light molasses

without success.  I improvised with three parts Lyle's Golden Syrup

to one part dark molasses.  This made for a much nicer flavor.

Seriously, this is the simplest batter. I found it easier to

spoon the batter into the cupcake pans rather than use a

spouted cup.  I tried three pan sizes; mini, small cupcake and 

regular sized silicone cupcake molds.

The minis were the hardest to remove intact until

I tried a plastic mini fork.  It was the perfect size

to ease them out in one piece and flexible enough.

We liked the texture of the larger cakeletes.

The small ones were too moist even though 

sufficiently baked.  This happened with the first batch,  too.

I thought it might be the flour spray and used coconut spray dusted

with cocoa powder today.  Have to say, it added just the merest hint of chocoate

which goes really well with the molasses.

I like this recipe and think it will be fun to play with the flavors using straight

Lyle's Golden Syrup and maybe cinnamon or cardamom and vanilla.

I'm always on the look out for good vegan dessert recipes for kids who

are dairy and/or egg free. Trying this with gluten free flour would make it a grand slam.

~

The Baking Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum