Birthday Cake

It's not the kind of cake most would ask for their birthday cake, but my son loves this so much I baked it this morning for his birthday dinner this evening. It's made with Louisiana cane syrup, a dark rich syrup used for sweetening so many things and quite ubiquitous in pantry's around here. My grandmother made cookies with cane syrup, deeply scented with the sweet spices she loved. This is more or less the cake version of those cookies, as I recall. Her house was filled with the most heady aroma of spices, as mine was today. This is fabulous with coffee or a nice cup of tea, my favorite.

Cane Syrup Cake

1 cup sugar
1 cup cane syrup
1 cup canola oil
2 eggs
2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1 cup hot water
1 teaspoon baking soda

Combine sugar, syrup, oil and eggs and mix well. Sift together the dry ingredients and add to the mixture. When properly mixed, add the baking soda to the cup of hot water and add to the cake batter. Blend well and pour into a well-greased and floured pan. This will be a rather thin batter, but that's as it should be. Bake at 350 until the center springs back, about 35 minutes. Place on a cake rack to cool and serve with sweetened whipped cream.