ok Guys here is the offecial start of the bake off. Ill re-list the general rules and then a list of the recipes. Please sign up for at least two so you can do a good comparison.

sept 30th: All Spice Cake Recipes MUST be in for entry into the Scratch-Off. Your selection of the recipes you are going to sample must be in by this time, also.
oct 30th: All results must be posted, including pictures, if possible.
Nov 5th: The results will be tabulated and a winner will be chosen. We can choose someone to be the tabulator.

Rules
1. Please have entries in by the deadline for each month.
2. Each participant must try at least 2 recipes.
3. We should try to have all recipes sampled by at least one person. If someone posts more than one recipe into scratch off, then at least one of their recipes must be chosen.
4. Please have your "results" posts in by the deadline to have your input included.
5. Be honest, but not cruel, with your critique of the recipe.
6. Please follow the recipe and don't make substitutions for ingredients. The recipes can be halved, cut in thirds, or quartered if needed.

Judging Criteria
1. Flavor
2. Texture/Crumb
3. Moistness
3. Ease of Recipe
4. Cost of Recipe
5. Ability to convert into cupcakes

After you comment on all these characteristics and give each a rating, give the recipe an overall score ranging from "0" for Terrible Sad to "10" for Excellent Very Happy . You can make a suggestion on how the recipe can be improved, if needed, if you want.





The Recipes:

http://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/spiced-pumpkin-cake.html

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/buttermilk-spice-cake-with-roasted-walnut-cream-cheese-frosting-recipe/index.html

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Moist-Tender-Spice-Cake/Detail.aspx?prop31=2

Old South Spice Cake (Southern Living)

1 cup butter or margarine, softened (I'm a butter gal) Smile
2 cups sugar
5 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa
2 tsp ground allspice
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 to 1 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
Nut-and-Fruit Filling
Caramel Frosting
Pecan Halves
About 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate Morsels, melted

Cream butter; gradually add sugar, beating well. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Combine flour, cocoa, allspice, cinnamion, cloves, and salt. Bossolve soda in buttermilk. Add flour mixture to creamed mixture aternately with buttermilk mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture.

Pour batter into 3 greased and floured 9-inch cakepans. Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes Remove layers from pans; cool completely on wire racks.

Spread Nut-and-Fruit Filibg between layers; frost top and sides of cake with Caramel Frosting.

Arrange pecan halves around base of cake. Fill a pastry bag with the melted chocolate; pipe desired designs with chocolate over the pecans and on top of cake.

Nut-and-Fruit Filling
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 1/2 cups sifted powdered sugar
1 tsp ground allspice
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 1/2 cup raisins, ground
1 cup chopped pecans

Combine all ingredients, mixing well. Yield: about 4 cups

Caramel Frosting:
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
2 Tbls light corn syrup

Combine all ingredients in a large heavy saucepan; cook over medium heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Cook until a candy thermometer reaches soft ball stage (236). Cool mixture slightly. Beat until mixture reaches spreading consistency; frost top and sides of cake, working rapidly. Yield: enough frosting for top and sides of one 3 layer cake.

I know all of you do not need such detailed directions but I have a littte OCD in me.


Guiness and Spice Cake..... delish mix of flavors Thumbs Up!
Ingredients:
* 1 cup of dark beer (Guinness)
* 350 grams molasses
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 3 large eggs
* 230 grams brown sugar (dark or light, optional Rapadura)
* 200 ml oil
* 150 grams cake flour
* 2 1/2 Tablespoons ground ginger
* 2 1/2 Tablespoons ground cinnamon
* 1 small jar orange marmalade
Oven at 350, greased and floured 10 cups pan.
Mix beer with molasses in a small pan over medium heat. Boil and put aside, add baking powder and let cool.
Beat eggs with sugar for 2 minutes approximately or until eggs look pale yellow.
Add oil and beat on medium.
Add egg mix to beer mix and stir to blend.
Sift flour with species.
Add to the mix gently stirring,
Pour batter on prepared pan and place on middle of on oven for 60 minutes or until test done with a toothpick on the center of the cake.
Let cool 20 minutes over wore rack. Unmold and let cool completely.
Warm marmalade on low during 3 to 4 minutes. When liquefied, spread covering all sides of cake
Will stand in perfect condition up to one week at room temperature


Spice Cake #1

Ingredients:
2 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups (packed) golden brown sugar
4 large eggs, separated
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup buttermilk

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour 9-inch-diameter springform pan with 2 3/4-inch-high sides. Sift first 7 ingredients into small bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until fluffy. Add brown sugar and beat until well blended. Beat in egg yolks and vanilla. Beat in flour mixture in 3 additions alternately with buttermilk in 2 additions. Using clean dry beaters, beat egg whites in medium bowl until stiff but not dry; fold into batter in 2 additions. Transfer batter to prepared pan.
Bake cake until top is golden and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Cool cake 10 minutes. Cut around pan sides; release pan sides. Cool cake completely on rack.

Spice Cake #2

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups sifted cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 sticks (6 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 350° and position a rack in the lower third. Butter and flour two 8-by-2-inch round cake pans. Sift the flour with the baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, salt and cloves into a separate bowl. Combine the buttermilk and vanilla in a small pitcher.
2. In a standing electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter at medium speed until creamy. Add the light brown and granulated sugars and beat until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes, stopping once to scrape down the bowl. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the flour mixture at low speed in 3 batches, alternating with the buttermilk mixture, just until the batter is smooth; stop the mixer occasionally to scrape down the bowl.
3. Divide the batter evenly between the pans. Transfer the pans to the oven and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the cakes begin to shrink from the sides. Let the cakes cool for 10 minutes, then turn each out onto a rack, invert onto another rack and let cool completely. Wrap each cake in plastic and store at room temperature overnight.


Pumpkin Spice Cake

Ingredients:

3 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon + 1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground allspice
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon clove
1 cup sugar
1 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
3/4 cup canola oil
4 large eggs
1 15-ounce can pure pumpkin
1/4 cup applesauce
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon grated orange peel

Directions:
Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350°F. Butter two 9-inch-diameter cake pans with 1 1/2-inch-high sides. Line bottom of pans with parchment paper; dust pans with flour. Sift 3 cups flour and next 8 ingredients into medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat both sugars and oil in large bowl until combined (mixture will look grainy). Add eggs 1 at a time, beating until well blended after each addition. Add pumpkin, applesauce, vanilla, and orange peel; beat until well blended. Add flour mixture; beat just until incorporated. Divide batter between prepared pans. Smooth tops.
Bake cakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 40 min. Cool cakes completely in pans on rack. Run knife around cakes to loosen. Invert cakes onto racks; remove parchment paper. Turn cakes over, rounded side up. Using serrated knife, trim rounded tops of cakes to level.




Lets Get Baking everyone!!!!

The recipes that I am signing up for:
1. Buttermilk Spice Cake (foodnetwork Emeril recipe)
2. Spiced Pumpkin cake (Williams Sonoma)

Can we post reviews at any time, or do we wait until closer to the deadline?

I'm so glad to see the return of the great cake-offs!!

I was planning to make this next week: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Spice-Cake-with-Blackberry-Filling-and-Cream-Cheese-Frosting-105326

Can we add it to the recipes?


I will bake the epicurious and the Emeril/Food Network.

I'm in with:

Buttermilk Spice with Roasted Walnut Cream Cheese Forsting - Food Network
Guiness and Spice Cake

It's great that you are bringing this back & since I've never participated I have a a question or two.....

do I have it correct, we have until tomorrow to

1.) add a recipe, if we want?
2.) pick 2 recipes to bake for comparison?

How can you be able to add a recipe & pick from said recipes with them both ending with the same deadline?

I'm still sleepy so maybe I'm not understanding it. Anywoo, I'm going to look at the ones posted.

Springlake you post reviews all throughout the month.

durell I don't think you mentioned pictures of the crumbs?

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Spiced-Sweet-Potato-Cake-with-Brown-Sugar-Icing-104322

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-challenge/sweet-potato-cake-with-coconut-filling-and-caramel-frosting-recipe/index.html

I see we have spice cakes with pumpkin, can these be added too?

I am not in charge of this shindig, but if there are TOO many recipies to choose from, they won't be tested as many times, JMHO.

I will bake the Old South and Spice Cake #2. I personally like the traditional cake rarther than the pound cake type, do we judge differently for the type cake it is?

I'll try the Old South Spice Cake and Spice Cake #1. This should be fun!

so far sign ups

FoodNetwork: Springlakecake, kger, what-a-cake

Guiness: what-a-cake, durell87

Old South: tea42, saffronica

Williams-Sonoma: Springlakecake

Allrecipies: durell87

Spice cake 1: saffronica

Spice cake 2: tea42

Pumpkin Spice:


Yes, thank you JaeRodriguez, please please take a pic of the crumb if you can that will really help us all out.

ok guys so this is my first time doing something like this and if it was up to me id say submit a bazillion recipes and everyone can add what they want when they want but i realize because its used as comparision in the search for the best scratch recipe i need to start making some executive decisions lol

ok so i realize i made a mistake with the deadlines and starting the thread a little early (again im a little impatient lol)
although both the epicurious recipes look great i dont think im goin to add them just because if we do have to many recipes our results wont be as accurate. again i apologize for starting the thread early and if i had gone through and picked out recipies with different factors there would of still been room. i realize that there are a couple recipes pretty similar but i figure lets do these and when the spice cake comes back around in the future we can challenge the winner of this thread with some new recipes right!
Ok so now that the recipes are set i want to address ppl adding. I think anyone can add in during the scratch off as long as they pick two recipes and have them done by oct 30th for calculations. the more ppl the better results and more accurate information.

I hope i answered all the questions and i really hope no ones upset becuase i didnt add the new recipes. remember u can pick more than two as well just as long as its at least two lol

happy baking!

while im thinking about it does anyone have suggestions for next months scratch-off as far as flavors go? i figure if we can come up with the flavor soon i can get a thread started for the recipes and everyone can have a whole month to get theres in and ill also have time to take out similar ones and pick a wide variety of choices.
so im thinking recipies in by oct 30th?
i was also thinking to give us till dec 30th for the bake off due to the holidays. i know a lot of ppl get busy so two months might make it better thank one?
any suggestions or ideas?

durell: I think your executive decisions are spot on! It would be nice if each cake was tested multiple times, so fewer recipes and more people sounds perfect to me.

I already have one of my cakes baked (I made it twice!) photos taken and cake eaten. I think I'll wait to post until I have at least baked my other cake so that I can make a better comparison.

As for another scratch off-I have been wanting to try some more gourmet type flavors (like chocolate grand marnier or white chocolate etc.) Otherwise I am pretty sure they havent done white cakes. I think there was yellow (which might have included white) chocolate and carrot.

I agree with you too Durell; the more testers the better the results.

I have baked both of mind and will have the testing today. (at least 10 will judge) I may try another one later. As far as converting to cupcakes goes; anyone have suggestions for what to look for?

Next time? I'm thinking peppermint, eggnog or something along the holiday traditions.

Not all cake recipes make good cupcakes. Some recipes I have tried are flat and shrivel up. I think looking for a nice dome and whether it remains moist etc. would be what you would look for.

I thnk you're doing a great job durell! These things seem insane to head up! )

I would like to throw in the idea for cheesecake scratch off but if that's not something you guys want to do I LOVE the gourmet flavor idea! Or coconut cake, just thought of coconut! I can't wait for the results from this one and to be able to contribute to the next one!

I would like to sign up for the Buttermilk spice cake and the Pumpkin spice cake

How about a white cake scratch-off? I'm looking for a good one.

I may also bake the guinness. I will have several judges, so adding one more cake to the mix shouldn't be a problem.

I will bake Pumpkin Spice Cake and Spice Cake #2.

I like all suggestions of cake flavor for our next Scratch-Off. I know before we selected Spice Cake for this month, there was a mention of lemon cake.

But a white cake sounds like a great idea too!

If its not too late, I like to bake the Old South Spice Cake and the Guiness and Spice Cake.

so far sign ups

FoodNetwork: Springlakecake, kger, what-a-cake, pennyk

Guiness: what-a-cake, durell87, kger, rainbowbeach

Old South: tea42, saffronica, rainbowbeach

Williams-Sonoma: Springlakecake

Allrecipies: durell87

Spice cake 1: saffronica

Spice cake 2: tea42, adavag

Pumpkin Spice: penniek, adavag


k is that right guys?
all newcomers just want to remind you you can sign up anytime for at least two recipes as long as the results are in by the end of the month! the more the merrier!!

next month flavors: white chocolate, cheescake, strawberry, white cake, coconut, lemon

yum yum yum my mouth is watering all ready! if you all dont mind when u list your ideas for next months scratch off can you list them in order of which one you would like to do the most down to the least that way i can get a better idea of whats the most popular lol hope that makes since

oh it's so hard to decide for next month! I am going to vote:
White Chocolate, Lemon, white, coconut, strawberry, cheesecake (though I do ADORE cheesecake) I need more regular cake recipes to add to my menu!

Welcome rainbow beach, I agree the more the recipes are tested the more accurate the results.

I have baked both of mine and had them tested yesterday. They will be baked again to test for cupcake use.

If we do not have any others join I could bake one of the other recipes that are not being tested more than twice.

Okay I am ready to post the results of my two cakes.

Buttermilk Spice Cake by Emeril Lagasse (food network)

1. Flavor: Excellent! Perfect combination of flavors. I gave samples to a few neighbors and one said he thought it was the best cake I had ever made. They have been my guinea pigs for awhile now.

2. Texture/Crumb: I loved the texture, nice tight crumb, not coarse or too dense. See photo

3. Moistness: Perfectly moist. It was still moist 2-3 days after baking.

4. Ease of Recipe: Easy, but you do fold in the egg whites separately which is an extra step.

5. Cost of Recipe: Average. If you don't have the spices on hand, it could add up.

6. Cupcakes: I forgot to try. sorry!

Overall I would have to give this cake a 10! I really enjoyed it. I actually made it twice. The first time the cake overflowed the pan a little when I sprayed the pan with Pam. The 2nd time I greased and floured and it baked up perfectly and released from the pan perfectly. The second time I added some diced granny smith apples (this is pictured) and I loved that too. I used brown sugar swiss meringue buttercream to ice the cake.

EDIT: I couldn't attach the photo to the post, so I uploaded to my gallery:

http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1820176&done=1

Alrighty, I'm going to sign up for Spice Cake #1 and the Pumpkin Spice Cake (mmm, I can't wait to try these!!!).

I really want to try the Guiness and Spice Cake too but I will wait to see everyone's evaluations to see how it goes!

Happy Baking Ya'll!

Review of my 2nd choice:

Spiced Pumpkin Cake (Williams-Sonoma)

1. Flavor: Very Good. You can tell that it is pumpkin flavored. If you like pumpkin pie, you'll probably enjoy this cake. I love pumpkin flavored things. It has a lot of spices in it.

2. Texture/Crumb: Good. It did seem a little heavier than my other selection.

3. Moistness: Moist after one day. Maybe I should have waited a bit to post results. I'll report if it dries out too quickly.

4. Ease of Recipe: Easy. The batter did seem to separate a little while adding the milk. i was a little worried, but it baked up fine.

5. Average. I don't usually have pumpkin around and I did have to buy a spice that I didn't have on hand.

6. Again, forgot to try cupcakes.

Overall I would give this cake an 8. I really did like this cake a lot, but not as much at the Buttermilk spice cake that I tried. My test-ee's also said the same thing. But the cakes were different...pumpkin vs. regular spice. I don't think I would have a problem serving either one of these cakes to customers. Another test-ee who did not have the other cake, really liked this cake and said her daughter who is usually very picky even liked it. I think I just enjoyed the lighter texture of the buttermilk spice vs. spiced pumpkin. I paired it with cream cheese icing which of course is always yummy.

http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1820187&done=1

well my cake photos were removed because they weren't allowed in the gallery. sorry! hope you all got a chance to see them earlier. Maybe I can find a place elsewhere to post them.

so far sign ups

FoodNetwork: Springlakecake, kger, what-a-cake, pennyk

Guiness: what-a-cake, durell87, kger, rainbowbeach

Old South: tea42, saffronica, rainbowbeach

Williams-Sonoma: Springlakecake

Allrecipies: durell87

Spice cake 1: saffronica, megandeann

Spice cake 2: tea42, adavag

Pumpkin Spice: penniek, adavag , megandeann


Thanks springlakecake those reviews are great and the pics were perfect. I wonder why you cant add them as an attachment huh. i hope we can figure it out.
Thanks tea42 cant wait for your reviews! man i feel like i need to get down to buisness and do some spice cake baking lol. I feel like all ive been doing lately is chocolate with vanilla frosting cant wait to switch it up a bit lol

http://s282.photobucket.com/albums/kk278/springlakecake/cake%20slices/

Okay I forgot that I had signed up for photobucket a long time ago. Hopefully this link will take you to my pictures!