Fabulous All-Organic Special Occasion Cake

This recipe is fabulous for any kind of celebration. It can be made with all organic ingredients. I originally developed this recipe with another friend for a community celebration. Afterwards, a father called me and offered me $50 to make the cake for his three-year-old's birthday party because it was now her favorite cake. I made this cake for my wedding, as well.

This cake can be made with different sweeteners. The original recipe called for granulated maple sugar. It is delicious, but relatively expensive and not always in every natural food store. For my wedding, I used local Florida wildflower honey (any honey can be used and the flavors of the honey will come through). Rice syrup is very good as well.

Using a dry sweetener will result in a drier cake, and the liquid sweeteners will give a moister cake. But they are not dense or rubbery at all. The original recipe we modified was a pound cake, so this cake holds up well and is easy to work with. The test cake we made with rice syrup was still moist and quite edible when we finally finished it five days after baking.

This recipe makes 8 cups of batter, which will fill ONE of the following:

• 1 "half sheet" 12" x 17" x 1" (make two batches of the recipe if you want a 2 layer cake this size)
• 2 - 8" rounds
• 1 - 9" x 13" rectangle

If you are making a wedding cake with different size layers, find out how many cups of batter you need for each size pan and make the number of recipes needed. It's best to make each recipe separately, rather than measure and mix multiple batches of this recipe all at once. If you are making this cake for a large event, please make a small test cake first.

2 cups organic unbleached white flour, less 1 tablespoon
1 tablespoon arrowroot
2 cups organic whole wheat pastry flour (or more unbleached white flour)
1 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons baking powder

3 sticks organic butter, at room temperature

=== Choose ONE sweetener ===

• 2 cups organic brown rice syrup + 1/2 cup organic milk
• 1 1/2 cups honey + 1/2 cup organic milk
• 2 cups organic maple sugar OR naturally-milled cane sugar + 1 cup organic milk

8 organic eggs
2 tsp organic vanilla extract (or other flavoring -- almond is wonderful!)

1. Preheat the over to 325 degrees. Butter and flour the cake pan, then line with parchment.
2. Measure the 2 cups white flour, then remove one tablespoon of flour and replace it with the 1 tablespoon arrowroot. This is essential to the recipe! Don't leave it out!
3. Sift the two flours and salt with the arrowroot and baking powder. Put the remaining whole wheat chaff back in the bowl with the flour.
4. With an electric mixer, cream the butter until fluffy. Add the sweetener gradually, beating until light and fluffy.
5. Measure the milk in a liquid measuring cup, and add the vanilla.
6. Add the eggs to the butter, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
7. Sift the flour mixture into the butter mixture, alternating with the milk and vanilla. Stir only until well blended.
8. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake. Set your timer for 30 minutes. A half sheet pan takes about 50 minutes to bake. Other sizes will be less. Cake is done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
9. Let cake cool in the pan for about 10 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Frosting possibilities: