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Sunday, August 15, 2010

Spring Fling Cake from The Market in Larimer Square


This is a recipe for the Spring Fling cake sold at The Market at Larimer Square.  It is a very unusual zucchini-based cake frosted with a whipped cream and cream cheese icing and topped with an abundance of fresh fruit.  The first time I had the cake was for a celebration at work.  I didn’t realize the cake cost $150 for the full sheet.  This recipe is for the 10 inch round that retails for $50.  When I lived in Lodo, I frequently walked over to The Market to buy a slice.  A slice cost just under $7.  I think it’s worth every penny.

The cake itself is not hard to make.  It just requires gathering many ingredients together.  The Market usually tops their cake with strawberries, mango, kiwi, black grapes and mandarin oranges. I omitted the blueberries listed in the recipe because I don’t ever recall having blueberries on my cake.  I consulted the picture on The Market's website and I didn't spot a single blueberry.  I also subbed blackberries for the black grapes because I was feeling it.

The recipe below was published by the Rocky Mountain News.   It calls for a 10 inch round cake pan.  I didn’t have a 10 inch round so I used a 10 inch scalloped pan instead.  I’ve also successfully used this recipe for cupcakes by filling the pan about three quarters full.

EDIT: December 2017 

I've been having trouble baking this cake since I moved from Denver to San Diego.  Initially, I blamed it on the oven but other cakes and breads come out fine. I then moved from baking it in my 10 inch Fat Daddios aluminum cake pan to two 8 inch Fat Daddios aluminum pan and finally to two 9 inch Calphalon nonstick pans.  Nothing made a difference.  The cake tasted fine but the texture was gummy and almost uncooked. 

I read and reread the recipe, trying to figure it out why the cake failed.  From the comments below, it looks like others ran into the same problem. It is not a particularly fragile cake so it's shouldn't be so finicky. Then it clicked! The amount of leavening for 3 1/4 cups of flour seems really low. The paltry amount of leavening worked fine at 5,280 feet above sea level but was not enough for sea level.  I tested it out by making half the recipe and doubling the baking powder and soda and it worked! I probably need to tinker with the recipe a bit more but for now, it works.


Spring Fling Cake

Serves 12 to 14

2 ½ cups shredded zucchini
5 eggs
1 ¼ cups sugar
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 cup sour cream
½ tablespoon plus ½ teaspoon vanilla extract (for frosting)
3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda (increase to 2 teaspoons at sea level)
½ teaspoon baking powder (increase to 1 teaspoon at sea level)
Pinch of salt
For frosting:
¾ cup cream cheese
¼ cup butter
2 cups powdered sugar
½ cup heavy cream

Fruit for cake:
1 pint strawberries, cleaned, stemmed and sliced
4 kiwi fruit , peeled and sliced
2 mangoes, peeled and sliced
1 pint blackberries or black grapes
1 can mandarin oranges, drained (optional)
Apricot glaze, or apricot jelly thinned out with a bit of warm water (optional)

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a round 10-inch cake pan.

• To prepare the cake: Shred the zucchini in a food processor. In a large mixing bowl combine shredded zucchini, eggs, sugar, oil, sour cream and ½ tablespoon vanilla.

• When thoroughly mixed, combine all dry ingredients and add to bowl; mix well. Batter should be fairly wet and easy to pour.

• Pour in the batter and bake for 50 to 70 minutes, testing with a toothpick in center.

• Cool finished cake on a rack for 10 minutes, then remove it from the pan and allow it to cool completely. (You can make the cake a day ahead and refrigerate.)

• To prepare frosting, whip room temperature cream cheese and butter until smooth. Gradually add the powdered sugar, mixing until well combined.

• In a separate bowl, whip the cream until stiff, and then fold it and the ½ teaspoon vanilla into the frosting. Do not overmix.  (I think the frosting resembles sweetened condensed milk.)

• To assemble cake: Cut the cooled cake in half lengthwise, making two layers. (The Market cuts the cake into three layers, which you may do if desired.)

• Spread an even layer of frosting over the first layer, and then add a layer of the various fruit pieces (repeat if three layers).

• Put on the top layer of cake and evenly frost. The sides of the cake are not frosted; use extra to fill in, as needed.

• Arrange the fruit in circles all over the top of cake, slightly overlapping fruit pieces.

• To finish: Spread the apricot glaze over fruit on top of the cake with a pastry brush.

Nutritional information per serving: 496 cal., 20 g fat (10 g sat.), 116 mg chol., 73 g carb., 597 mg sodium, 4 g fiber, 9 g pro.

The batter looks like this:

The cake should be nice and golden.

The texture of the cake:

The Market doesn't surround the cake with strawberries but since I wanted more fruit, I went ahead stuck the sliced strawberries on the sides.

14 comments:

  1. Anonymous12:57 PM

    thank you so much for finding this recipe i was looking for one for a while,

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  2. When I lived in Denver, I ordered this cake for EVERYTHING. Now I live in Texas and can't get it. Thanks for posting!!!!!!

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  3. I have tried 5 times to make it and it wont cook all the way

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  4. diana: this recipe comes directly from the market. i've made it several times and so have others. can you tell me if you made any substitutions to pan size or ingredients? have you had your oven temp checked recently? do you live at sea level or altitude?

    i've successfully made this in a 10 inch pan but i've also baked the batter in muffin pans so you might consider baking it in smaller pans and adjust cooking time.

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  5. I dont get the second part of the frosting ? Can anyone help

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  6. gayla: what it means is first you whip the cream cheese with the powdered sugar then in a separate bowl you take the liquid whipping cream and whip it. once the whipping cream is whipped, you fold that and the vanilla in with whipped cream cheese/powdered sugar frosting. i hope that helps.

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  7. Malisa, thanks for sharing! Is this a high altitude or sea level version of the recipe? I live in Denver and want to make this cake for a birthday party this weekend. Upon searching the web, I have found a few recipes which have been modified for high altitude - however the ingredient portions are quite different (2 eggs vs 5, 2 c flour vs 3.5, etc)and the cake is made in two 9" pans. I was thinking that this must be high altitude given that the recipe was originally posted in a Denver paper, but just want to be sure.... Thanks!!

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  8. LizC: The recipe was posted in the Rocky Mountain News and comes directly from the Market so no altitude adjustments should be necessary. I also live in Denver and have made this recipe several times as written. The cake texture is a little more dense and not delicate so I doubt any adjustments are necessary.

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  9. So do you think I could pour the cake mix in two 8 inch rounds? I too used to buy this cake and now live in Texas. My daughter's birthday is coming up and it seems like it might be easier to use two 8 inch rounds instead of cutting for the layers. But I want it to turn out great, so I'm looking for opinions. Thanks!

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  10. Patty: Please use a pan conversion chart when changing pan size and adjust baking times accordingly. I know this recipe was written by the Market for a 10" round. I've made these in muffin tins and made personal size spring fling cakes without any issues.

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  11. Patty: Please use a pan conversion chart when changing pan size and adjust baking times accordingly. I know this recipe was written by the Market for a 10" round. I've made these in muffin tins and made personal size spring fling cakes without any issues.

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  12. I live in Denver and tried this recipe a few times but the outside of the cake is over cooked and the inside is raw. I even used a 10 inch cake pan. What am i doing wrong? Please help!

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  13. esmeraldafav3: The last few times I made this cake in a 10x3 round Fat Daddio's aluminum cake pan. The cake also came out raw and wet. I couldn't get the inside to cook even after long baking times. I tried a couple different things to troubleshoot. I started having issues when I moved from Denver to San Diego. I had an electric oven in Denver and now I have a gas one. I don't believe gas vs. electric should be a problem. But there's something with my new oven that is throwing my baking off. I noticed I had no issues when I made the cake in smaller pans. The 10x3 is a large pan and getting the center of certain cakes to cook can be tricky. You can try using the WIlton heating core to help distribute the heat http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfm?id=3E30ACBE-475A-BAC0-505CDCE7A4EA25E5 or you can bake the cake in two 10x2 pans instead. I'm actually baking this cake later today and will likely use two smaller instead of the larger one. Something else that has helped is the squeeze out a little of the excess water from the zucchini after grating.

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  14. Has anyone tried making a 1/4 sheet?

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