
Such was the case one Fall. I had been obsessing on ginger and trying ginger in varieties of combinations when my friend Mackenzie (Mac) called. She wanted to have her birthday party at the bistro and wanted to know if I would make her a cake. "Of course," I said . "What kind?" We talked about some and then she said..."I have sort of been thinking about lemon or maybe ginger....." AHA! my brain said. "I've got it! Mac, the perfect thing. I will see you at the party." I was off. I found a recipe for a buttermilk cake that was the perfect base for my idea of a fluffy sort of spice cake and thus was born Lemon-Ginger Cake, otherwise known as MacKenzie's birthday cake.
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Rosie and Paloma Chester. The girls set up this shot themselves and the photographer was our amazing Katie Rivers. www.katierivers.com |
Mac and her husband Randy are superb musicians and even better parents. Their little troupe includes first born, Rosie, my favorite, red-headed beauty, Paloma and the newest addition, Mr. Kells. Mac's blog is a great read about her life called The Seven Year Itch, Love is the best glue, and you can read it here. http://thesevenyearscratch.wordpress.com For their music, listen here, http://www.4and20blackbirds.com/ and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcK-IUHacpc Randy is hard at work on their first album and I am pushing for a children's album.

First the ingredients:
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 1/2 sticks butter
zest of a lemon (more about this further down)
1 tsp vanilla
1 TBS ground ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
3 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
Mix the 7 ingredients together and add the baking powder and soda to the buttermilk. I don't want to go all Alton Brown and explain the chemistry of buttermilk and the leavening ingredients so just trust me on the buttermilk addition or google Alton and read about it. He is brilliant at explaining food chemistry. Alternate adding the flour and the buttermilk mixture to the mixer and blend it all until you have a fairly soupy batter. Pour into 2 very well greased cake pans.Cook at 350 for 45 minutes. Let the cake layers cool.


I usually make a double batch of the icing so that I don't have to make anymore and I usually end up with a lot leftover ............nothing like a little spoon of the icing every now and then when you need a little sweetness.......Enjoy!