Spice Cake! Looks good, doesn’t it?
Add some cream cheese frosting and you might just create one of life’s greatest little joys. But wait there’s more to this spice cake than “meats” the eye. Pork! Yep…Pork!
Or even better…Pork Fat!
I’m working on a couple blog posts using pork ribs and in my research I came across a recipe for Pork Cake. And because it’s pork AND cake I really had little choice but to change direction and do a little baking.
The secret to this recipe is, believe it or not, salt pork. I’ve used salt pork before to add some wonderful flavor to pinto beans, but never in baking. And even though I’ve come up with some pretty crazy ingredient combinations while playing around in the kitchen, I can honestly say that salt pork, as a baking ingredient, has never occurred to me.
Now before you discount the value of Pork Spice Cake in world of baking. The use of salt pork makes a great deal of sense. Most cakes have shortening, butter, oil or some other type of fat. In his case the salt pork is your fat. The first step is rinsing all the salt off. Make sure you rinse it well. Then cut the pork into 1 inch cubes (left picture). The next step is to whip the salt pork (right picture). I used my food processor.
Next is to render (melt) all the fat. Pour the boiling water into the bowl with the whipped fat and stir a couple of times. Make sure all the fat melts. You don’t want chunks of fat in your batter. I took the extra step of putting the fat and water back in the food processor after it had cooled and whipped it a little more. One can never be too careful when dealing with chunks of pork fat.
To answer your next question. Yes, it tasted good and doesn’t take like Pork.
Pork Spice Cake
Ingredients:
- 1lb salt pork
- 1 pint boiling water
- 4 cups sugar
- 1 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 well beaten egg
- 1/2 cup molasses
- 6 cups flour
- 1 pound raisins
Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 300 degrees. Prepare two floured loaf pans.
Rinse as much salt off the salt pork as possible. Pat dry with paper towel. Cut salt pork into 1 inch cubes and using a food processor turn the salt pork into a fine puree. Place pureed pork into a large bowl and pour the boiling water over the top. Let pork sit for several minutes, stirring occasionally, while all the fat renders from the boiling water. Don’t shortcut this process. Stir in the sugar, spices, baking soda egg and molasses. Add flour and raisins to pork mixture, stirring until all the ingredients are incorporated. No lumps! Pour into well greased and floured loaf pans. Bake 2 hours (this is not a misprint) or until done. A toothpick or cake tester should come out clean.
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Larry, it’s obvious you always have BBQ on the brain; and God bless you for that! What a great idea, and opens up a lot of options in baking (using pork fat as a substitute) - can’t wait to try this!
Sending this recipe immediately to my family as this is right up their alley. Looks amazing and how could this be bad if it’s made with pork? Great recipe, Larry. This is going to be bookmarked for sure. - Kevin
That looks so yummy! I love spice cake and pork…it’s the best of both worlds! I bookmarked this great looking recipe. Thanks so much for sharing it with us Larry!
~Prince of Q
Larry, you are the man and I am really impressed with this recipe. This is a must try and I will let you know how it turns out. Keep up the GREAT work!!!!
It looks very nice…. never thought of making a cake with pork fat.
Thanks for sharing.
Marc
Well, who’d have thunk it! But you’re right, it makes plenty sense.
I’ve used salt pork also for cooking beans from scratch.
This sounds really good. Makes me wonder what other recipes I could use salt pork in. Hmm…salt pork chocolate cake? After all I do love bacon and chocolate.
OMGoodness! I so want to “pork out” on this cake! Maybe you could whip up bunches and give them out as Christmas gifts (hint, hint)!
Ok, I can safely say that using rendered salt pork as the fat ingredient in a cake never would occur to me. I think I’ll forward this link to my wife and see if one of these might be in my near future…
Careful Larry, next thing you know you will be baking with bacon!! It is a very slippery slope. Actually, the recipe sounds great and I am a fan of adding pork anywhere you can so this gets two thumbs up from me. This is essentially baking with lard, back in the day - before my time (way before) that was all they had (or could afford) to bake/cook with.
PS- I am pretty sure if you pop some spice cake in the mail today, I would have it before the end of the week and can let you know what I really think
What a great idea! It totally would work because, like you said, your just substituting a fat from a different source. Why is it so hard to wrap a creative brain around using more pork in desserts? After all, how long have we heard about bacon infused donuts? My go-to birthday cake is cheesecake. And being that my birthday is on the 29th, I will have to try this recipe! Hmmm, now I’m thinking… smoked ham reduction cheesecake… pork-fat birthday candles… Great idea Larry!
Wow! Spice cake with raisins (one of my favorites) with the twist of using salt pork! Wow again !! Makes me wish I lived closer to Larry’s house! Quick, to the FedEx store !
Man Larry, thats intense, I’m def gonna have to try this one out. My first question comes from a quality stand point (and never having bought salt pork before) are there different qualities of SP? Is there something specific I should look for when purchasing said salty porky goodness?
Thanks for another one to try!
I love spice cake, and cream cheese frosting. I also love pork!
I have used leaf lard ( fat from around the kidneys) for baking, but not tried with the salt pork method you have presented.
Keep up the good work!
This reminds me of bacon cookies I’ve heard about — thanks for sharing the pork love!
I have made chocolate chip cookies with lard, and oatmeal cookies with rendered bacon fat. They are both amazing. The chocolate chip cookies with lard were by far the most moist cookies I’ve ever had, and they stayed moist much longer. The bacon fat oatmeal cookies were out of this world, as I subbed out the shortening and in the rendered bacon fat. I then mixed in the crispy bacon bits, along with craisins and toasted pecan pieces.