Snacking Cakes: Simple Treats for Anytime Cravings: A Baking Book

by Yossy Arefi

Find sweet satisfaction with 50 easy, everyday cake recipes made with simple ingredients, one bowl, and no fuss.

In Snacking Cakes, the indulgent, treat-yourself concept of cake becomes an anytime, easy-to-make treat. Expert baker Yossy Arefi's collection of no-fuss recipes is perfect for anyone who craves near-instant cake satisfaction.

With little time and effort, these single-layered cakes are made using only one bowl (no electric mixers needed) and utilize ingredients likely sitting in your cupboard. They're baked in the basic pans you already own and shine with only the most modest adornments: a dusting of powdered sugar, a drizzle of glaze, a dollop of whipped cream. From Nectarine and Cornmeal Upside-Down Cake and Gingery Sweet Potato Cake to Salty Caramel Peanut Butter Cake and Milk Chocolate Chip Hazelnut Cake, these humble, comforting treats couldn't be simpler to create. Yossy's rustic, elegant style combines accessible, diverse flavors in intriguing ways that make them easy for kids to join in on the baking, but special enough to serve company or bring to potlucks.

Whether enjoyed in a quiet moment alone with a cup of morning coffee or with friends hungrily gathered around the pan, these ever-pleasing, undemanding cakes will become part of your daily ritual.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Food, Nonfiction, Culinary, Reference, Adult

192 pages, Hardcover

First published October 27, 2020

Reviews

[Rosa · Rating 5 out of 5]

If sometime during this pandemic you've decided that you were cooped up/bored enough to embark upon a true baking adventure, that you would finally tackle Hong Kong egg tarts and 90 minutes later, every visible surface of the kitchen is encrusted in flour, every appliance and cooking utensil you own has somehow been utilized/dirtied, and all your former culinary aspirations have been exposed as a wastrel's pipe dream - you realize that you have actually come to despise flour, and oil, and sugar, but most of all, you loathe the starry-eyed fool you were 90 minutes earlier, the one who, despite never having exhibited any particular talent for pastry or custard, decided it would be nbd to recreate a dim sum staple that perfectly highlights the culinary resourcefulness and imagination your forebears demonstrated while living under the yoke of British colonialism and ethnocentrism - now, 90 minutes into a deep and unmitigated mess, you have nothing to show for your troubles but chaos, and all you really desire anymore is a hard cold exit from your kitchen to an utterly new life/beginning, Jason Bourne style... if any of this nightmare feels at all familiar, Yossy Arefi's Snacking Cakes may be exactly what you seek.

Arefi's recipes call for dirtying 1-2 bowls at most (especially if you weigh your ingredients instead of using measuring cups), oil or melted butter (not room temp, so no pre-planning to set out butter hours beforehand), and mixing with a whisk, with no other fancy gadgets, aside from a grater here or there; I've only found one recipe that asks for a hand mixer and softened butter (she profusely apologizes for this in that recipe's intro). Every recipe has different pan size options listed (square, round, Bundt, etc.)

However, there's more to this book than just baking ease; because Arefi has a highly diverse (yet approachable) palate, the adventure is not in techniques, but rather, in the flavor combinations. I've made an orange/beet/poppyseed chocolate cake with beet and orange glaze (thumbs up), and a rhubarb cake with a sumac crumb topping (which my evil children ate the very last pieces of while my back was turned, a bittersweet triumph). She has interesting variations for every recipe, such as switching out some of the AP flour with rye or buckwheat, and listing a few possible glazes for each recipe that would greatly alter the final effect, thereby expanding each recipe to represent 2 or 3 more. One of my kids has severe nut allergies - this book offers enough variations to work around that, except for maybe one or two recipes. [However, if you're gluten-free or vegan, I would check it out from the library or at the bookstore first; there's less flexibility with those diets.] If you're like me in not really caring about improving technique, but still enough of a food snob that you can't accept the glut of online recipes that are essentially rolling a stick of buttered cream cheese in powdered sugar sprinkles and calling that a result, this book hits exactly right.

3 more things: 1) I would exercise caution with the printed bake times - I've had to shave off an average of 10 minutes for all 5 recipes I've tried so far (most of us know not to follow recipe bake times to the letter in general, right? My point is, they are even more off than I'm used to - mayhap her oven and mine are entirely different species); 2) because of the melted butter thing, the only vanilla-based cake I've made so far was kind of corn-bready; overall, some of the more delicate cakes might come off tasting like "easy" cakes, though for me, Arefi's ingenious flavor profiles compensate for those compromises; 3) Arefi explains early on that a snacking cake is a cake you have on the counter that you cut off a slice of every time you walk by, which I can 100% vouch for. If you are at peace with this scenario, and the devil's knowledge that would bring this vision to fruition, this book is the source.

[CaseyTheCanadianLesbrarian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Am I counting cookbooks in my reading challenge now?? I guess I am! This one I truly read through cover to cover while I had it checked out from the library for the maximum allowable time. Every cake I made was delicious! And also easy! Standouts include: nectarine cornmeal cake, lime coconut cake, almond cherry cake, and peanut butter banana cake. Sometimes I wonder if cake is quite the right word for these delicious baked things in a pan -- like I'd call some if them for sure loaves or bread aka banana bread -- but why not elevate them to decadence?

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute, but the library copy did NOT come with cake :(

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is really the perfect cookbook. It's compact, it's well-written, it's beautiful. I made the Lemony Olive Oil cake as a Thanksgiving dessert and my two companions became very eloquent -- they called it "spectacular" and "exceptional", which was fun to hear! I've made a couple of others, but the lemon cake has been the star so far. I look forward to trying many more!

[Suz · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a beautiful book! Devine layout and photography to die for.

Full review when I make some of these goodies.. watch this space. And honestly it is a useable straight forward book that I will use. This is very important to a book freak like me!

I borrowed from the library, but that wasn't good enough so I bought it. Hopefully to arrive today!

Recommended to all bakers, and to anyone who likes yummy cake and beautiful food photography.

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a bit dangerous. Almost every recipe can be made in a single bowl with just a scale and a whisk. You don't even really need the scale, but you'll be more accurate and do less dishes if you have one. And every recipe that I tried turned out really well! Her cakes aren't quite as sweet as I'm used to cake being so the other flavors get to shine more and less sugar means more snackable. I loved the ideas she has in the notes of each recipe for how to try different variations or dress up the cakes.

Here are the recipes I tried over the last couple of months:

Corn Cake w/ Honey ☆☆☆☆☆
Beautiful texture for an incredibly easy cake. This would go equally well in savory contexts as it does in a dessert context. It's like cornbread but sweeter and fluffier.

Double Apple Cake ☆☆☆☆
This cake looks as amazing as it tastes. The base flavor is really light and easy so I could definitely see it being made without the apple topping in a pinch.

Lemon Olive Oil Cake ☆☆☆☆
Probably the platonic ideal of a snacking cake. Such great flavors and I'm curious to try this with oranges instead of lemon.

Chocolate Hazelnut Cake ☆☆☆☆☆
The center of my cake sank when I made this. Definitely user error, I think maybe my coffee was too hot when I added it or it sat around too long before going in the oven. Even still, the flavor was so out of this world amazing with a perfect texture that it's probably the tastiest cake I made.

Vanilla Buttermilk Cake ☆☆☆☆☆
Simple but perfection. I tried this twice, once with a funfetti topping and once going offscript with a strawberry variation on the frosting. I like this recipe so much because of how easy it is to start riffing. Next time I'm going to try and work in some freeze dried strawberries into the batter to accompany the strawberry frosting.

Recipes I'm looking forward to trying: Swirled Jam Cake (I have sooo much jam from the summer) and Chocolate Orange Beet Cake (I need something to use all those summer CSA beets in)

Should you get this book? Yeah, probably. Or check it out from your library. There's only one gluten free recipe, but she said gluten free flour works well as a substitute in these (I haven't personally tried that yet, but will update if I do). Also I think only one vegan recipe. These might be harder to adapt for a vegan diet; most of the recipes call for an egg or two. Leave a comment if you try any vegan variations that work well.

***** UPDATE 2/3/21 *****

I made the Cocoa Yogurt Cake with gluten free King Arthur flour and am happy to say it turned out really well! Good rise, good flavor, super easy. So if you're looking for gluten free cakes, I think it's pretty safe to say these will work with a simple substitution.

[Janet Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite cookbook this year--not fancy, but filled with small cakes that are just as easy to put together as cake mix, but way more special. I got my hands on an advance copy a few months ago, and found it an absolute gold mine of small cakes, perfect for family meals, but many recipes are fancy enough for company, or bringing to work or neighbors for sharing. The Pumpkin Olive Oil Cake was a real family fave, and the Berry Cream Cheese cake hit my sweet tooth in a good way. We've gone on to sample a few more. Most of the Milk Chocolate Chip Hazelnut Cake went back to school with my college age grandson who was home for the weekend, and the Double Apple Cake, a lightly spiced applesauce cake, made my husband very happy. Can't wait to try more.

[Chessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book! I got the opportunity to read an ARC but I will absolutely be buying myself a print finished copy. Approachable recipes that mostly only use one bowl and a whisk but with lots of variations and fun flavor combos - what more could you want? I can’t wait to mix and match every recipe under the sun. Long live the snacking cake!

[reading is my hustle · Rating 5 out of 5]

this cookbook is so good. it is a cookbook that is to be read cover to cover. the baking instructions are easy to follow & the recipes are crowd pleasers. i had an aunt that made a cake every sunday & she called them (no matter the type) Sunday Cake. this cookbook reminded me of her tradition & inspired me to start my own Sunday Cake. my first? the olive oil lemon cake & ohmygod it was so good. recommended.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Over the roughly three months I had this cookbook out from the library, I made about six cakes from it. I'll be adding this to my home collection now, as I'm sure I will continue to get lots of use out of it! The recipes are largely made the same way (one bowl, no mixer), but a substantial variety of potential flavor combinations are laid out for you, and there are many suggested ways of how to tweak recipes to customize it even further - to either your taste or your kitchen. This goes from different pans to use, toppings you have on hand, etc. No, there aren't any real showstoppers in here, but it's not meant to be that. These are cakes to throw together when having a dinner at home that you want to jazz up just a little. With reasonably short ingredient lists and near infinite customization options, this is the one-stop-shop to satisfying a craving for something sweet in the moment with what you already have on hand.

[Sandee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to love this cookbook! One bowl, no electric mixer, small pan - what's not to like?
I made 3 recipes, 2 of which seemed inaccurate.
- One called for '1 lemon', which I would take to mean the whole lemon. The directions called for the zest and then I hunted through for where the rest of the lemon fits in and it's not there.
- One called for 1 tsp of salt, which is waaaaay too much for a small cake. And 1 tsp cardamom and 1/2 tsp cinnamon. The cardamom was overpowering. I think they flipped those 2 ingredients.
- Then we come to the pineapple upside down cake. That cake alone is worth the price of the cookbook. It is light, fluffy, flavorful and 5 stars.

I got this cookbook from the library, of course, and refrained from making notes in it. Tempting to buy it for the nuggets like the pineapple upside down cake.

[Juli Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

A delightful book full of unusual and approachable recipes. I loved the focus on fruits and other flavorings besides chocolate and the decided absence of frosting in most of these recipes.

[Catherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great versatile read with many custom suggestions. Perfect for those without a stand mixer and uses simple ingredients most have on hand.

[Aleeda · Rating 2 out of 5]

I rarely review cookbooks because I deeply respect the undertaking. Not only do you have to develop a tasty recipe, you have to write a practical science book. I wanted so much to love this book. I flagged so many recipes to try. Small cakes, for my small household, quick baking for quick gifts...Yossy Arefi! However, after trying three recipes (Minty Chocolate Malt, Almond Butter Banana, and Swirled Jam), I am throwing in the towel. None of them were winners. Desserts are about being calorie worthy, and these three did not make the cut.

They did cook up quick. When baking, I prefer to use metric measurements as I find they are more accurate. The baking times were fine for my oven. But when it came to flavor, they were just meh, and that comes down to the ingredients chosen, or the measurements. While I do love Yossy Arefi in general, this book did not produce cakes I would want to snack on.

Just to make sure I wasn't being *too* critical, I shared the bakes with others, and got similar comments

[Sylvia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nowadays, if I can find a new cookbook that has more then one recipe that I would actually make, I'm lucky. Many cookbooks have too many ingredients (which use only a teensy-bit of this or that and then I have a ton of leftover after), too many exotic ingredients which I have to go to a specialty store to find or order on line or I know that my family would NEVER eat in a million years. This cookbook is an exception. Very doable recipes for every taste and I especially like the fact that instead of using butter, most of the recipes can be made using a neutral oil -- no having to haul out the mixer to combine the ingredients - just a quick stir and pour into a pan. This cookbook is for those of us who just want to get a quick and tasty dessert or brunch cake into the oven and on the table.

[C · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not an expert on many things, but having made six of these cakes--brown butter pear & cranberry, lemon olive oil, pineapple upside down, powdered donut, walnut & white chocolate, cocoa yogurt--in the past month, I think I can say with authority that this cookbook ROCKS. For everyday eating I love savory-leaning, unfussy desserts and this collection delivers dozens of mostly one-bowl, not-too-sweet single layer cakes with a wide variety of tasty textures and flavors. Reviews I have received when sharing these cakes include: "delightful," "yummo," and "better than my mother's." I will continue to proselytize about this book to friends and can't wait to bake my way through the rest of the recipes!

[Cait · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this, I need all of these cakes in my life

[Victoria Sanchez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simple, mix and match cakes with delicious, not too-sweet results. Fruity cakes, warm spice cakes, and so much more -- even one that's super similar to my Grandma's olive oil cake!
Me

[Mia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having baked four of these cakes, I feel well-enough equipped to review this cookbook. Reviews for the ones I made are below. These cakes are super simple, almost entirely one-bowl for easy cleanup, and not too sweet (which I prefer). I appreciate Arefi including both Imperial and weight measurements—these are the recipes with which I broke in my kitchen scale and they all worked up beautifully. That she also includes dish substitutions, topping suggestions, and a glazes/whips section at the back tips this firmly into "must-buy" territory!

***

Milk Chocolate Chip Hazelnut Cake p. 155

I'm glad I opted for the coffee here instead of the hot water—you can't taste it at all, but it deepens the chocolate flavors and keeps the milk chocolate and Nutella from tasting sickly sweet. This is a lovely cake, tender and with a nice crunch from the hazelnut topping (which gets toasty as it bakes). Enjoy it with a cold glass of milk.


Lemony Olive Oil Cake p. 44

I added 2 tbsp of fresh chopped rosemary to this, as well as 1 tsp of lemon extract to boost the lemon-ness, and it made for such a delicious flavor profile. The zesty tanginess of the lemon is balanced out by the herby, floral rosemary, and it's a wonderfully moist and light cake. I made it again a week later and ate the whole thing in three days. Everyone who has tried this has raved about it; it's a new go-to!


Minty Chocolate Malt Cake p. 141

I made this for my boyfriend, who loves mint chocolate chip ice cream. The cake is spongy with a perfect crumb, and both cake and glaze are beautifully dark from the dutched cocoa. The mint is surprisingly subtle, but it provides a nice cooling aftertaste—I couldn't detect the malted milk powder, but the flavors here are mellow and not super sweet which I actually like. It's like a grownup Thin Mint.


Browned Butter, Pecan, and White Chocolate Cake p. 133

I've never really understood all the hype around browned butter—maybe my palate isn't developed enough—but it's a good choice for this sweet cake studded with toasty pecans. I wish it was a little more complex in terms of flavor; it's very sweet, with brown sugar, white chocolate, and turbinado sugar all bringing a similar warm sweetness. I feel the need for something tart, herbal, or even salty to contrast with all that soft, almost sickly sweetness (one of the versions suggests the addition of rosemary, which of course I'm on board with). Still, it's got a delightful texture, and this is a great bake for those with more of a sweet tooth than me.

[Bethany McClellan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author has turned me into somewhat of a local hero. If it sounds like my ego is inflated, it's because it is.

Where to begin? For the life of me I can't remember where I came across this cookbook but once I found it online I ordered one for me and one for a girlfriend.

So far I have made the espresso chocolate chip cake. I topped it with the espresso/coffee whip. Big hit with husband and friends for a Super Bowl party.

Then I made the classic yellow cake with the malted milk variation and I topped it with the chocolate fudge frosting. This coincided with my husband's birthday, and it was perfect. Soooo moist even days later.

After that I made the oatmeal chocolate chip cake with the brown sugar whip. That afternoon, I took a couple slivers out for my husband and me, then we unexpectedly went to a dinner party that night and I packed up my 7/8ths of a cake and brought it along. Very popular. Many questions. No one else brought a dessert, let alone homemade from scratch. I think I just put a whole bag of chocolate chips in.

And just today I made the red velvet cake. It came out beautifully but I haven't eaten it yet. Will top with cream cheese glaze.

These cakes bake for me at the top end of the baking time and on the espresso choc chip I had to add 5 mins. I'm also an extremely lazy baker when it comes to measuring and these recipes are very forgiving. I have so much confidence that every single cake I make from this book will be delicious now that I have 3-4 under my belt.

[Annmarie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not Like Any Other Cookbook I Own

Snacking Cakes by Yossy Arefi is offers recipes for at home desserts to satisfy simple cravings for a “little something”. This cookbook made me realize that most of my cake recipes are for the “grand dessert cake” or a birthday cake. But what I really want most often is just a bit of cake for dessert. And so the Snacking Cake fills that need for me.

The book begins with an Introduction and 4 short but helpful chapters;
The Method - tips on mixing, baking and a great guide to baking pans,
Cake Storage - which is all of three paragraphs long because, really, is your cake going to last more than a day ?,
All the Equipment You Really Need - which discussed the tools you will use, Let’s talk Ingredients - which offers useful info on common ingredients.

There are four chapters on cakes:
Fruit Cakes,
Warm and Tasty Cakes,
Chocolatey Cakes, and
Not Your Average Vanilla Cakes.
I wasn’t sure about these designations at first but as I used the book I realized that when I crave a snack cake, I really do crave a certain flavor of cake, so this worked great for me. Each recipe offers flavor variations so that you could make the same recipe several times with a different result.

I made the Berry Cream Cheese Cake which at first glance reminded me of the New York Times Torte but it was much richer and denser. It was easy to make, the directions were clear and easy to follow. The Pumpkin Olive Oil with Maple Olive Oil Glaze was a good, not too sweet, autumn cake. Next time I make it I will try the Rye Pumpkin Cake flavor variation.
Not every cake is sweet - some border on savory which is a nice touch.

This cookbook is not like any other that I own. It really offers me recipes that I didn’t have before and that I can make just for me and well … okay, I will share with my husband ! Thank you, Clarkson Potter for sending me a free copy in exchange for a free and unbiased review. This book will get a lot of use.

[Mauri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Does what it says on the tin: a pile of easy, flavorful cakes using ingredients that most people either probably have in their cabinets or are used to picking up during the average shopping trip (or putting in the average shopping order, these days).

The recipes were so easy that I managed to make three before this had to go back to the library: the Cocoa Yogurt Cake, the Whole-Grain Strawberry Cake, and the Lemony Olive Oil Cake. Flavor-wise, the strawberry cake was the winner, with the whole wheat flour making it unexpectedly satisfying. It suffered the most in our two person household, however, as the fresh strawberries on top are pretty unappealing by day four. The cocoa cake, on the other hand, seems to bask in being kept in the fridge, happy to be brought out and eaten immediately or left to come to room temperature.

(The lemon cake revealed that our olive oil had gone off, alas.)

I'll probably be buying this one. I also think it'd be a good choice for the aspiring preteen baker.

Allergy/special diet notes: there are at least five cakes that are dairy free, but just one gluten free cake, the Citrusy Almond Cornmeal Cake, which uses almond flour and cornmeal. Most cakes don't use nuts or nut flours or nut butters, and for at least half of the ones that do, the nut components are optional. I didn't do a thorough check, but it appears that every single cake uses eggs.

[May-Ling · Rating 5 out of 5]

small cakes that i can eat, adapt and make in one bowl? SOLD.
truly beautiful book with mouthwatering photos

although simple, many flavors here really take you in different directions. i also appreciate the many deviations you can make from each recipe. i am not doing glazes (less sugar, less guilt!) and might do that if i was gifting it or wanted a lovelier presentation.

i don't bake all the time and part of that is due to dishes and cleanup - making everything in one bowl feels so unfussy and i'm more inclined to grab my book and whisk away now! the author also starts with some kitchen basics and offers ways to test ingredients you have on hand to make sure they are still fresh. i can't wait to cook my way through many of these snacking cakes!

[Abigail Zimmer]

I do like a tiered and frosted challenge, but I've had a lot of fun with these recipes. It helps when the recipe makes one small 8x8 cake and can be whipped up within the hour, at the end of a long day when I'm tired but still craving something sweet or need to bring something last minute. It has...invited snacking. 🙃

My favorites: orange olive oil cake with a raspberry glaze, walnut coffee cake with a cinnamon crumble, peanut butter chocolate cake (usually not my thing but this was not too overpowering or cloying!), chocolate almond flour cake with raspberries, and a powdered sugar donut cake, which truly looked nothing like a donut and tasted everything like one, dense and surprisingly nutmeg-y.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have now read each recipe in this book and made four cakes (two sweet and two savory), and I can say with certainty that this book is everything it promises to be. All of the cakes are simple - you aren’t winning any decorating awards here, but you will win over stomachs. Everything is made in one bowl, and I almost always have had every ingredient already in my pantry. The various icings and glazes are a nice bonus, but they aren’t necessary. The cakes are small enough that my husband and I can snack on them for a few days without having to take any to work to share. The recipes are clearly written and easy to follow (even when you decide to bake a cake at eight on a Sunday). Highly recommended for anyone with a sweet tooth.

[Elizabeth (Literary Hoarders) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Our newest baking book! Favorites thus far are the Powdered Donut Cake (literally tastes exactly like a powdered donut) and the Swirled Jam Cake. Love that there are options for wholesome cakes if you want to make one for a fun breakfast. We have so many tabs marking “want to try” that we should just go page by page and make everything.

[Kelly Sauskojus]

I don’t know if I’ve ever found someone who more perfectly shared my cake opinions (it is always a breakfast food, cupcakes are too much effort, all icing apart from homemade whipped cream is overrated)

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

5/5 ⭐️

I LOVE THIS BOOK!! I can’t wait to make so many recipes from this and honestly…might have to buy it. I got it from the library, but wow! What an amazing collection of recipes! So many unique flavor combinations!

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid cookbook on simple cakes. There is surely at least one or two cakes that will tempt you to make them. Nothing new or original, but they all seem tasty. There’s even a vegan recipe included. Photos of the recipes.

[Meredith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This cookbook is just wonderful both philosophically and the actual recipes.