Surprise! Not chocolate!

So if I had to guess the author Anne Byrn, bless her heart, didn't bake these cake in consecutive order in which they are published. You know, kind of how I'm almost doing. I say that because I'm about sick to death of cinnamon and I'm on cake nine (10th in the book, I'll swing back for the Great Cake). I like cinnamon, but a girl can only take so much. The one before and the one after this is heavy on the cinnamon. I know, it's the taste of the times. No wonder chocolate, when it found its way, made such an impression.

This cake was moist and stunning, which is a lot when talking about cakes. If I were ever called on creating a lemon/molasses flavored anything I'd make this cake again. I do have a gingersnap cookie that takes lemon oil, so I can't say it I've never put these two together before. But your mind really wants you to think this is chocolate and vanilla. There were sad imaginary trombones going waa-waa when I announced the true flavor of the cake to the teens in the crowd. Hopes were so dashed.

We see cream of tartar, baking soda, and buttermilk coming into play, LEAVENING! which is nice.

You're going to need 3 bowls. One for molasses, one for lemon, one for egg white whipping.

Molasses Layer

6 tablespoons butter, room temp
6 tablespoons light brown sugar
3 egg yolks, reserve the whites
.75 cup molasses
1.66 cups flour
.5 teaspoon baking soda
.5 teaspoon cream of tartar
.5 teaspoon cinnamon
.25 teaspoon mace
.25 teaspoon nutmeg
.25 teaspoon cloves
6 tablespoons buttermilk

Lemon  Layer

6 tablespoons butter, room temp
1 cup sugar
zest from 2 lemons
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1.66 cups flour
.5 teaspoon baking soda
.5 teaspoon cream of tartar
.75 cup buttermilk

3 egg whites
.125 teaspoon salt (1/8)

Spray a tube pan. Set oven to 350 degrees.

Cream the butter and brown sugar. Add the molasses and eggs. In a separate bowl combine the dry ingredients. Add the dry ingredient so the creamed mixture, mix lightly. Lastly add the buttermilk. Let mix for a full minute. Set aside.

For the lemon cake, cream the butter and sugar. Add the zest and juice. Combine the dry ingredients and add to the creamed sugar mixture. Add the buttermilk.

In clean bowl whip the egg whites and salt until stiff. Put about a quarter of the eggs into the lemon batter. Mix vigorously, it will loosen the batter. Fold in the remainder of the egg whites gently, but thoroughly so there are no streaks of white.

I use a scoop to portion the batter, alternating between the two, into the tube pan. Take a knife and swirl the batters together twice-ish. Don't do it too much or you'll get a muddy cake.

Bake until an inserted toothpick comes out cleanly. I'm reluctant to give a time because pans vary too much.

You can glaze the cake with a glaze made of 1.5 cups powdered sugar and 3 tablespoons of lemon juice. Or you can just sprinkle it with powdered sugar.