Notes from the Test Kitchen: Crazy cakes

So maybe they are called "crazy," but when it comes to the recipes for these fun and simple cakes, there is a method to the madness.

Emily Dwass' story this week, "Mad for crazy cake," includes a couple of great recipes for these classic cakes, one for  a rich chocolate and the other a fun lemon poppyseed cake.

We started testing the cakes two weeks ago. We ran through each recipe to familiarize ourselves with the method, make sure the recipes worked as expected, and get a look at the finished cakes so we could figure out how to approach shooting the final versions in the studio.

The chocolate cake recipe worked fairly well; the method worked without a hitch, and the final cake was flavorful, though we thought the texture could have been a bit more tender (it was on the spongy side). That spongy texture was more noticeable with the poppyseed cake, and the leavening didn't seem to be working as well.

So I contacted Emily to run through the recipes and compare results.

Clifton's Cafeteria still serving -- and has no plans to stop

The news that the downtown building housing Clifton’s Cafeteria is for sale worried its customers and employees, says Robert Clinton, president of Clifton’s Cafeteria Inc. But he says his family has “no intention” of closing the historic Broadway restaurant.

“We have a business that’s been going since 1931,” he said over coffee this morning. “We have a commitment to our associates [employees] and our customers.”

Regular customers asked where they'd go without Clifton's, he said.

Clifton’s was bustling with breakfast business, and Clinton says summer is often busy. Foreign tourists like the cafeteria, he says, because they can get a meal without worrying about crossing the language barriers.

Not that the times are easy. Clinton calls the sale “a strategy to help us survive this tough time.”

The family wants a buyer who will then rent the space back to them and who “has a fondness for historical properties.” The Clintons bought the building in 2006.
Clifton’s is the last of eight cafeterias the company once operated in Southern California.

-- Mary MacVean

(Clifton's earlier this year, by Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

Making whoopie... pies that is, at SusieCakes

Rapidly expanding bakery SusieCakes, well known for its red velvet cupcakes -- they won first place in the traditional category at this year's Los Angeles Cupcake Challenge -- recently added another retro dessert to its lineup of snickerdoodles and frosted animal cookies: whoopie pies. Already a trend in New York, whoopie pies remain a rare and unpredictable sight in Southern California.

SusieCakes makes theirs with an inch-thick layer of vanilla butter cream socked between two soft, doughy rounds of chocolate cake. A frosting-lover's dream, they're almost unbearably rich. Introduced May 15, they come in three diameters: 3½ inches ($5), 6 inches ($50) and 9 inches ($85). If you can consume even the smallest of these whoopie pies on your own, you've got a serious sugar addiction.

You can find them at any of SusieCakes' three locations -- Brentwood, Newport Beach and Calabasas -- and starting in late July, they'll be at SusieCakes' newest outpost: 3500 N. Sepulveda Blvd. No. 150, Manhattan Beach. (310) 303-3780. Just in time for the chain's original Brentwood location to celebrate its third anniversary on July 17.

--Elina Shatkin

Photo: Courtesy of SusieCakes