What I’ve learned baking cakes for my coffee shop

ft. Yossy Arefi's tahini carrot cake

and

May 16, 2025

1. Cake is breakfast.

2. I don’t know how to develop cake recipes. Only magicians can do that. So when I started making some cakes each weekend for my local coffee shop to sell, I followed cake recipes I’d made before or wanted to try. And for all the cake ideas that didn’t exist in recipe form, I turned to Magician Yossy Arefi, author of Snacking Bakes, Snacking Cakes, and the Substack Have a Little Something. She got a wishlist of random ideas and if any of them appealed to her, I got a new recipe. That is how her Miso Pineapple Cake came to be, as well as today’s Tahini Carrot Cake.

I’ve made the Simple Sesame Cake from Snacking Cakes so many weekends in a row — plain, with chocolate chips, with berries — and started thinking about sesame + carrot together in a cake. They like each other in savory form, so why not sweet?

3. Butter is good and all, but oil-based cakes stay moist longer, so you can bake a cake on Friday and serve it on Sunday and nobody will know. (Wrap it well and keep it at room temperature.)

4. Recipes often instruct to mix all the dry ingredients in a small bowl, then add them to the wet ingredients and fold only until combined — over-mixing the flour will make the cake tough. This step ensures small quantities of leaveners and salt are evenly distributed in the cake, but you can save a bowl and instead add the baking powder, baking soda, and salt to the wet ingredients first. Whisk until very well combined, then fold in the flour just until combined.

5. King Arthur’s absolutely perfect banana bread taught me that you can stick a thermometer into the center of a cake and if it reads 205°F, then the cake is done. It hasn’t failed me yet, unlike toothpicks.

6. Weigh every dry ingredient, mostly because it means cutting down on washing all those measuring cups. Put the mixing bowl on your scale, zero the scale, then add the ingredients. If the recipe you’re working with uses volume measures instead of weights, convert them using King Arthur’s chart.

7. Small towns, where you can bake a few cakes for friends and strangers to snack on with morning coffee, rule.

Yossy Arefi’s Tahini Carrot Cake

Makes one 9-inch cake

1/4 cup/60 grams neutral oil, plus more for greasing
6 tablespoons toasted white and/or black sesame seeds
3/4 cup/150 grams granulated sugar, plus 1 tablespoon
2 large eggs
1/2 cup/115 grams tahini, well stirred
1/2 cup/115 grams sour cream
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 cups/160 grams all purpose flour
2 cups/225 grams grated carrots
1/2 cup/60 grams chopped dates (or currants or raisins; optional)

1. Position a rack in the center of your oven and heat to 350ºF. Butter or coat a 9-inch round baking pan with oil. Line the pan with a circle of parchment then oil the parchment. Sprinkle 3 tablespoons of the sesame seeds on the pan and tap the pan to coat the bottom and part of the sides with sesame seeds.

2. In a large bowl whisk the 3/4 cup/150 grams sugar, 2 large eggs, 1/2 cup/115 grams tahini, 1/2 cup/115 grams sour cream, 1/4 cup/60 grams neutral oil, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger until smooth and well combined.

3. Whisk in 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, and 2 tablespoons sesame seeds until well mixed. Then use a flexible spatula to fold in 1 1/4 cups/160 grams all purpose flour, followed by 2 cups/225 grams grated carrots and 1/2 cup/60 grams chopped dates (if using).

4. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and smooth the top. Sprinkle the top with the remaining 1 tablespoon sesame seeds and 1 tablespoon sugar.

5. Bake the cake until puffed and golden and a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean, 50 to 60 minutes. Set the pan on a rack to cool for about 15 minutes. Then use the parchment paper to lift the cake out of the pan and set it on the rack to cool completely. (Store the cake, well wrapped, at room temperature for up to three days.)