Spring and summer bring an abundance of produce from the garden, orchard and farmers' markets: fruits, berries, vegetables, and nuts but also eggs and other dairy products.
At times you might feel overwhelmed with the glut of fresh food all at once. There's so much to do, and after awhile you might get tired of berries or peaches or whatever is in season.

One of my husband's favorite uses for the abundance of eggs we have in the spring and summer is angel food cake. I don't make it nearly as often as he'd like, mostly because I HATE cleaning the pan. If you grease the pan, the cake batter can't grab the sides of the pan and climb to the heights expected of angel food. You can't soak the pan after baking because it's a two-piece pan that allows water to escape. You have to use a two-piece pan or you'll never get the cake out in one piece. And on it goes, my litany of excuses.

I admit, it's a great use of eggs though. And after you make an angel food cake and have a dozen or so egg yolks left over, you make noodles. Right?

So I started thinking of other cakes that use up some of our excess. Other than angel food, I like making cakes occasionally. They're relatively easy to whip up, and they are a nice change of pace for using up some of our seasonal abundance. Homemade cakes are also free of artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives because they're made from scratch with natural ingredients.

Be sure to leave a comment at the end of this post and tell me which of these made-from-scratch cake recipes you plan to make using seasonal and good-for-you ingredients.

Cakes with apples

Our apple trees are loaded again this year. Hubby and I aren't fans of applesauce so I struggle to find ways to use and preserve all those apples. Lisa at The Self-Sufficient HomeAcre turned her wild apples into applesauce, then used the applesauce to make this delicious homemade applesauce cake with maple cream cheese frosting.


This Spiced Apple Cake from Piwakawaka Valley in New Zealand can be made gluten free or not; Dana gives substitutions for both the regular flour and the oats that are used in the original recipe. Dana baked this cake in her woodstove but there are oven-baked directions as well.

Cakes with berries

Michelle at SoulyRested forages blueberries every summer on her New England homestead. This recipe from her grandmom is just one of the ways she uses them. The melt-in-your-mouth blueberry cake is baked in cast iron.


Sally writes that she wanted a strawberry-flavored cake with strawberry-flavored frosting without using any artificial flavors. She finally came up with the best method to achieving the perfect strawberry cake - not just strawberry frosting, but strawberry flavor in the cake batter itself. Watch her make this cake on video at Sally's Baking Addiction.

Cakes with beets (yes, really)

Beets lend natural color to this chocolate beetroot cake from Adamant Kitchen. This is actually a red velvet cake without artificial food coloring. I think you'll enjoy the interesting history in this post as well as the recipe.

Cakes with grapes

Grapes in a cake? Cake for breakfast? Well, why not. Any color grapes will work in this grape coffee cake with crumble topping that makes a special breakfast from Homestead Lady.

Cakes with peaches

All of these luscious cake recipes contain good-for-you ingredients and no artificial flavors, colors or preservatives. You can feel good about occasionally serving cake again.