This cake turned out wonderfully moist and tender, and fragrant with my favorite spice -- cloves. Excellent recipe!

My daughter and I made this recipe just as written with the only adjustment being that we made buttermilk with 1cup milk mixed with 1Tbsp lemon juice, let it sit about 5min. to make "buttermilk". It smells so good. The crust is nice and crispy and the inside is so soft and flavorful. Thanks for sharing this recipe!

Loved the final outcome however I cannot stress the importance of not doubling the baking soda in this recipe especially not twice! I was making two cakes and doubling everything as I went along and accidentally added the baking soda doubled TWICE! We have now nicknamed this cake the Flaming Spice Cake since the entire house was filled with smoke after the cake spilled over the sides of the pan and landed on the burner in the oven. Cake is wonderfully moist and turned out of the pans perfectly even after the disaster. Next time I plan on using the correct amount of baking soda and adding chopped raisins as this cake has the proper taste and texture for old fashioned Spanish Bar Cake. I have other cake recipes and have managed to get the icing right but this cake has the right texture and taste. We loved it and it is all gone. We only baked it yesterday afternoon!!!!

Maybe the fact that I used Splenda instead of regular sugar contributed to this cake being a complete disaster. Not sure, but after I paid almost $8.00 for a can of ground cloves, I had to throw this cake in the trash. It was dry,dry all the way to the center and did not rise at all. I wondered about the batter when I mixed it. It was so gummy it stuck to the beaters and would not pour into the pan. Oh well, after 50 years of cooking, I can have a failure once in awhile. May try again and use sugar but have not decided about that.

This was an excellent cake - I got great reviews on it! It was not a highly sweet cake - perfect for afternoon coffee or tea time. The only problem that I had with it was it crumbled slightly on one side when I took it out of the pan.