Being tangentally Russian, I also thought of honeycake. Here's a version from "The Enchanted Broccoli Forest" by Mollie Katzen. Jewish New Year Honeycake Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a medium sized loaf pan. Can also make in an 8 inch square cake pan. 1 cup light honey 1 large egg 3 TBLSP melted butter 1/2 cup cold black coffee (I've had British versions of this made with strong tea) 1 cup whole wheat flour 1 cup unbleached white flour 1/4 tsp. salt 2 1/2 tsp. baking powder A dash or two of: cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice (1/8 tsp. if you have a measure for that) 1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts Beat the honey at high speed with an electric mixer for about 5 mintues. It will become frothy, white and opaque. Add the egg, butter and coffee. Beat well. Sift together the dry ingredints. Fold them along with half the nuts, into the first mixture. Spread into the prepared pan; sprinkle remaining nuts on top. Bake 50-60 minute (until a probing knife comes out clean) Traditional topping: 1 cup dried apricots and 1 cup drid prunes. Pour 2 cups boiling water over them and let them sit for about 3 hours. A fruit syrup will form. Spoon this mixture over each serving. Or 2 cups sliced apples 2 TBLSP sweet butter 1 TBLSP lemon juice dash cinnamon 1 TBLSP honey Saute the apple slices in butter over low flame. Add the lemon and cinnamon and cook until the apples are soft. Remove from the heat and stir in the honey. Spoon onto honeycake. Here's another recipe from that cookbook, but I have never made it. Russian Coffeecake Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously grease a 10 inch tube pan. 1 cup butter, softened 1 packed brown sugar 4 large eggs 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract 1 cup buttermilk (room temp.) Lpink's note: can sub yogurt or sour cream for buttermilk 2 cups unbleached flour 1 cup whole wheat flour 3 tsp. baking powder 1 tsp. baking soda 1/2 tsp. salt Filling: 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips 1/2 cup whole almonds 1/2 cup shredded, unsweetened coconut 1/2 cut peach or apricot jam 1/2 cup sliced dried apricots (I think you could improvise stuff you have on hand, like other dried fruits and types of nut) Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Stir in the vanilla. Sift together the flours, baking powder, soda and salt. Add the dry mixture and the buttermilk alternately to the butter mixture. Use a wooden spoon, and mix just enough to blend after each addition. Place the chocolate chips and almonds in a blender jar. Whirl together at high speed for about 20-30 seconds (until pulverized but not mushy) Lpink: a food processor would be even easier. Combine with the coconut. Spoon half the batter into the prepared pan. Gently spreading it until even. Spoon dollops of jam here and there onto batter (don't try to spread it, leave it in little blobs), and sprinkle on the apricots and about 2/3 of the chocolate nut mix. Add the remaining batter, distributing it nicely. Sprinkle the top with the remaining chocolate-nut mix, and bake the cake for 50-60 minutes (until a paring knife comes out clean). Cool completely before removing from the pan. Sounds like a pretty fancy cake!

Terri, I *could* tell you the cupcakes were made with magic, no wheat at all! And I *could* tell you that no sugar was involved--just the sweetness of more magic! Yeah, I could tell ya that. But, hey, good for you in your efforts to avoid wheat and refined sugar! I try to avoid white rice, white bread, and potatoes, just to name a few, and I also try to not eat things with sugar in them (okay, that doesn't always work! LOLAM). Cupcakes, cookies, cake--most of the time, I don't have them in the house. Another really GOOD thing about being a retired teacher is that I don't get "exposed" to all the goodies in the faculty room, the donuts every Friday (right next door to my room!!!!!), or the special yummy things from the students! Thanks for the compliments! They encourage me to keep on trying to improve! Smiles, Sooz

I did wedding cakes for 25 years but one of the neatest ideas I suggested to a gal who was on a VERY tight budget was this: I baked a 2 tier cake for her & the groom to cut-a small 10" with 6" top tier on seperator posts, for the cake table. Then for the guests-(she had 100 guests seated at 10 tables-) she purchased 10 8" double layer cakes from the grocery bakery-all simply iced and a top & bottom border. She paid about $6 per cake. She borrowed 10 pedestal cake plates from friends & family and placed one cake on each table-and she added a small fresh rose (fully opened-not a bud), w/baby's breath in a flower vial (bought at a florist shop) & put in the center of each cake. By adding a little greenery at the cake plate base and a few rose petals scattered around each plate-it completed a nice table presentation.Each guest table could cut their own cake-they loved the novel idea! Got away with the entire thing for around $100. The caterers provided the cake plates, serving knives, etc. for each table.

nlla, I wouldn't hesitate to eat that cake. It's not plain eggs left at room temperature and it's a cake, something that normally would not be refrigerated. I have a 6 egg pound cake and a 4 egg sponge cake, as well as a flourless chocolate cake that takes 6 eggs. They all cool on the counter and only the flourless one actually ever gets refrigerated, as it is very fudgy and cooling it helps with cutting and serving. If you give us the recipe or a link to the recipe, that would be more helpful in determining what may or may not cause an issue. If you'd like a second opinion (or a dozen, LOL), try over at Cooking, we all have opinions over there and they are usually all different! Annie