Monique's Little Acorns

Monique from La Table de Nana posted this super little fall recipe a while back. I knew I was having my Garden Club for coffee this week and thought this would be perfect on the table. Don't they look great in my pumpkin bowl? And they're delicious, too. (Find the acorn mold HERE. Or HERE.)

A bench note: my first batch turned out too light. I raised the oven temp to 370 and increased the time to 12  minutes. Don't take them out until they get golden brown on top; then the bottom will be the perfect color. Luckily, there's lots of batter so you can experiment with oven temps and time a bit.

They were a hit at the coffee!

Acorn Pound Cake
From King Arthur Flour via Monique

Ingredients:
14 tablespoons (1 3/4 sticks) unsalted butter
3-ounce package cream cheese, at room temperature
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups All-Purpose Flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons vanilla extract 
1/4 teaspoon almond extract 
5 eggs

Method:
Preheat oven to 350. (I heated to 370)
In a mixer, beat the first two ingredients until there are no lumps left.
Add the salt, sugar, flour and baking powder. Mixture will be quite thick. Add the extracts and the eggs, one at a time. The mixture will now be light and fluffy.
The key for perfect acorns, according to Monique:
A combination of cooking spray and flour. The cooking spray coats all the nooks and crannies and the flour adds a thin layer of non-stick protection that results in a smooth as silk finish on the outside of your baked goods. In this case, less is definitely more. Filling the wells too full will result in acorns that puff and flow over the sides of the well. Surprisingly, just 2 to 3 teaspoons of batter is plenty. A teaspoon scoop proved to be just the right size and made scooping a breeze.
Bake the acorns for 8 to 10 minutes ( I baked longer) or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the nuts comes out clean.
Cool in the pan for about 2 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Winemaker's Grape Cake

I'm sure some of you have one of Patricia Wells' cookbooks. She's a multi-talented woman....chef, journalist, author, teacher....an American who has lived in Paris since 1980. She's also on Gourmet's list of 50 Women Game-Changers in food. (Mary from One Perfect Bite  is hosting a group of blogging friends who are working their way down the list. You may not agree with some of Gourmet's choices, but it's a marvelous way to be introduced to chefs you may not be familiar with and try their recipes.)

Off and on throughout  the year, Patricia Wells conducts week-long cooking classes both in her cooking studio in Paris and at her farmhouse in Provence.  And in April, Ms. Wells came out with a new cookbook, Salad as a Meal. It sounds fabulous, full of delicious, healthy recipes and I've put it on my wish list. (Did you know she had a weight epiphany at a spa which consequently led to her losing 30 pounds? Read about it HERE.)

I had some champagne grapes left in the fridge so I searched online for a recipe and that's how I discovered The Winemaker's Grape Cake. It seems to have made the blog rounds, but I'd never made it and most of the recipes I found were based on a Patricia Wells recipe. I think you'll like it....in one mouthful you get the sweet tang of the grapes with some lovely citrus undertones. Can you see how moist it is in the photo? We loved it and found it perfect for a light treat in the summer.......with a glass of wine of course!

Patricia Wells' Winemaker's Grape Cake

From Patricia Wells, At Home in Provence

Ingredients:

2 large eggs, at room temperature

2/3 cup sugar

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1/3 cup whole milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract)

1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

A pinch of sea salt

Grated zest of 1 lemon

Grated zest of 1 orange

10 ounces small, fresh purple grapes (I used champagne grapes)

Confectioners’ sugar, for garnish

Method:

Preheat oven to 350°F 

Generously butter and flour the springform pan, tapping out any excess flour. Set aside. 

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk, beat the eggs and sugar until thick and lemon-colored, about 3 minutes. Add the butter, oil, milk, and vanilla extract, and mix until blended. 

Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl. Add the lemon zest and orange zest, and toss to coat the zest with flour. Spoon the mixture into the bowl of batter and stir with a wooden spoon until thoroughly blended. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix once more. Set aside for 10 minutes to allow the flour to absorb the liquids. 

Stir about 3/4 of the grapes into the batter. Spoon the batter into the prepared cake pan and smooth out the top with a spatula. 

Place the pan in the center of the oven. Bake for 15 minutes, then sprinkle the top of the cake with remaining grapes. Bake until the top is a deep golden brown and the cake feels quite firm when pressed with a fingertip, about 40 minutes more, for a total baking time of 55 minutes. Remove to rack to cool. After 10 minutes, run a knife along the sides of the pan. Release and remove the side of the springform pan, leaving the cake on the pan base. Sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar just before serving. Serve at room temperature, cut into thin wedges. 

Sauternes Chiffon Cake with Boozy Peaches

One of my favorite summer cakes has always been an orange chiffon my mother used to make. And my Aunt Mar's chiffon birthday cake runs a close second. But I think they are both about to be moved down the list as this chiffon cake made with Sauternes ought to have the word elegant in the title. It's light as a cloud, tastes like manna from heaven and is amazingly versatile. Let me count the ways: the cake alone; the cake with Grand Marnier flavored whipped cream; the peaches alone with whipped cream; the peaches over vanilla bean ice cream; and of course the best: the cake with the peaches plus whipped cream.
Please note: the peaches must be made the day before and while you may be tempted to try other fruit with it, try it with the peaches first. (recipe follows) I've never made a chiffon cake in anything but an angel food cake pan and while this cake looked as though it was going to spill over the springform pan, it didn't. Barely.

I'm sure you've all visited Darjeeling Dreams. Joyti's blog is wonderful, her presentations  are so creative and the recipes are such fun to read about. This recipe is no exception....it's a HUGE summer winner.

Sauternes Chiffon Cake
Adapted from HERE

Ingredients:
7 large eggs, separated and at room temperature
2/3 cup sugar, divided into halves
1/2 cup sugar
pinch salt
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp oil, canola or olive
1/2 cup good quality sauternes 
1 tbsp baking powder
3.5 ounces (1 scant cup) all purpose flour, sifted

Method: 
Preheat oven to 325°F. Prepare a 9-inch springform pan by greasing it well and lining the bottom with parchment paper. (You'll find the cake rises to the top. So be sure to grease the sides all the way to the top.)
In a medium bowl, whip together egg yolks, salt and 1/3 cup of sugar until pale. Slowly whisk in the oil, then the wine.
Place the egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixture fitted with a whisk attachment. Add the 1/2 cup of sugar and the pinch of salt, and whip  until soft peaks form. Add 1/3 cup of sugar and continue beating until stiff peaks form.

Sift the baking powder with the flour and set aside. Pour half of yolk mixture over the whites, and sprinkle half of flour mixture over this. Gently fold together, being careful that the whites do not lose volume. Repeat with remaining halves.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for approximately 25 minutes, or until the top has browned. Turn the temperature of oven down to 300°F, and continue to bake for 15-20 minutes, or until cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. (It took me longer than the time indicated.)
Cook the cake on a rack. You'll find that it falls a bit in the center. That's fine.

Serve with Ina Garten's Sauternes peaches. You'll love these peaches all by themselves with just a little whipped cream on top.

Ingredients:
6 to 8 very ripe yellow or white peaches
3 tablespoons sugar
1 (375 ml.) bottle good Sauternes ( I just used the remainder of my sauternes from the cake.)
1 tablespoon orange-flavored liqueur (recommended: Grand Marnier)

Directions:
Bring a pot of water to a boil and immerse the peaches in the water for 1 to 2 minutes, until the skins come off easily. Remove them with a slotted spoon and place them in a bowl of cold water to stop the cooking. Peel the peaches and then slice them in wedges off the pit and into a bowl. Stir in the sugar, Sauternes, and orange liqueur. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or overnight. Serve cool but not cold.

Almond and Raspberry Friands

First of all, let me introduce you to vanilla bean paste. If you don't have this in your pantry, you should. Vanilla bean paste is much thicker than vanilla extract; it's actually a thin syrup. A bottle of it at Williams Sonoma  is $11. That may sound like a lot, but it isn't. This little bottle goes a long, long way.

Use vanilla bean paste in place of vanilla extract or vanilla beans anytime you want the beans to shine. Cakes, ice cream, frosting, you name it, if the recipe calls for vanilla, this can't help but improve your results. You certainly could use an actual vanilla bean instead of the vanilla bean paste, but it's a bit more pricey and this is so much simpler. Here's the formula: one teaspoon of vanilla bean paste equals one vanilla bean or one teaspoon of vanilla extract.

And I used it in this friand recipe for our end-of-year Garden Club luncheon last week. The recipe is quite similar to one for financiers that I made last year. The word "friand" seems to be used in Australia and New Zealand for a pastry that is based on the French financier. The difference? Australian and New Zealand friands often utilize flavorings other than vanilla and also use fruit and/or nuts, which the French version does not. They are also baked in oval shapes.

This particular recipe, from Donna Hay magazine, did not call for vanilla (I added it anyway) but did call for raspberries to make them a touch more summery. They also suggested using fluted tins. They aren't too sweet and I love this fluted shape. They were a big hit at the luncheon. Besides, how simple can a recipe be? And all in one bowl too! Sprinkle some powdered sugar on top for the final touch.


Almond and Raspberry Friands
Adapted from  Donna Hay, issue 53

Ingredients:

1 cup almond flour

1 2/3 cup confectioners sugar

3/4 cup all purpose flour

scant 1 teaspoon baking powder, sifted

1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

5 egg whites

9 tablespoons butter, melted (plus more softened butter for the tins)

150 g. raspberries (I used 3 berries in each friand)

Method:

Preheat oven to 360. 

Brush softened butter in each of the fluted tart tins and then place in the freezer for a while. Makes it easier to remove the friand.

Place almond flour, sugar, flour, baking powder, egg whites and butter in a bowl and whisk until smooth. Spoon mixture into fluted tart tins, top with raspberries (I pushed them into the batter a bit) and bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden. Makes 12.

Mango Upside Down Cake with Basil Ice Cream

For those of you not familiar with South Florida restaurants, let me introduce you to Michael's Genuine. It opened in 2007 down in the old Design district in Miami, on 40th St. (A while back, I wrote a brief history of this unique area HERE. ) Michael's is a contemporary American bistro run by Michael Schwartz, a Philadelphia native who launched the pioneering South Beach restaurant Nemo in 1994 and refers to his newest restaurant as “a chef’s interpretation of a great neighborhood place.” Michael was also named as Best Chef South at the James Beard Awards in 2010. Read more about Michael HERE.

Michael's new cookbook is hot off the presses and I was practically first in line!

The recipes are familiar if you've eaten at his restaurant and very doable for the home cook. I've made two so far and can't wait to try some of the rest.  Here's the first: a mango upside down cake that is unexpectedly light because the egg whites are beaten separately and folded into the batter.
You'll find that basil, an extremely aromatic herb with a scent of pepper, anise and mint, makes a delightful ice cream. The taste is sweet with a hint of savory  and is a marvelous accompaniment to the cake. The caramel top studded with mangoes makes a lovely presentation.  
I hope you enjoy Michael's recipe!


Mango Upside Down Cake with Basil Ice Cream
From Michael's Genuine Food by Michael Schwartz

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter

3/4 cup lightly packed light brown sugar

Two 1 pound mangoes (most mangoes are about that weight), peeled, pitted and cut into 1/2 inch slices

1  1/2 cups all purpose flour

3 tablespoons cornmeal

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup plus1 tablespoon granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 large eggs, separated

2/3 cup buttermilk

Basil Ice Cream (recipe follows)

Method:

Put a 10 inch cast iron skillet over medium heat and melt the butter. Then add the brown sugar and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the mixture looks like caramel, about 5 minutes. I didn't leave the stove (and I stirred more than occasionally) as things like this tend to burn quickly. 

Swirl the pan around so the caramel covers the bottom. Remove from heat and arrange the mango slices in a neat circle, overlapping the slices, remembering this will be presented as the top of the cake. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 350.

Whisk together the dry ingredients in a bowl.

Place the butter in an electric mixer and beat. Gradually add 1 cup of sugar and beat until light, about 4 or 5 minutes. Add one egg yolk at a time and then the vanilla.

Add half the dry ingredients. Then add the buttermilk, beat until mixed, followed by the rest of the dry ingredients. 

Beat the 4 egg whites until frothy, add 1 tablespoon sugar and beat until stiff peaks.

Add a bit of the whites to the batter to lighten it, then add the rest and fold in. It's OK if there are still some white streaks. 

Pour batter over the caramel and mangoes and bake for 45-50 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.

Allow to stand for 5 minutes. Then loosen the sides with a knife, place a large cake plate over the cake and flip it upside down. Cool before serving with basil ice cream.

Bench Note:

I didn't use a cast iron pan. I melted the brown sugar in a saucepan and then heated a glass pie plate in the oven and when the caramel was done, I poured it into the hot pie plate and spread it around.

Basil Ice Cream

Ingredients:

2 cups packed fresh basil leaves

1/2 cup sugar

2 cups heavy cream

1 cup whole milk

1 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise

8 large egg yolks

pinch of salt

Method:

In a food processor, combine basil and sugar until finely ground. It should end up looking like pesto.

Combine the cream, milk and basil sugar in a large pan. Scrape out the seeds in the vanilla bean, add them to cream and then add the vanilla bean pod. Simmer gently  until sugar is dissolved, about 5 minutes. Do not allow to boil.

In a bowl, whisk the yolks until light and thick. Temper the yolks with a little of the hot cream, then add everything to the pan and whisk until mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, about 5 minutes. Do not allow to boil.

Pour custard through a fine seive and then cool over ice cubes. (I just let it cool in the pan, then poured it into a bowl and placed in the fridge overnight.)

Churn in your ice cream maker according to directions.

Chocolate Stout Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting and the Giveaway Winner

Well, it's not green, it's not corned beef and cabbage, it's not Irish soda bread but when I saw this in Donna Hay a while back the only thought I had was: gotta make this for St. Patrick's Day! You chocolate/peanut butter lovers are going to love this cake! Kind of tastes like Reese's in cake form WITH stout, do you believe? And the texture is heavenly. I love the idea that it's in loaf form too. Now I'm doing this just for you for St. Paddy's Day because I am NOT a chocolate with peanut butter lover. Of course, I'll not have any problem passing this cake around to friends!  


Chocolate Stout Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting

Donna Hay magazine, 50th Birthday issue

Ingredients:
1 cup stout beer
225 grams butter, chopped
3/4 cup cocoa, sifted
2 eggs
2/3 cup sour cream
2 cups all purpose flour, sifted
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups superfine sugar


Frosting:
1 cup confectioner's sugar
1 cup smooth peanut butter
80 grams butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup coffee cream

Method:
Preheat oven to 325 F. Place stout and butter in a saucepan over medium heat and stir to dissolve butter. Remove from heat, whisk in the cocoa and set aside.

Mix together the flour, baking soda and sugar.
Whisk together the eggs and sour cream and add to the stout along with the flour mixture. Whisk to combine. Pour into a lightly greased loaf pan 21 by 10 by 7 cm lined with parchment paper. Bake for one hour and 20 minutes or until a cake skewer comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out on a rack to cool completely.
For the frosting:
Place all the ingredients except the cream into an electric mixer and beat for 6  minutes or until light and fluffy. (It didn't take 6 minutes) 

Beat in the cream until smooth. Frost the cake. Serves 6-8

May your blessings outnumber
The shamrocks that grow,
And may trouble avoid you
Wherever you go.

Sláinte!

I am joining the Third Annual St. Patrick's Day Blog Crawl March 15th at Kathleen's. Check in with her on Tuesday to link up!

And now for the giveaway winner:  Congratulations, Velva from Tomatoes on the Vine! 

You've won Gabrielle Hamilton's book. Please email me at bsmithw@gmail.com with your mailing address so I can get your book in the mail ASAP!   

A Diet Breaker

OK, so you're going to be mad at me.  First I post two weeks of fattening Super Bowl snacks and then follow it up today with a chocolate cake. Don't remind me, I know. We're all watching our diets, trying to eat healthier in 2011. And to top it all off, I don't even like chocolate all that much...one of life's lucky little breaks. I'm not going to say I never eat chocolate, I do. But I don't crave it, unlike a cousin I had who was allergic to it; at Christmas and Easter when we were children, my mother used to hide a box of Sander's chocolate (the only kind to eat back in the old days if you lived in the Detroit area) under the lid of our baby grand piano thinking my cousin wouldn't find it (not the greatest hiding place, Mom), but Marci's nose knew right where to go and she ate it until she got sick, poor thing. Every. Single. Year. Talk about addictions; she was the worst chocolate fanatic I ever knew. Well, maybe one other, my friend Polly.

In the 70's my friend Nancy introduced me to See's. She wouldn't eat any other kind. Even my father used to keep one of those huge Hershey bars in the fridge and every evening he would break off a piece. How about you? Do you have some stashed? Do you sneak it? Eat it in bed? Hide it so your family doesn't find it? Fess up, people. Tell me your chocolate secrets!

Anyway, just about everyone I know loves chocolate anything and besides, Valentine's Day is around the corner and everyone knows about the connection between chocolate and romance. Did you know the celebrated Italian libertine Casanova took chocolate before bedding his conquests on account of chocolate's reputation as a subtle aphrodisiac? Hmmmmm. And then I found this little gem of information: in the United States, the typical person eats 11.5 pounds of chocolate annually. Somebody is eating my share! Could it be YOU?

So here's the first thing: if you're a chocoholic you probably already have Maida Heatter's Book of Great Chocolate Desserts , but then you should also have  Lisa Yockleson's book and thirdly, trust me when I say this cake is right up your alley. Dense, dark and divine. We should all have a great recipe for a flourless chocolate cake like this in our repertoire. I took it to a party over the holidays. It was gone in a flash. I should have made two...but I kept telling everyone: you only need a sliver, it's so rich. Nobody paid any attention to me.
(Dare I mention a dollop of whipped cream on each slice wouldn't go amiss?)

Flourless Bittersweet Chocolate Cake
From Chocolate by Lisa Yockelson

Ingredients:

2/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons superfine sugar

1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder

Pinch of salt

9 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled to tepid (I used Callebaut bittersweet chocolate)

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled to tepid

5 large eggs, separated

2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

cocoa powder and confectioners sugar for garnish

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Lightly butter the inside of a 9" springform pan

Sift the sugar, cocoa powder and salt onto a piece of wax paper

Whisk the melted butter and melted chocolate together until smooth.

In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs yolks and sugar mixture for a couple minutes until thickened. Add vanilla and then the chocolate/butter mixture.

Beat the egg whites in a separate bowl until soft peaks form. Add the cream of tartar and beat until firm peaks (not stiff) form.

Stir 2 or 3 spoonfuls of the whites into the chocolate mixture, then fold in  the remaining whites lightly but thoroughly.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a spatula. Bake 35 to 40 minutes until set. The baked cake will form puffs and fissures here and there.

Cool the cake in the pan on a rack. It will sink and collapse at the cracks.

Release the cake from the pan, remove the sides and sift cocoa powder and confectioners sugar on top.

Little “Visitation” Cakes from Lorraine

Visitandine or Financier? Did you know they were the same thing? Both describe an almond cake. And oh my, what a cake! It's sweet, nutty and has an eggshell-crisp exterior. I like them much better than their shell-shaped first  cousins, Madeleines. But then all a recipe has to say is almond flour and I'm a goner.

They've been making financiers in France for more than 100 years. The classic way to bake the financier (pronounced fee-nahn-see-AY) is in tiny round, fluted or rectangular molds. Anytime I see see them in a pastry shop in the U.S., they are called financiers. But many patisseries in Europe still call them visitandines. You can also bake it in a classic cake pan; still, the recipe is identical.

Pierre Lacam, in ''Memorial Historique de la Patisserie,'' published in 1890, wrote that the financier was created by a baker named Lasne, whose bakery was near the financial center of Paris. Presumably, the rich little cake was named for the wealthy financiers who frequented his bakery. The cake was baked in rectangular molds, the shape of gold bars.

But I've also read because butter and almonds were so pricey, that only the rich (i.e. well-financed) could afford to eat them. The rectangular shape was not as attractive as other shapes; a boat-shaped mold became favored, and today the cake can take any shape that appeals to the baker.


Now Lasne may have thought he invented these but Nick Malgieri, the director of the baking program at Peter Kump's New York Cooking School, said a similar cake made with nuts, egg whites and brown butter existed even before that. It was made, he said, by nuns of the Order of the Visitation and was called a visitandine. (The visitation referred to in this case was the one made by the Virgin Mary to her cousin Elizabeth, before Elizabeth gave birth to John the Baptist.) The cakes don’t derive from an ancient Hebrew recipe, but were originated in the convent of a community of French nuns called the Sisters of the Visitation, colloquially known in French as the "Visitandines.


Which of these stories is correct? Your guess is as good as mine.


No matter the name, the cakes have a nutty flavor from the browned butter and are perfect served with coffee or tea. And you'll often find them served with a spoonful of jam on top or even a raspberry stuck in the top before baking.

If you make Visitandine in cake pan form, you could eat a wedge just as is, but it's also lovely with some fruit. Lucie at Bilingual Butter had a wonderful post about it recently. Reading it was what tweaked my interest. And Dorie Greenspan weighed in on it too.  The recipes are slightly different than the one I used, but the cakes all are divine.

Is this a difficult recipe? Not really. All you need is a whisk, a bowl and a pan. A few steps make or break the cake. The first, browning the butter, is what defines its flavor and adds depth to the almonds. Remove it the moment it attains the color of a chestnut. The second trick is to mix the batter as little as possible. It should be stirred until just blended. If you stir too much, the gluten in the flour will get overworked and the cake will be tough. And the batter has to rest a few hours in the refrigerator before baking.

Vistandine (or Financiers)
Adapted from Francois Payard of Payard Patisserie


Ingredients:

9 tablespoons butter, more for molds
1-1/4 cups powdered sugar
3/4 cup almond flour
1/4 cup bleached all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon, plus 2 teaspoons cake flour
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
4 egg whites, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract.

Method:

With a pastry brush, butter  thoroughly butter the financier molds. Arrange them side by side, but not touching, on a baking sheet. Place the baking sheet with the buttered molds in the freezer to resolidify the butter and make the financiers easier to unmold.


In a small pan over medium low heat, heat butter, occasionally swirling, until it begins to brown, about 5 minutes. Set aside.

Sift sugar over almond flour. (If using whole almonds, process with sugar in a food processor until mostly fine.) Add both flours, salt and baking powder, and gently whisk to combine. Add egg whites one at a time, whisking just to combine. Do not overwork or the cakes will be tough.

Add vanilla to butter. In a steady stream, whisk butter into flour mixture. Cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate 3 hours.

Preheat the oven to 375°F.

Remove molds from freezer. Spoon mixture into a pastry bag that has a 1/4-inch round tip. Pipe mixture into molds, filling halfway.

Bake 18 to 20 minutes, until browned and springy. Remove from oven, and cool 2 minutes before unmolding. Cool completely on rack. Serve plain or dusted with powdered sugar, or warm, with ice cream.

Yield: 12 cakes.

(Storage: Keep the cakes loosely covered with plastic wrap on the day they are made. For longer storage, transfer them to a tin or plastic container with a tight-fitting cover in one layer and refrigerate them. Bring them back to room temperature before serving again. I froze some just to see what happened and, while not as good as fresh, I would not have been embarrassed to serve them to company.)

Photo credit for the rectangular financiers: http://dessertfirst.typepad.com/dessert_first/2009/04/honey-financiers.html

Third Time's the Charm

Now and then I obsess over a recipe in the kitchen. Here's a perfect example: I made this lemon cake three times!
In the first version, I ground my own almonds in the processor. A mistake. And with the second attempt, I used packaged almond flour.  Moi heaves a sigh of relief! Thank you, Whole Foods.

Compare the two versions. Quite a difference; the first one is darker and has itty bitty annoying pieces of almond that get stuck between your teeth. But the second photo looks exactly like the photo in the book so it was a success!

So what's my problem, you ask? I don't like potato flour. It smells ummm....nasty. Nor did I like the texture of the batter in the first two versions. Now, dear gluten free readers, go ahead and make this version. It's good. Tastes fine. Exactly what it's supposed to look and taste like. And you invert the cake anyway so it's smooth on top. But I had to try the recipe one last time, using all purpose flour to see what difference it would make. And the result is the photo accompanying the recipe below. I don't know why I am fussing so over this one recipe, but I can't help it. There's something about this cake that appeals to me and I wanted to give it one more go.

This post is also about a cookbook. Sophie Dahl's. For one thing, she is Roald Dahl's granddaughter. Don't you adore his books? My kids were brought up on them.

Sophie really is a woman of parts, no pun intended! Of course you've all seen the ad for Opium perfume she did ( HERE) which caused such a scandal at the time. She was modeling in NYC at the time. And she IS rather voluptious. Or she was until she went from a size 14 to a size 6. I hope she has some sort of autobiography in the works because her life (and she's still only 33) would make a good read. It's worth the CLICK just to read about Sophie, especially if you know nothing about her.

Some say her new cooking show in the UK is trying to copy Nigella's. Who cares? is what I say. I think her cookbook is fun. And typically British. I've already made a couple things in it which I loved and this lemon cake makes three. Or five, if you want to count my fiddling around with the other versions.

From Sophie:"I wanted to write a memoir about food, a recipe book that gets over the message that you don't have to starve yourself to be reasonably skinny. You can eat quite happily and the more you obsess about it, the more of an issue it becomes. It's an anecdotal book about how to be slim - and still eat. Healthy breakfasts, lunches and suppers, and some fattening puddings. Easy, simple home cooking that's healthy."

Sophie says she got this lemon torte recipe from a taxi cab driver in Sorrento whose wife hated when he made it because he made such a mess in the kitchen. She's right. It's a lot of bowls. And it kind of shoots out of the mixer if you're not careful. I've never made a cake quite like this and while potato flour smells peculiar, I must admit you can't really taste it when you eat the cake. And her idea of mixing lemon curd with crème fraiche is brilliant. It makes the cake. I don't know squat about gluten-free, but this version with potato flour is, isn't it? Which ought to please some of my readers who are very loyal even if most of my dessert recipes use APF. I suppose there are other substitutes for potato flour that are gluten-free, but I'm calling it quits now. Three times is definitely enough.

And my final version? Sheer delight. Still a dense cake, but somehow lighter. I can see serving it with some lovely fresh fruit, or just go with the lemon curd idea. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Lemon Capri Torte
Adapted from Miss Dahl's Voluptuous Delights

(My changes will be in parenthesis)

Ingredients:
1-1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 cup superfine sugar
6 eggs, room temperature, separated
zest and juice of 4 lemons
2 cups of blanched almonds, toasted and then ground (I used Whole Foods almond flour)
1 cup of potato flour ( I used 1-3/4 cups all purpose flour instead)


Method:
Preheat oven to 400°. Grease and flour (using potato flour) a 9 inch springform pan. (I lined the bottom with parchment paper, and then greased the pan. I used fine bread crumbs instead of potato flour)
In a bowl, mix the potat0 ( or all purpose) flour with the almond flour and set aside. Cream the butter and sugar. Add the egg yolks all at the same time. Then add the lemon juice and rind. At this point the batter will look like scrambled eggs. This is OK.

In another bowl, beat the whites until soft peaks appear. Fold the lemon mixture into the whites. It will still look like scrambled eggs and will not combine completely.Slowly add the flour mixture by hand, folding well after each addition. The batter at this point, if you are using potato flour, will be extremely thick with no sign of the egg whites. If you use all purpose flour, the batter will not be nearly as thick.Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 10 minutes at 400°, then lower the oven temperature to 300° and bake an additional 40 minutes.

Cool and invert the cake onto a serving platter. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.You can serve with fresh fruit, or a mixture of crème fraiche and lemon curd.

For a printable recipe, click HERE.

Another Spring Delight

My mother had a dear friend named Alice Moore. Alice and her husband lived in a town nearby and spent many summer vacations with us cruising Georgian Bay and environs on dad's boat. It also happens that Alice was an exceptional cook, which of course was how the friendship got started because so was my mother. They babbled on and on about recipes and entertaining and as a result of their long friendship, I have inherited quite a number of Alice's recipes.

                                                                Mother (on the left) and Alice in Baie Fine

The photo above was taken  in Baie Fine, in the North Channel in Ontario, Canada. A rare photo of my mother in the water as she was absolutely terrified of snakes and there were plenty of them around there. (Every night she used to make certain we plugged up all the drains on the boat so one didn't get in that way.) Either Alice gave her courage right before this photo was taken, or my dad had walked around first batting the bushes and then checking the shallows to make certain any snakes had left the area.

One of Alice's tastiest desserts was a family favorite and we served it often  at Easter because not only does it serve a lot of people but it brings a much needed breath of spring to a gathering. It needs to be refrigerated so it's also a cool, refreshing dessert on a hot summer's day. It used to be simpler to make because years ago the A & P carried a ready-made yet excellent quality orange sunshine cake. Not anymore so you have to make the cake yourself. It's a basic orange sponge cake and really quite easy. The cake is divided into three layers and spread with a lovely mixture of fruit and whipped cream. I decorated it with some of those cute William Sonoma Easter cookies. (Luckily we didn't eat them all before I got them on the cake!)

Alice's Party Cake

Ingredients:
1 orange chiffon cake (recipe follows)
1 #2 size can crushed pineapple, drained well
1 packaged instant vanilla pudding
1/3 cup marachino cherries, cut up
2-1/2 cups whipping cream


Method:
Cut the cake into three even layers. Whip the cream, add the pudding, cherries and pineapple. Layer with this mixture and frost the entire cake. Refrigerate.

Orange Sunshine Cake

Ingredients:
6 large eggs, separated plus 1 additional egg white
2 -1/4 cups sifted cake flour
1- 1/2 cups superfine white sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil or safflower oil
3/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice (2 - 3 large Navel Oranges)
2 tablespoons orange zest
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

Method:
Separate the eggs and place the whites in one bowl and the yolks in another. Cover with plastic wrap and bring them to room temperature (about 30 minutes).

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and have ready a 10 inch two piece tube pan (ungreased). 

In the bowl of your electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, place the flour, sugar (minus 3 tablespoons , baking powder, and salt. Beat until combined. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and add the egg yolks, oil, orange juice, orange zest, and vanilla extract. Beat about one minute or until smooth. In a separate bowl, with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites until foamy. Add the cream of tartar and continue to beat until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in the remaining 3 tablespoons of sugar and beat until stiff peaks form. With a large rubber spatula or wire whisk, gently fold the egg whites into the batter just until blended (being careful not to deflate the batter).

Pour the batter into the ungreased tube pan and bake for about 55 to 60 minutes, or until a wooden skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. (When lightly pressed the cake will spring back). Immediately upon removing the cake from the oven invert the pan and place on a bottle or flat surface so it is suspended over the counter. Let the cake cool completely before removing from pan (about 1-1/2 to 2 hours).

To remove the cake from the pan, run a long metal spatula around the inside of the tube pan and center core. Invert onto a greased wire rack.

You can store this cake (unfrosted of course) in an airtight container for a few days at room temperature or for about a week in the refrigerator. This cake (unfrosted) can also be frozen for a couple of months.