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Filtering by Tag: vanilla

a persuasive cake

Andrea

Here we are at the end of March. Spring has claimed her space and unpacked her bags, kicked off her shoes and accepted a glass of lemony iced tea. She's fully settled in and ready to chat for awhile, her pony-tail bobbing enthusiastically as she shows you what's in store for the next few months.

There are predictions of 83* sunny days in Charlottesville this weekend...83*! That is shorts weather, my friends, and tank tops and strappy sandals and [eek!] swim suits weather. It was all very exciting until I pulled out a pair of those shorts last night and realized that this month coming to an end, the month full of birthdays and cake and cocktails, has done a number on certain, *ahem*, areas. Those well-intentioned New Year’s resolutions set in January were shaken with the arrival of Brian’s birthday 29 days ago, and continued to slowly slip away as we celebrated our way through March.

This last weekend was the culmination of all of that good cheer. With my Daddy in town for four days spoiling us rotten, there were indulgent meals shared at favorite restaurants and bottles of wine Brian and I could never justify buying ourselves. As a “thank you!” for all of that generosity we had a little barbeque Saturday afternoon, complete with Double H Farm baby back ribs smoked on the Big Green Egg, the best baked beans I’ve ever had, salad with a hearty base of [local!] emerald green spinach and a delightfully moist lemon mousse cake. Although the air was a crisp 50*, we had a cloudless Caribbean-blue sky and a brilliantly radiant sun to warm our skin and confirm the departure of [old man] Winter.

And now today, with all of those birthdays behind us and the very last of that lemon mousse cake tossed away in the trash (but not before a bite or two passed my lips to verify its staleness) it is time to think of April, the second to last month before the water flowing steadily through our surrounding rivers warms to a point that justifies the loading up of kayaks and the donning of swim suits. It’s time to welcome the farmers back to downtown Charlottesville, to our Saturday morning City Market that starts this weekend(!), and to embrace the first gifts of Spring. It’s time to lighten up and brighten up, to take a break from all the sugary-sweet goodness of March and indulge in the green that comes with April.

But first, I want to give you more cake.

With a buoyant crumb that bounces back at the poke of a finger and an airy, lemon-tinted mousse so cool and refreshing you'll have to fight yourself not to finish the entire bowl in one sitting, this cake seems to be the perfect welcome for Spring. It's a persuasive cake, the kind that you want to always have under a dome on your counter, ready to share with important guests while sitting on the front porch drinking a tall glass of iced tea. It seems that, when being offered a cake like this one, it would be impossible for those guests to leave.

That's my hope anyway, as I embrace Spring and ask her to stick around for awhile.

This is a very long recipe, but is actually very simple.  Especially if you divide the tasks between two days - the cake and lemon curd on the first, the mousse, frosting and assembly on the second.

Lemon Mousse Cake

from the greyston bakery cookbook, pg. 46

serves 8 to 10

Ingredients

for the cake

  • 5 eggs, separated
  • 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1-1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1-1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
  • 1-1/4 cups sugar
  • 2-1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/2 fresh lemon, seeds discarded

for the lemon curd

  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice (from about 2 medium lemons)
  • 1/8 tsp salt
  • 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
  • 1 tsp finely grated lemon zest
for the lemon mousse
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 3/4 cup lemon curd
for the lemon buttercream frosting
  • 6 tbsp (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
  • 3 tbsp heavy cream
  • 1-1/4 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp lemon extract
Method make the cake (up to one day ahead)
  1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 350*.  Grease and flour two 8" round cake pans and line the pan bottoms with parchment rounds.
  2. In a small bowl, combine the egg yolks, butter, milk and vanilla.  Set aside.
  3. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, 1 cup of sugar, baking powder and salt to blend.  Add the egg yolk mixture and stir until well combined.  Set aside.
  4. In a clean dry bowl, using clean dry beaters, beat the egg whites on medium-high speed until they hold soft peaks.  Lower the mixer speed to medium and gradually add the remaining 1/4 cup sugar, beating the whites until they hold stiff peaks.  Stir about one-third of the egg whites into the batter to lighten.  Gently fold the remaining whites into the batter, in two batches, to blend thoroughly.
  5. Transfer the batter to the prepared pans, filling them equally.  Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the sides of the cakes begin to pull away slightly from the pans and a wooden skewer inserted near the center of the cake comes out clean.
  6. Set the pans on a wire rack for 10 minutes to cool.  Turn the cakes out onto the rack and carefully remove the parchment.  Reinvert the cakes and allow them to cool completely on wire racks.
  7. If making the cakes the night before (as I did), wrap them tightly with plastic wrap once entirely cool and keep at room temperature.
make the lemon curd (up to one week ahead)
  1. In a small saucepan set over medium-low heat, whisk the eggs and egg yolk with the sugar, lemon juice and salt.  Continue to cook, whisking constantly, for 10 minutes or until thickened.
  2. Remove the curd from the heat and add the butter, stirring until melted.  Strain the mixture through a mesh sieve into a small bowl.  Stir in the lemon zest.
  3. Cover with plastic wrap, pressing the plastic directly on the entire surface of the lemon curd to prevent a skin from forming.  Chill the curd in the refrigerator until firm.
make the lemon mousse
  1. In the bowl of an electric mixer set on medium-high speed, beat the cream until it holds soft peaks.  Working in three batches, gently fold the cream into the lemon curd.  Refrigerate for at least 1 hour before using.
make the lemon buttercream frosting
  1. In a clean bowl of an electric mixer, combine the butter, sugar, cream, vanilla and lemon extract.  Mix on medium-low speed until well combined.
assemble the cake
  1. With a long serrated knife, trim the rounded top off each cake layer to create a flat surface.
  2. Squeeze half of the juice from the lemon over the cut side of one layer of cake.  Place that layer, cut side up, on a serving plate. Spread the lemon mousse evenly on top.
  3. Carefully place the next layer, cut side down, on top of the first layer.  Squeeze the rest of the juice from the lemon on top. Frost the top and sides of the cake with the lemon buttercream frosting.  Place the cake in the refrigerator for at least an hour to set.  Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.

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immediately, if not sooner

Andrea

I know that I am so late in saying this, but,

MERRY CHRISTMAS! HAPPY HOLIDAYS! WARMEST WISHES!

I hope that you all had as lovely a holiday as Brian and I did, filled with family, friends, good food, wine, multiple desserts and maybe even a little bit of snow.

Charlottesville actually had a lot of snow last weekend, just a few days before Christmas.  We did go out and frolic around in the drifts - laughed as the dogs frog-leaped through fluff as high as their shoulders, got in a workout shoveling multiple routes to the car and street, attempted the creation of a snow angel and a snowman - but mostly we watched the accumulation from behind our windows, warm and toasty in fuzzy socks with hot coffee in hand.  It was so peaceful, the snow falling silently on the other side of the glass, the city slipping into a lazy slumber as it was blanketed in white.

I managed to tear myself away from the windows and snow-watching for a short time in order to bake, feeling the need for the tiniest bit of productivity and worrying that we would lose power and the opportunity.  I had cake on the brain, particularly a store-bought, rum-soaked pound cake that my family consumed by the dozens when I was young.  We'd hand the mini cakes out as holiday gifts to all of our friends, and keep a stash of them in our pantry for months after Christmas.  It had been years since I'd had one of those cakes and I wanted  one.  Immediately, if not sooner.

While this isn't exactly the cake of my youth, it has all of the most important attributes.  To me it screams "Winter! Holidays! Friends!".  It is rich and dense, heavy with vanilla flavor and soaked with rum, and will warm you from inside out.  It is the perfect cake to whip up as snow falls outside your window, and lovely to share the next day with friends who walk a mile through two feet of fluff to visit with you.

Vanilla Bean Pound Cake with Rum Caramel Sauce

adapted from Paula Deen and Bon Appetit serves 12 Cake
  • 1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, plus more for pan, room temperature
  • 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
  • 2-1/2 cups sugar
  • 5 large eggs
  • 3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pan
  • 1/2 tsp fine salt
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 vanilla bean
  1. Preheat oven to 350*.  Butter and flour a tube cake pan, knocking excess flour from pan.
  2. With an electric mixer, cream together the butter and shortening.  Add the sugar a little at a time, and blend well.  Add eggs one at a time, blending after each addition.
  3. Sift together the flour, salt and baking powder in a separate bowl.  Add to the butter mixture in 3 batches, alternating with the milk, starting with the flour and ending with flour.  Mix in the vanilla and the scraped-out insides of the vanilla bean.
  4. Pour into your buttered and floured baking pan and smooth the top of the batter.  Bake for 60-75 minutes, until the top is starting to turn golden and a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.  Cool on rack completely before removing from pan.
Rum Caramel Sauce
  • 1 cup dark brown sugar
  • 1 stick unsalted butter
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream
  • 2 tbsp spiced or dark rum
  1. In a small, heavy-bottomed saucepan, melt your butter.  Stir in sugar until smooth, about 2 minutes.  Add cream and rum and bring to a simmer, cooking until sauce thickens and is reduced to about 1-1/2 cups, about 5 minutes.
  2. Drizzle rum sauce over individual slices of cake.
Sauce can be prepared up to 2 days ahead.  Refrigerate, and reheat on stovetop when ready to serve.
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too simple?

Andrea

This post has been clanging around in my drafts folder for months now, as is evidenced by the breakfast photo at the bottom (in our house we are fully into smoothie-mode for the morning meal since Summer has clearly arrived in Virginia...).  Its sad really, because it deserves better than that.  Making almond butter at home is so simple that I just wasn't sure if I should bother with posting it, and then decided that "too simple" is a really silly reason to not share a perfectly delicious recipe with my readers.  Aren't we all searching for simple recipes?  Especially for simple recipes that will save us some money at the grocery store? almond-butter-1 A few months back, one of my favorite healthy lifestyle bloggers, Heather, started making her own nut butters to save money.  It seemed like a perfectly reasonable idea and she made it seem so simple that I just had to try it.  I'd been intrigued by many of the flavored almond butters on the market for months, but it is so expensive that I can only bring myself to buy one jar at a time and must use every last bit before purchasing another, so I hadn't been able to try many of them.  Now, it doesn't take me too long to finish a jar since I have a tablespoon or two of the creamy spread nearly every day, but that doesn't change the fact that it is expensive and I can make it at home for less, with endless possibilities of flavor variations. almond-butter-2 I made this almond butter in my KitchenAid food processor.  At first I dumped the almonds into the smaller of the two processor bowls, with the smaller blades.  After 10-12 minutes of whirring I still had finely ground almonds instead of the creamy butter that Heather promised would form after just a few minutes.  Frustrated, I dumped all of the ingredients into the larger bowl with the larger blades, and within 2-3 minutes had the creamy consistency I was looking for.  So, if you have a larger food processor (mine has a 12-cup capacity but I don't think it would need to be quite that big) it would be very helpful.  But you may still get the consistency you're looking for with a smaller processor and additional time. almond-butter-3 There are so many wonderful variations to this recipe (can I call it that if there are only three ingredients?) and I would love to hear about any favorites you all have tried.  So, please leave a comment if you've made any nut butters of your own! Cinnamon Vanilla Almond Butter makes about 8 ounces Ingredients:
  • 2 cups whole, unsalted almonds
  • 1 tbsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
Method:
  1. Place almonds in food processor and process until fine.  
  2. Add vanilla extract and cinnamon.  
  3. Process continuously until a creamy butter forms.
almond-butter-4
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