The story is about a girl who can taste the cook's/baker's emotions in the food they prepare. But, while reading it all I could think about was how badly I wanted to make a lemon cake with lots chocolate frosting, as yellow and fluffy as the cake on the cover. (scroll to the bottom for pictures)
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| look how good this cake looks! |
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| Our 1971 Edition complete with packing tape around the binding |
I had to do some searching for a good lemon cake recipe, but I finally settled on a Citrus Chiffon Cake out of The Gourmet Cookbook (joy's selection of lemon recipes was a little disappointing) This recipe calls for equal parts lemon and orange zest and only orange juice, but I took some liberty in the amounts of each.
The flavor and texture of the cake was just what I was looking for and I'm thankful that only citrus, butter and chocolate are what can be tasted and not the baker's feelings, I doubt they would taste quite as sweet ;)
Citrus Chiffon Cake
adapted from The Gourmet Cookbook, 2004 Edition, page
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups caked flour (sift before measuring)
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 6 large eggs, separated (separate as well as you can, the white stringy part of the raw egg goes with the whites)
- 6 tbsp canola oil
- 1 tsp finely grated orange zest
- 3 tsp finely grated lemon zest
- 3/4 cups juice (I only had enough lemon for 1/3 squeezed, strained lemon juice and the rest with natural Florida orange juice)
- 2 tsp vanilla paste (or extract)
- 1 tsp cream of tartar
Preheat oven to 350F. Butter and dust with flour, two 9" or 10" round cake pans.
Sift together flour, 1 cup sugar, baking powder and salt into a large bowl
Whisk together yolks, oil, zests, juice and vanilla in a medium bowl. Add flour mixture and whisk until batter is smooth
Beat egg whites with cream of tartar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at the medium-high speed until they just hold soft peaks. Reduce speed to low and add remaining 1/2 cup sugar, two tbs at a time. Beat until whites just hold stiff, glossy peaks.
Stir 1/3 of the whites into the batter, then gently but thoroughly fold in the rest of the whites. Poor batter equally into the two pans.
Bake until cake is golden and a toothpick comes out clean, about 30-35 minutes. Cool cake completely in the pan on a rack. Turn cake out onto a serving plate and frost.
Chocolate Butter Cream Frosting
(bare with me, this is from memory so it's not exact....)
Ingredients
- ~ 3 sticks (1 1/2 cups) butter, at room temperature
- 6 cups confectioners sugar
- 2 tbsp vanilla paste (or extract)
- 1/2 cup half and half (or milk or heavy cream)
- ~ 2 ounces "dark chocolate" chips or baking drops (about 68% cocoa)
Beat the butter, 3 cups confectioners sugar, vanilla, and half and half until it starts to get light. Add the rest of the confectioners sugar.
Melt the chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl (about 3 10-second intervals, stirring every 10 seconds) Keep the mixer going and add in the melted chocolate. Beat on high speed until light and fluffy.
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| it's so spongy! |
Thanks, Jen for the TCHO baking drops, they are absolutely perfect in the butter cream frosting.
