Midweek Roundup: "Definitely on the Bake Again List"

Photo by Vicki

Baking with Granny

The thing that's so great about this cake (other than its wonderful lemon flavor and fabulous texture, of course) is that it's easy to make:  "incredibly easy," in Vicki's words, "probably one of the easiest of Rose's sponge type cakes."  Since the Posh Pie put some of us "through the wringer" last week, it was nice to have an easy-ish time of it this week.  Besides that, it's a "light, refreshing dessert in the middle of gloomy weather."  Vicki added more lemon curd than specified to her lemon whipped cream, and, next time, would change the ratio to the lemon side even more.  Of course, she made her own lemon curd.

Kristina did not.  At least not at first.  In fact, at first she wasn't even going to bake the cake--her baking project for the week was going to be bourbon pecan pie truffles.  But then she read other posts, which talked about the lemon cake being quick and easy, so she decided to have a go at that, too.  To cut the time even more, she used store-bought lemon curd, which was vile.  ("I tasted it, and it was nothing but sadness.")  So she gave in, made her own (delicious) lemon curd,  And that was that.  "Light and fluffy" and "goes well with the crushed candy cane chocolate fudge that Jay made." Which brings up an interesting question:  if you were plating two desserts together, so that your guests would love you even more than they already do, what two would you use?

Jen had a nice way of expressing the joy we felt when we realized that this was an easy (for Rose) recipe and so good, too.  "This is a light, moist and lemony chiffon cake and the lemon curd whipped cream is the bomb.  I was so happy this was a simpler project, without 5,000 steps or the need of a piping bag.  Hooray!"  Even though she didn't notice until too late that the recipe called for unbleached flour (we've all become accustomed to using bleached for Rose's recipes), it was still a "winner all around."

Jenn baked this cake way back at the beginning of this project--she baked the Kouign Amanns and this cake in one weekend.  (She "felt like I lived in the kitchen for two days!").  She got rave reviews for both the cake and the Kouigns, but you really should check out her blog to see the stunning way she decorated it, with whipped cream-piped roses.  It's so beautiful!

Next week is the Cranberry Walnut Christmas Bread.  Don't miss this one if you like a festive-looking, packed-full-of-flavor loaf!  For the most flavor, you'll want to make a biga and keep it in the refrigerator for 2 or 3 days, so plan ahead.

You may have noticed a "Week of Rest" scheduled for January 18.  This is in response to a few people who wanted either a catch-up week or a week off.  You can use it either way.  I'll be cruising the Panama Canal that week, so I'll probably use it as an off week myself.